5. The love of man for Christ. — Of love for Christ there is almost no mention in the Synoptics. In one utterance, indeed, Christ requires His fol- lowers to love Him more than their closest earthly relatives (Mt 10^^). But the purpose of that .saying, as is proved by the parallel passage, Lk 14-*, is not so much to insist on a personal attection for Himself as the condition of discipleship, as to em- phasize the supreme worth of the good represented by His own Person, compared with which the joys of family life are to be esteemed as nothing. The nearest approach to any reference to love of Him- self as a motive for conduct is to be found in those passages in which He puts His own Person in the foreground, requiring of His disciples a readiness to sacrifice themselves for His sake (Mk g35 1029), and attaching high importance to the most trivial acts done in His name (Mk 9^'-^^). On these occasions He identifies Himself with
His cause. When He requires devotion to Him- self, it is only another way of requiring devotion to the truth revealed in His Person. Thus He speaks of suti'erings borne for His sake and the gospel's (83» 10-^ cf. Lk 18-''), and of being ashamed of Him and of His words (^Nlk 8»8, Lk 9-«). In this spirit He welcomed tlie love displayed by the woman who anointed His feet in the Pharisee's house, as a proof of the sincerity of the repentance which filled her heart, and of the vastness of the ble.ssings she was conscious of having received (Lk 7^^).
In the Fourth Gospel, where the personal rela- tion to Christ is so strongly emjihasized, there is more direct reference to love as the disposition the believer may be expected to display toAvards Christ. Jesus tells the Jews that if God Avere their Father they Avould love Him, for He proceeded forth and is come from God (8*-). Of the disciples He says, on the other hand, that the Father lovetli them be- cause they have loved Him, and have believed that He came from God (16-'). Something is, indeed, still lacking in their love. He tells them in His fareAvell address that if tliey loved Him they Avould rejoice because He said that He Avent unto the Father (14-^). But though their love be not perfect. He can confidently reckon upon it. He Avould only remind them, as He does more than once in the course of that address, that a true love for Him Avill manifest itself in the keeping of His commandments (i42i-23f.)_ gg j^ j^^j been Avith His oAvn love for the Father (14^'). So let it be Avith the disciples. Let them prove the sin- cerity of their love to Him by the loyalty of their obedience. Such a relationsliij) to Himself, love manifesting itself in faithful fulfilment of His commandments, is the condition upon Avhich the giving of the Paraclete is promised ( M^^"^- ). Where it exists, Christ promises the enjoyment of the closest communion Avith the Father and Himself (I421. 23)_ jj- is quite in keeping Avith the emphasis that has been laid upon love throughout the Gospel as the relation Avhich must exist betAveen the disciple and Christ, that in the final .scene Avith Peter in the Epilogue He should thrice address to him the question, ' Lovest thou me ? ' (2115-17), as if to suggest that such love is the in- dispensable qualification on the part of one Avho Avould be a true sheplierd of Christ's flock.
In view of these quotations, it is difficult to understand Ritschl's statement {Rechtf. u. Vers. iii. 560), that, apart from Jn 211'- 16, there is no reference in the NT to love towards Christ. Certainly it is the case that, for the most part, faith is the usual formula to indicate the relation of the believer to Him. But it is quite in accordance with the general character of this Gospel, with its conception of a mystical union between the believer and Christ (151"'), to use warmer colours to paint the devotion of the believer, and to describe that complete self-surrender to Christ, which is the true relation to Him, as the work of love.
6. The love of man to man. — Along.side of the first great commandment to love the Lord our God, Christ places a second, ' Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself (Mk 12^1). The high im- portance He assigned to this duty is evident from the place He gives it along.side of the command- ment to love God. ' There is none other com- mandment greater than these' {ib.). Both are ethical in their nature. The ceremonial observ- ances in Avhich Christ's contemporaries thought to find the fulfilment of this first commandment are never to be alloAved to stand in the Avay of the performance of the offices of love toAvards our felloAv-men. These latter, because they are ethical, are the Aveightier matters of the LaAv Avhich are on no account to be omitted (Mt 23-^). To refuse to support one's parents, on the plea that one desires to make an offering of the money that might be used for this purpose, is to make a travesty of religion (Mk 7"''^). The ethical stands
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above the ceremonial. God desires mercy, not sacrilice (Mt 12'|. Tlie first commandment may be to love the Lord our God, but when it is a question of showing love towards our brother man or per- forming some act of worship towards God, there can be no doubt which is to come first, ' Leave tliere thy gift before the altar, and first go thy way ; be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and otter thy gift ' (5^*-).