The Baptist Catechism

    A Commentary on the Shorter Catechism (1883), Alexander Whyte

    Question 42

    The sum—The sum of a summary. (See Answer 41.) The pith and marrow of the moral law.

    to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind—The original of this answer is found in Deut. vi. This passage formed part of the great creed of Israel which was written on the phylacteries of all the people, and was committed to memory by all their children. It is remarked by Dean Plumptre that there is something striking and instructive in the fact that words from this passage in Deuteronomy were the weapons with which our Lord baffled the attacks of the tempter, and that they throughout formed the keynote of His teaching.

    The anatomy of the inner man here given is not perhaps of that exact and scientific character that modern psychology would sustain, but it is after the rich and impressive manner of Holy Scripture. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, that is, kindly and affectionately; with all thy soul, that is, wisely and discreetly; with all thy might, that is, stedfastly and constantly. Let the love of thy heart inflame thy zeal towards Him; let the knowledge of thy soul guide it; let the constancy of thy might confirm it. Let it be fervent, let it be circumspect, let it be invincible” (Bernard Upon the Canticles).

    “Without the heart, obedience is nothing, obedience is impossible. Without the heart, a man’s external acts are no more than the motions of the limbs of a wooden image; have no more of the nature of obedience. . . . We must love God as much as our capacity will allow. . . . And though it is not easy precisely to fix the limits of man’s capacity to love God, yet in general we may determine that his capacity of love is co-extended with his capacity of knowledge; the exercise of the understanding opens up the way for the exercise of the heart” (Jonathan Edwards).

    and our neighbour as ourselves. “And to do to others what we would have them do to us” (Larger Catechism). Neighbour, A.S. neah, nigh, and boor, a husbandman; the man whose field lies next to ours.

    The need for this commandment is seen from the fact that all men by nature live “in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.” “Hateful,” says Goodwin, “every man is to another man, more or less; he is hated of another, and he hateth another man more or less. And if his nature were let out to the full, there is that in him, his hand would be against every man, as is said of Ishmael, Homo homini lupus.” “All men,” says Pascal, “naturally hate one another.” Now it is into the human heart thus hating and hateful that this holy law enters. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The Apostle James calls this “the royal law,” because it is the supreme and master law, and because it comes as a new commandment from Jesus Christ our heavenly King. “This is the whole law,” said Rabbi Hillel, “all else is interpretation.” And John Locke, in his Conduct of the Understanding, says, “Our Saviour’s great rule, that we should love our neighbour as ourselves, is such a fundamental truth for the regulating of human society, that I think by that alone one might without difficulty determine all the cases and doubts in social morality.”

    “Only add
    Deeds to thy knowledge answerable; add faith;
    Add virtue, patience, temperance; add love,
    By name to come call’d charity, the soul
    Of all the rest; then wilt thou not be loath
    To leave this paradise, but shalt possess
    A paradise within thee happier far.”
    —Michael to Adam in Milton.

    Uses

    1. “What a man’s love is,” says Augustine, “that he is. Lovest thou earth? thou art earth. Lovest thou God? what shall I say? Thou shalt be god. . . . Nought else maketh good and evil actions, save good or evil affections.”
    2. “True virtue essentially consists in Benevolence” (Jonathan Edwards).
    3. “Are all men to be loved alike, and with the same degree of love? No; though we must love all men with the love of benevolence, yet the saints only with the love of complacence (Ps. xvi. 3, xv. 4; Gal. vi. 8)” (Flavel).

    Questions

    1. Where was the moral law to be found before it was gathered up into the ten commandments?
    2. Explain royal law and golden rule as applied to this Answer.
    3. Explain and illustrate Pascal’s saying: To love man, you must know him; to know God, you must love Him.
    4. Study Butler’s famous sermons Upon the Love of our Neighbour and Upon the Love of God.
    5. Neander points out that all the leading Christian virtues are but so many forms of love, and refers in proof to 1 Cor. xiii. Name some of the virtues the apostle describes under the head of Charity. Commit to memory Paraphrase xlix.