July 25

Outward obedience to the law is a road where Jews, Christians, and heathens may be found walking along together. How can we distinguish the Christian from these others, when heathens and Jews also are obedient children, loyal citizens, and loving neighbors?

The motive and goal make all the difference. It is common for men to wrong Christ and yet treat their neighbors with respect and fairness; they choose right behavior but not because love for Christ has constrained them. And without this love you may be an honest, moral heathen but you can never be a Christian.

Suppose a man trusts his employee to pay a certain creditor a sum of money. The person does this, not out of respect to the command or love for his boss but out of fear of being called a thief. As far as the creditor is concerned he has done his job but that is all-- his attitude has wronged his employer. Men scorn Jesus like this every day; they are exact and righteous in their transactions with their neighbors and associates, but insulting to Him. Love carries out righteousness because it wants to please God's holy Son.

Christ called evangelical love to our neighbor "a new commandment" (John 13:34). This love to our brother takes fire from God's love to us. It is impossible to perform any commandment unless we first love Christ and then do it for His sake. "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15).

Just as God set His name before His Ten Commandments, for the same reason Christ set His name before the Christian's obedience to those Ten Commandments. That is, we are to keep them because they are Christ's word and law, and so that we may illustrate our love to Him who has redeemed us from the curse and brought us out of a far worse kind of bondage than Egypt was for Israel.

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