Now this is love: that we walk according to His commands. This is the commandment—just as you heard from the beginning—that you walk in love. 2 John 1:6, TLV
Love. Commandments. It may seem that they are at opposite ends of the spectrum. “We’re no longer under the Law,” right? Well, I’d like to dig into that typical response given anytime someone brings up the commandments. Perhaps a better way to say this is, “We’re no under the penalty of the Law.”
“. . . for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. They are set right as a gift of His grace, through the redemption that is in Messiah Yeshua.”
PAUL TO THE ROMANS, ROMANS 3:23-24
We’re set right, but does that mean the Law has no more value?
“Do we then nullify the Torah [the Law] through faithfulness? May it never be! On the contrary, we uphold the Torah.”
PAUL TO THE SAME ROMANS, ROMANS 3:31, TLV
What did Jesus say about this?
“Do not think that I came to abolish the Torah or the Prophets! I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. Amen, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or serif shall ever pass away from the Torah until all things come to pass. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps and teaches them, this one shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
JESUS, MATTHEW 5:17,19, TLV
Sigh. So, what does this all mean. One more passage — please, bear with me.
“But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“I will put My Torah within them. Yes, I will write it on their heart. I will be their God and they will be My people . . . “For I will forgive their iniquity, their sin I will remember no more.”
GOD SPEAKING THROUGH JEREMIAH, JEREMIAH 31:32-33B, TLV [EMPHASIS MINE]
Here’s where the love comes in. More than anything our Heavenly Father longs for us. He created us, therefore, He knows what it takes for us to live an abundant life — to have a relationship with Him and His children. He wrote the commandments — with His own finger (Exodus 31:18). It was He who gave Moses the laws — those laws written in the first five books of the Bible (the Torah). They were important to Him only because He knew we needed them.
But, there would come a day when the Law would be written in our hearts. What does that mean? It means one day we would love Him so much we would know in our hearts how to obey Him. That we love Him so much, we would be His people — His children.
He knows we’ll mess up. Goodness He knows. But that atoning sacrifice by His Son covers that. Out of love.
So, does the law and love go together. Yes. Not in the way the world might understand, because whatever act of obedience we offer is only done out of love, covered in the grace of that act of atonement.
