Commandment, the New:
nu (entole kaine): The word "commandment" is used in the English versions of the Old Testament to translate several Hebrew words, more especially those meaning "word" (dabhar) as the ten words of God (Ex 34:28) or king's "command" (Es 1:12); "precept" (mitswah) of God (De 4:2), of a king (2Ki 18:36); "mouth" or "speech" (peh) of God (Ex 17:1), of Pharaoh (2Ki 23:35). They express theocratic idea of morality wherein the will or law of God is imposed upon men as their law of conduct (2Ki 17:37).
1. Christ and the Old Commandment:
This idea is not repudiated in the New Testament, but supplemented or modified from within by making love the essence of the command. Jesus Christ, as reported in the Synoptics, came not "to destroy the law or the prophets.... but to fulfill" (Mt 5:17). He taught that "whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 5:19). He condemned the Pharisees for rejecting the commandments of God as given by Moses (Mr 7:8-13). There is a sense in which it is true that Christ propounded no new commandment, but the new thing in His teaching was the emphasis laid on the old commandment of love, and the extent and intent of its application. The great commandment is "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,....( and) thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets" (Mt 22:34-40; Mr 12:28-34; compare De 6:5; Le 19:18).
2. Principle instead of Law:
Whey the law realizes itself as love for God and man in men's hearts, it ceases to bear the aspect of a command. The force of authority and the active resistance or inertia of the subject disappear; the law becomes a principle, a motive, a joyous harmony of man's will with the will of God; and in becoming internal, it becomes universal and transcends all distinctions of race or class. Even this was not an altogether new idea (compare Jer 31:31-34; Ps 51); nor did Christ's contemporaries and disciples think it was.
3. Christ's Love Fulfilled in Death Becomes the Law of the Church:
The revolutionary factor was the death of Christ wherein the love of God was exemplified and made manifest as the basis and principle of all spiritual life (Joh 13:34). Paul therefore generalizes all pre-Christian morality as a system of law and commandments, standing in antithesis to the grace and love which are through Jesus Christ (Ro 5-7). Believers in Christ felt their experience and inward life to be so changed and new, that it needed a new term (agape =" love") to express their ideal of conduct (see CHARITY). Another change that grew upon the Christian consciousness, following from the resurrection and ascension of Christ, was the idea that He was the permanent source of the principle of life. "Jesus is Lord" (1Co 12:3). Hence, in the Johannine writings the principle described by the new term agape is associated with Christ's lordship and solemnly described as His "new commandment." "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another" (Joh 13:34). To the Christians of the end of the 1st century it was already an old commandment which they had from the beginning of the Christian teaching (1Jo 2:7; 2Jo 5); but it was also a new commandment which ever came with new force to men who were passing from the darkness of hatred to the light of love (1Jo 2:8-11).
4. The New Revelation:
The term in the Gospel we may owe to the evangelist, but it brings into relief an element in the consciousness of Jesus which the author of the Fourth Gospel had appreciated more fully than the Synoptists. Jesus was aware that He was the bearer of a special message from the Father (Joh 12:49; Mt 11:27), that He fulfilled His mission in His death of love and self-sacrifice (Joh 10:18), and that the mission fulfilled gave Him authority over the lives of men, "even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." The full meaning of Christ's teaching was only realized when men had experienced and recognized the significance of His death as the cause and principle of right conduct. The Synoptists saw Christ's teaching as the development of the prophetic teaching of the Old Testament. Paul and John felt that the love of God in Christ was a new thing:
(a) new as a revelation of God in Christ,
(b) new as a principle of life in the church, and
(c) new as a union of believers with Christ. While it is love, it is also a commandment of Christ, calling forth the joyous obedience of believers.
Written by T. Rees
Commandment;Brotherly Kindness; Brotherly Love:
kind'-nes (the King James Version 2Pe 1:7), or LOVE (the King James Version Ro 12:10; 1Th 4:9; Heb 13:1; philadelphia):
1. As Moral Ideal:
In the Revised Version (British and American), "love of the brethren" in all places, and so in the King James Version of 1Pe 1:22, thus defining the disposition as love, and its objects as brethren. Since God is Father and men are His sons, they are therefore brethren of one another. As sonship is the most essential factor in man's right relation to God, so is brotherhood in his relation to his fellow-man. Brotherhood is first known as the relation between sons of the same parent, a relation of tender affection and benevolence. It becomes gradually extended to kindred, and to members of the same tribe or nation. And the Christian ideal of society is that a similar relation should exist between all men without limit or distinction. Agape, "love" (see CHARITY), is the word in the New Testament that generally denotes this ideal. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" is the whole law of conduct as between man and man (Mt 22:39,40); and neighbor includes every man within one's reach (Lu 10:29 ff), even enemies (Mt 5:44; Lu 6:35). Without the love of man, the love of God is impossible, but "he that abideth in love abideth in God" (1Jo 4:16,20).
2. As Actual Between Christians:
But man's sonship to God may be potential or actual. He may not respond to God's love or know His Fatherhood. Likewise love to man may not be reciprocated, and therefore may be incomplete. Yet it is the Christian's duty, like God, to maintain his disposition of love and benevolence to those that hate and curse him (Lu 6:27,28). But within the Christian community, love should respond to love, and find its fulfillment, for there all men are, or should be, God's sons actually, "because the love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts, through the Holy Spirit which was given unto us" (Ro 5:5). And this mutual love within the Christian brotherhood (1Pe 5:9) is called philadelphia.
3. Stoic Teaching:
This twofold ideal of social morality as universal benevolence and mutual affection had been foreshadowed by the STOICS (which see). Men as citizens of the world should adopt an attitude of justice and mercy toward all men, even slaves; but within the community of the "wise" there should be the mutual affection of friendship.
4. Christian Advance on Heathen Thought:
Christianity succeeded in organizing and realizing in intense and practical fellowship the ideal that remained vague and abstract in the Greek schools: "See how these Christians love one another." It was their Master's example followed, and His commandment and promise fulfilled: "Love one another.... as I have loved you....; by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples" (Joh 13:14,34,35). Paul in his earliest epistle bears witness that the Thessalonians practice love "toward all the brethren that are in all Macedonia," even as they had been taught of God, but urges them to "abound more and more" (1Th 4:9,10). For the healing of differences, and to build up the church in order and unity, he urges the Romans "in love of the brethren (to) be tenderly affectioned one to another" (Ro 12:10). Christians must even "forbear one another in love" (Eph 4:2) and "walk in love, even as Christ also loved you" (Eph 5:2; Php 2:1,2). It involves some suffering and sacrifice. The author of the Epistle to the He recognizes the presence of "love of the brethren" and urges that it may continue (Heb 13:1). It is the direct result of regeneration, of purity and obedience to the truth (1Pe 1:22,23). It proceeds from godliness and issues in love (2Pe 1:7). "Love of the brethren" (agape) is the one practical topic of John's epistles. It is the message heard from the beginning, "that we should love one another" 1Jo 3:11,23. It is the test of light and darkness (1Jo 2:10); life and death (1Jo 3:14); children of God or children of the devil (1Jo 3:10; 4:7-12). Without it there can be no knowledge or love of God (1Jo 4:20), but when men love God and obey Him, they necessarily love His children (1Jo 5:2). No man can be of God's family, unless his love extends to all its members.
Written by T. Rees
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