Moral Imperatives

MEMORY VERSE: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” —Leviticus 19:18

LEVITICUS 19:2, 9-18, 35-37

GOD, speaking to Moses, said, “Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the Lord your God. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord.”—Lev. 18:4,5

The Law Covenant as given to the nation of Israel was a compilation of laws and ordinances for the purpose of regulating the moral and civil life of that nation. The promise, as stated, was that if they were obedient, not failing in anything, they would receive life. But no man could keep this perfect law because of the weaknesses of the flesh.

The Apostle Paul, in Romans 7:10, states, “And the commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death.” Even though the apostle desired to live up to the lofty standards of the law, he was unable to do so. In verses 24 and 25 of the 7th chapter of Romans the apostle says, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God: but with the flesh the law of sin.”

What does this mean, then? Does it mean that the perfect law of God is of no effect? The apostle goes on to explain in the 8th chapter of Romans, verses 2-4: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin (margin, by a sacrifice for sin), condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

Therefore the footstep followers of Jesus, who have had the merit of Christ’s sacrifice applied on their behalf, are accounted as just by God and are free from the law and its requirement of perfect performance under it; but instead they become subject to the higher or spiritual law of God. Under this arrangement God mercifully accepts the heart’s desire to perform perfectly as an actual perfect performance. But the spiritual law of God is much broader and deeper and more heart-searching.

Jesus, in the 5th chapter of Matthew, gives us some comparisons between the carnal and spiritual laws of God. In verses 27 and 28 we read, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”

Here it is evident that under the law of the flesh only the act of adultery was counted as a sin. But under the spiritual law of God, the thought, if the desire is in the heart, is equivalent to the deed itself. Obedience to the spiritual aspect of God’s law then becomes a test of the Christian’s motives and a test of his love for the righteous principles that govern all of God’s actions as opposed to the forces of evil. These righteous principles must, during the course of our Christian walk, be written upon the fleshly tables of our hearts.

The Apostle Paul, in Romans the 13th chapter, verses 8,9,10, states, “Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

The many points of the law listed in our lesson today are things that would work ill to our neighbor. We would not want these things perpetrated against us. The admonition then is that we do not commit them against our neighbors. The apostle says that from the standpoint of the spirit this principle can be expressed in the statement, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” And then he enlarges this thought with the principles that if love is the dominant force in our lives, then actions motivated by this god-like quality will always be in harmony with God’s law.

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