Let us observe, in these verses, how high is our Lord Jesus Christ's standard of duty to God and man.
The question that the Scribe propounded was a very wide one : " Which is the first commandment of all ?" The answer he received was probably very unlike what he expected. At any rate, if he thought that our Lord would commend to him the observance of some outward form or ceremony, he was mistaken. He hears these solemn words : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength : this is the first command- ment. And the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
How striking is our Lord's description of the feeling with which we ought to regard both God and our neigh- bor ! We are not merely to obey the one, or to abstain from injuring the other. In both cases we are to give far more than this. We are to give love, the strongest of all affections, and the most comprehensive. A rule like this includes every thing. It makes all petty details unnecessary. Nothing will be intentionally lacking where there is love.
How striking again is our Lord's description of the measure in which we should love God and our neighbor ! We are to love God better than ourselves, with all the powers of our inward man. We cannot love Him too well. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to deal with him in all respects as we would like him to deal with us. The marvellous wisdom of this distinction is clear and plain. We may easily err in our affections toward others, either by thinking too little or too much
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of them. We therefore need the rule to love them as ourselves, neither more nor less. We cannot err in our affection toward God in the matter of excess. He is worthy of all we can give Him. We are therefore to love Him with all our heart.
Let us keep these two grand rules continually before our minds, and use them daily in our journey through life. Let us see in them a summary of all that we ought to aim at in our practice, both as regards God and man. By them let us try every difficulty of conscience that may happen to beset us, as to right and wrong. Happy is that man who strives to frame his life accord- ing to these rules.
Let us learn from this brief exposition of the true stand- ard of duty, how great is the need in which we all natu- rally stand of the atonement and mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Where are the men or women who can say with truth, that they have perfectly loved God and perfectly loved man ? Where is the person on earth who must not plead " guilty," when tried by such a law as this ? No wonder that the Scripture says, " there is none righteous, no ! not one." " By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified." (Rom. iii. 10, 20.) It is only gross ignorance of the requirements of God's law which makes people undervalue the Gospel. The man who has the clearest view of the moral law, will always be the man who has the highest sense of the value of Christ's atoning blood.
Let us observe, for another thing, in these verses, how far a man may go in religion, and yet not be a true disciple of Christ.