The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 283

c.onfess that we cannot love because we are told to love our neigh Lour BB oureel vee." Now, let it be acknowledged that these and similar difficulties are real difficultlee, But, in the mean time, see whether Christ, in commanding, hM not Indicated the way of assist.ance; whether a more spiiitual exposition of his teaching may not lead ue into a region of thought in which the solution of the difficulties lies, Such a region seems to be opened up in the sentence reported by St. Matthew, "The second commandment is lik~ to the first." To the first, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind," we must look for the full truth of the love enjoine<l in the second, and for the significance of the measure which the second propo~es, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." I. For, to show that the love enjoined in the two commandments ls really one grace, WHAT DO WE MEAN WHEN WE SPEAK OF LOVING Gon? Surely we mean a delight in Go<l for what he is; for his righteousness, his goodness, his holy and loving will; we mean that su1Tender of ourselves to him in which our -~pirits respond to the Father of spirits. Now, in the first moment of such self-surrender, is it not the longing of the mind that he be glorifie<l? Such a longing necessarily takes beyond self. It. embraces the desire that the E1ernal Name be hallowed, the eternal will be done in earth as it is in heav0n, and the eternal kingdom of the Father come; that God be honoured in all, and all find their true life in God. The pulse of this longing beats in friendship like that of Mr. Erskine of Linlathen. To his friend, the cold, astute lawyer, Rutherford, Mr. Erskine wiites, "I love yo\L I could die for you to bring you to your true Centre, God." In the love of God, his love for his friend had been quickened and intensified. Yes; when Christ revealed God as our Father, he gave us men as our brethren; when the Spirit of the Son is sent into the heart, the spirit of the brother is formed in the heart.. However we may distinguish in speech, in the working of the eternal life, there is no distinction between the love of God and the love of man. Each is implied in the other. They are the two sides of the one grace, the one life-love. And in this we have the solution of the difficulty already referred to. If there is no higher prospect than the neighbour, it is not to be wondered at that persons cry out, "Impossible I where the special links fail, there love must stop." But, observe, when we have gained the second commandment through the first; when the love of the neighbour proceeds out of the love whose first and greatest is God; such links are always at hand ; there are interests and sympathies which serve as points of approach to all, to any one. Our Jove is God's love extending through us. All sorts and conditions of men are \\ithin the reach, before the vision, of God's love. Even beneath the hateful we can discern that which, to the Creator who is also the Redeemer, is immeasurably precious. ...... who loves the Lord a.right, No soul of man can worthless find; All will be pri;cious in bis sight. Since Christ on all bath ahined." We are, then, partners in the D!vine interest in man .. W~ clothe t~e neighbour with this interest. "Thy Father lS my Father; my Saviour 1s thy Saviour too, and thou art precious in his sight. As he loves, so would I love thee-' as myself.'" IL BuT WHAT OF THE MEASURE, "AB THYSELF"? Let it be answered, "Thyself, after the first and great commandment has been fulfilled in thee-thyself loving the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and soul, and strength, and mind." There is a true 111clf-love and what the true self-love is is thus defined. Recollect, Christ's phrase is, ·• as thyrelf." In hiil teaching there is no place found for the pretentious altruiHm which strivea " . . . . t.o wind itself too high For mortal man beneath the sky," wLich insists that the love of man shall swallow up, shall annihilate, all self-feeling; that jr sl,all involve the renunciation of all that is individual for the sake of e. universal good, of humanity. The teaching of Jesus is too practical, has too keen a sight of" what is in man," for this humanitarianism. He recognizes a love of _self as right and natural; bat it is the self wJ.en truly consecrated to God. "There JS nl) need," says one, "of e. heart of supernatural texture in order to the love of our brother: What is neede~ is only the L~art oJ flesh instead vf the j,oa.rt of stone," Yes; but this hL'Rrt of flosh 1s a new CJD. L 1--42.] TIIE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. 285