Vital Godliness: A Treatise on
Experimental and Practical Piety
CHAPTER 17
Love to Neighbor
“I give you a new commandment:
love one another. Just as I have
loved you, you must also love one another. By this all people will know that you
are My disciples, if you have love for one another,” (John 13:34-35).
We need line upon line and precept upon precept. Although one
clear and undeniable revelation of God’s will binds the conscience and moulds
the character of a child of God, yet it is with peculiar pleasure that the pious
mind finds a duty inculcated in various forms, at different times, and by
different men. This remark applies to the whole matter of love to our neighbor.
In Leviticus 19:18, Jehovah says, “Do not take revenge on others or continue to
hate them, but love your neighbors as you love yourself. I am the Lord.” And in
the thirty-fourth verse of the same chapter he says, “Let him be to you as one
of your countrymen and have love for him as for yourself; for you were living in
a strange land, in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”
The evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke, inform us that Jesus
Christ repeatedly called attention to the command, “You shall love your neighbor
as yourself,” and pronounced this saying as the great pillar of morals, (See
Matthew 19:19; 22:39; Mark 12:31-34; Luke 10:27-37). In his epistles to the
Romans and to the Galatians, Paul also quotes with high commendation the same
law, (Rom. 13:9; Gal. 5:14). The apostle James does the same, (Jas. 2:8). So
that there is no room left for any doubt as to the importance and obligation of
the duty enjoined. That great prophet Moses, Jesus the Son of God, Paul the
great apostle to the Gentiles, and James the near relative of our Lord, all in
the name of Jehovah give us this command to love one another. It is distinctly
repeated nine times in God’s word. Such a command is far from being unnecessary.
We are naturally slow to open our hearts in a comprehensive
love and good-will. We are all by nature prone to narrow-heartedness. Carnal men
are never in a mood to be pleased with a widely diffusive benevolence. They may
admire its fruits as exercised by others, but its practice is irksome to the
unrenewed mind. We love like snails to crawl into our little shells and there
abide. The plan of God is to call us out and make us banish these contracted
views. All the noble sentiments of the human heart are, like the widow’s oil,
increased by pouring out. God is as kind as he is holy in so ordaining that no
man shall be strongly selfish and truly happy. If God gives you bread enough and
to spare, and then brings to your knowledge the case of the poor and needy, he
does you a great kindness; and you will be a better and happier man for having
your soul drawn out to the hungry.
The Bible says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
And here we are met with the old question, “Who is my neighbor?” When a carping
lawyer, who wished to justify himself, asked this question, Jesus Christ
answered him thus: “A man was going down from
Without dwelling on the striking incidents here brought out
in detail, the great truth clearly taught is that any man is our neighbor to
whom we can show a kindness. Although one, in remarking on Psalm 15:3, says, “A
neighbor is everyone with whom we have any dealing or conversation;” yet in the
days of our Savior the Jews regarded themselves as bound to love none except
their own people. Their rule was, “You shall love your neighbor, and hate your
enemy.” Between Jews and Samaritans there was no fellowship that could possibly
be avoided. Yet Christ teaches that they are neighbors in the eye of God’s law.
No man who admits that God gave the command to love our neighbor, will deny that
it obliges us to love our friends, our kindred, and our countrymen. Even the
scribes and Pharisees always admitted thus much. Yet this is a very low standard
of virtue. Christ said, “If you love those who love you, what reward do you
have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your
brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the
same?” (Matthew 5:46-47).
While he whose love does not go beyond his own little sphere,
has but little deserving of the name of right affections; he who goes not thus
far, is a monster of wickedness, and without natural affection. It is also
evident from Scripture that even our enemies are to receive the tokens of our
good-will. Jesus Christ said, “Love your enemies; bless those who curse you; do
good to those who hate you; and pray for those who despitefully use you and
persecute you; that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven,”
(Matthew 5:44, 45). Again, “Love you your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping
for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and you shall be the children
of the Highest,” (Luke 6:35). Paul and Solomon teach the same doctrine: “If your
enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by
so doing you will heap burning coals on his head,” (Rom. 12:21). “Do not be
overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good,” (Rom. 12:20, 21; Prov. 25:21,
22). With these agree all the inspired writers.
Now all consent that we should love our friends, and the
Scriptures teach that we should love our enemies; and these two classes
comprehend the whole human race with whom we have social fellowship or dealings.
Besides the foregoing explanations, it may be stated that the “love of
gratitude” is confessedly binding on all the human race. There is no man so
depraved as not to see gross iniquity in a flagrant act of injustice. It is a
truth no less commonly confessed, that if men have great moral excellence, they
ought to be loved on that account. But when we enforce the obligations of a pure
and high benevolence to all the race, there is apt to be a withholding of the
hearty consent of the mind. Yet from Scripture nothing is clearer than that such
goodwill is due to all, as we have knowledge of them and opportunity to do them
good. This leads us to consider what are the proper proofs and uniform fruits of
such love to our neighbor as is enjoined in Scripture.
In the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus there are many things
specified as duties to our fellowmen, all of which are so fitly joined with love
to our neighbor, that they may be properly mentioned here. One was this: “When
you harvest your fields, do not cut the grain at the edges of the fields, and do
not go back to cut the heads of grain that were left. Do not go back through
your vineyard to gather the grapes that were missed or to pick up the grapes
that have fallen; leave them for poor people and foreigners. I am the Lord your
God,” (vv. 9, 10). Another was in these words: “You shall not steal, neither
deal falsely, neither lie one to another,” (v. 11). Again, “You shall not
defraud your neighbor, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not
abide with you all night until the morning,” (v. 13). One still more striking
was, “You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling-block before the blind,”
(v. 14). In other words, you shall take no advantage of the afflictions and
powerlessness of men. Another precept was, “Be honest and just when you make
decisions in legal cases; do not show favoritism to the poor or fear the rich,”
(v. 15). Another rule of great importance was, “You shall not go up and down as
a talebearer among your people,” (v. 16). Nothing could be more inconsistent
with love to our neighbor than such a practice. Another precept forbade any man
to give false testimony, or to refuse to give true testimony, (v. 16). Another
was in these words: “You must not hate your brother in your heart.
Rebuke your neighbor directly, and you will not incur guilt because of
him,” (v. 17). Then immediately comes the command, “You shall love your neighbor
as yourself.”
From all this it is evident that love to our neighbor is the
same in its fruits as the fulfillment of the second table of the law. And we
have the authority of Christ for saying that on love to God and to our neighbor
hang the law and the prophets, (Matthew 22:40). Paul teaches the same when he
says, “He who loves another has fulfilled the law. For this, You shall not
commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not bear
false witness, You shall not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is
briefly comprehended in this—You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love
works no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law,” (
The fruits of love
to our neighbor are, first, benevolent wishes concerning him and his
affairs. Hearty good wishes are far from being vain either in the sight of God
or of good men. Oftentimes good wishes are the best, the only proof we can give
of our goodwill. Only let us see to it that they be sincere. Again, we can
express kind thoughts and charitable judgments of men and their conduct, and so
prove that we love them. Towards
ourselves we are at liberty to practice severity of judgment; but to others
there must be lenity. “Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. For
with the judgment you use, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it
will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye but
don’t notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, “Let
me take the speck out of your eye,” and look, there’s a log in your eye?
Hypocrite! First take the log out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to
take the speck out of your brother’s eye, (Matthew 7:1-5).
Some express contempt for kind words; but they really mean
such as are hypocritical, or they know not what they say.
Words of genuine kindness are of the
highest value. Without them society is a source of constant misery. When
our love leads us to the throne of grace, and we are drawn out in fervent prayer
for men, then the fruit of love is very pleasing. “Bless those who curse you,
and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you.” So says Paul, “I
exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and
giving of thanks, be made for all men: for kings, and for all that are in
authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and
honesty,” (1 Tim. 2:1, 2). What mode of expressing goodwill could be more
appropriate than that commended in Psalm 20:1-5: “May the Lord answer you when
you are in trouble! May the God of Jacob protect you! May he send you help from
his
True
Christian love will of course lead us to
forgive those who have injured us. This is a
point on which our blessed Savior laid the greatest stress. There is no
dispensing with it. “If you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive
your sins,” (Matthew 6:15). “Forgive, and you shall be forgiven,” (Luke 6:37).
Perhaps there is no better evidence of a renewed heart than a cordial
forgiveness of injuries; nor a surer sign that we are yet in our sins, than
carrying old grudges about with us. He who will not forgive—must soon have his
heart filled with hatred. He who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know
that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Of all the holy arts possessed
by Christians, none is more admirable than that whereby they turn injuries to
their own profit and to the divine glory.
Mather says, “The injuries of life, if rightly improved, will
be to us as the strokes of the sculptor on his marble, forming us to a more
beautiful shape, and making us fitter to adorn the heavenly temple.” Genuine
love to man will not only seem to forgive, but it will do that very thing. “It
is the glory of a man to pass over a transgression,” (Prov. 19:11). Merely to
pretend to such a thing, and not to do it, is but miserably to mimic goodness,
while we are filled with all hypocrisy. There are upon earth no worse and no
more unhappy men than those who carry about old grudges, and retain a lively
memory of wrongs long since committed against themselves. The Persians have a
pleasing proverb: “The man who returns good for evil is as a tree which renders
its shade and its fruit to those who cast stones at it.” South says, “Love is
never so blind as when it sees faults in others. It is like the painter who,
drawing the picture of a friend having a blemish in one eye, would picture only
the other side of his face.”
“Love your enemies.” “This is the most sublime precept ever
delivered to man. A false religion dared not give a precept of this nature,
because, without supernatural influence, it must be forever impracticable.”
Another good fruit of love to man is
mercifulness. “The righteous are
ever merciful,” (Ps. 37:26). “Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain
mercy,” (Matthew 5:7). “Be merciful, as your Father also is merciful,” (Luke
6:36). A habitual unrestrained inclination to harshness, cruelty, and oppression
is one of the worst signs in the character of any man. On the other hand, an
enlarged prevailing disposition to pity men’s sorrows, alleviate their miseries,
and promote their happiness is one of the best signs in the character of any
man. There is in some men a fitful and variable tenderness to others,
which seems to be a mere instinct. It sometimes burns with great heat, and soon
subsides into indifference or aversion.
But genuine love forms habits of kindness in the heart,
and brings them forth in the life. The dispositions we display to the
helpless, the guilty, the forsaken—are often the best tests of our real
character. Nor is there any surer prelude of wrath, than cruel dispositions. “He
shall have judgment without mercy that has showed no mercy,” (
These portions of Scripture form a basis broad enough for any
sober scheme of genuine charity that has ever been devised. The word of God
uniformly lays the greatest stress upon kindness to the poor and afflicted, as
evidence of a heartfelt charity. “Whoever has earthly possessions and notices a
brother in need and yet withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of
God remain in him? Little children, we must stop loving in word and in tongue,
but instead love in action and in truth,” (1 John 3:17-18). The Scriptures deny
the genuineness of all love, which is without good fruits. Nor is any act of our
lives more sure of reward than kindness to the needy. “He who has pity on the
poor lends unto the Lord; and that which he has given will he pay him again,”
(Prov. 19:17).
But
love is never at a loss for some way to express itself.
If it can do no more, it will cheer with a smile, it will rejoice or weep with
those it loves, it will soften a pillow or smooth a bed, it will watch with
those to whom nights of vanity are appointed, it will whisper encouragement to
the faint, it will in some way make itself felt for good. A preacher once said,
“If you know anything that will make a brother’s heart glad, run quick and tell
it; but if it is something that will only cause a sigh, bottle it up, bottle it
up.”
God’s word requires that you should “love your neighbor as
yourself.” The measure of love
due to our neighbor is a matter of chief importance. Very few people in a
Christian country will deny that it is our duty to bear some goodwill to those
around us. But many deny the extent of the obligation. Some respectable writers
have expressed great difficulties on the subject. But surely it is no
presumption to prefer the plain teachings of God’s word above those of any
mortal. Here is a command repeated in by Moses, Christ, Paul, and James, in all
nine times, without any variation, and in very plain terms. Nor is it pretended
that there is any difficulty in understanding the meaning of the verses. The
translation is correct. There is no room for doubt in this respect. What right
therefore has any man to say that the command so often repeated means no more
than that we should love our neighbor generally and indefinitely as ourselves?
To clear the matter, the following remarks are offered, with confidence in their
entire justice:
1. It is evidently the design of the inspired writers to fix
the degree in which we are bound
to love our neighbor. They distinctly require us to love God supremely, above
all others, admitting no rivals, no comparisons. They as distinctly say that we
should love our neighbor as ourselves.
There is no reason why inspired men should so often have added the words “as
yourself,” unless they thus designed to determine how far we should love others.
2. In alluding to our love of self, the inspired writers did
not refer to such love of ourselves as is inordinate, and therefore sinful. All
inordinate affection, whether towards. ourselves or others, is contrary to God’s
word and will; and its excesses in one case cannot justify its excesses in
another. Besides, it is simply impossible, in the nature of things, that the
human mind should love God supremely, and at the same time go out inordinately
both towards one’s self and one’s neighbor.
3. There is a difference between
selfishness and self-love.
Selfishness is the excess and immoderate indulgence of self-love. Selfishness is
wicked, and consists in a persistent looking on our own things and a constant
caring for ourselves, let others do as they may. Self-love is an enlightened and
lawful regard to our own welfare, and is the standard and measure approved of
God for regulating our affections towards others. “You shall love your neighbor
as yourself.”
4. It is not denied that in a sense we may care and act more
for the immediate good of ourselves and families than of others more remotely
connected with us. We are urged by the instinct of self-preservation to protect
from harm our own bodies more than those of others. But the commandment relates
not to instincts, but to moral affections. So also by natural affection the
mother is led to forget the rest of the world for a season, that she may watch
her own languishing babe. But the law we are now considering does not relate to
natural affection, which is more or less discoverable even in brute animals. It
is a moral law, given to moral agents. And so there is no violation of its
spirit in a man’s providing for his own, and especially for those of his own
household. Not to do so would prove him “worse than an infidel.”
5. There is nothing in this law which requires us to do a
natural impossibility. Thus it is commonly in our power to do much more for
ourselves and families than for others. Most people are commonly not within our
reach. They are out of our sight and beyond the compass of our voice. But we can
reprove, exhort, warn, and encourage ourselves when we will. We can often do the
same to those near us. But this does not prove that we may love ourselves and
families more than all others. The mother may not lawfully love the child at her
side more than she may love his little brother captured by savages and carried
into the wilderness. Yet a man would not be esteemed sane who should assert that
this same mother was bound to do as many acts of daily kindness for one child as
for the other. It would be literally impossible.
6. The law of love to our neighbor has an excellent practical
exposition in what has long been called the golden rule, which is in these
words: “Do for others what you want them to do for you: this is the meaning of
the Law of Moses and of the teachings of the prophets.” None can deny that this
law binds us to all the acts of love to our neighbor which we may lawfully
desire him to perform towards ourselves. If therefore we are bound to yield the
fruits of love to others, as we seek them from others, why should we not love
our neighbor as we do ourselves? Where is any flaw in this reasoning? This
golden rule affords an excellent test by which to judge both of our selfish and
of our benevolent feelings. When we wish others to do something for us, let us
ask first whether, in an exchange of circumstances, we would be ready to do the
same for them.
7. The Scriptures do commend a very high degree of love to
men. They say that “perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die,” (Rom.
5:8). This is evidently spoken not in censure, but in praise of the
self-sacrificing man. John is yet more explicit, and says that in certain cases
“we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren,” (1 John 3:16). Paul furnishes
us with an example of what John here teaches when he says to the Philippians,
“If I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice with
you all,” (Phil. 2:17). Now Paul did not love others more than the law requires;
yet he was willing to suffer martyrdom, if thereby he could be most useful to
his fellowmen. Surely this is loving our neighbor as ourselves. The thing is
therefore not impracticable. Greater love than this is not required.
8. We do most effectually promote our own happiness, when we
cultivate the most benevolent affections towards our neighbor. Nor is there any
limit to this remark. Who that ever hoarded up wealth was as happy as John
Howard? What lazy, selfish minister ever enjoyed life like Paul, who rejoiced
even in tribulation? “The truly generous, is truly wise; And he who loves not
others lives unblest.” I have never known an unhappy philanthropist. I have
never had a doleful letter from a foreign missionary. It is on the selfish—that
boredom and overindulgence and discontent and anguish prey. Wilcox says, “Would
you from sorrow find a sweet relief? Or is your heart oppressed with woes
untold? Balm would you gather for corroding grief? Pour blessings round you like
a shower of gold.”
Thus it is clear that we ought to love our neighbor as much
as we love ourselves; we ought to be as ready to give as to receive justice,
kindness, truth, pity, and bounty; in our dealings with others, we should be as
careful to fulfill to all men the duties required, and to avoid the sins
forbidden in the second table of the law, as we are free to regard them bound to
do and to avoid the same. In some things, we may even give others the advantage.
“In honor preferring one another;” and, “Let each esteem others better than
themselves,” are forms of speech which show that where there seems to be a
conflict between our love to ourselves, and our love to our neighbor—there are
cases where he is to have the benefit of the doubt, and to take the precedence.
This love will make us put a proper estimate upon the worth
of our neighbor; construe all his conduct in as charitable a manner as truth
will permit; offer assistance whenever it is required and we can afford it; be
careful to say nothing contrary to “the royal law;” take pleasure in the welfare
of others; and especially with diligence seek their spiritual and eternal good.
The highest charity is that which aims at men’s salvation. “He who wins souls is
wise.”
It remains that a few words be said in presenting
motives
for the performance of this duty. The motive twice presented in the
nineteenth chapter of Leviticus, is the
solemn authority of God: “I am the Lord.” “I am the Lord your God.” A due
consideration of God’s authority, and a due regard to it, are sufficient to
command the assent and the consent of all who have the love of God in them. But
this saying, “I am the Lord,” may mean more than this. It may call us to a large
benevolence, corresponding in our measure to the love manifested by God himself.
Thus Paul says, “Be imitators of God, as dear children; walk in love, as Christ
also has loved us, and has given himself for us,” (Eph. 5:1, 2).
God “makes his sun to shine on the evil and on the good, and
sends rain on the just and on the unjust,” (Matthew 5:45). Even where whole
nations have forsaken God, practiced idolatry, and walked in their own ways, “he
left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave them rain from
heaven, filling their hearts with food and gladness.” The Lord’s mercies are
“new every morning,” (Lam. 3:23). “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but
that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” (1 John 4:10,
11).
The example of our
blessed Savior is often presented as a powerful motive to this very duty.
He went about doing good. We should walk as he walked. He has set us an example,
that we should follow his steps. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we through his
poverty might be made rich. In this way we can also best commend our religion to
others, and put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, and win those who are
of a contrary opinion.
Nothing more fatally hinders our prayers than the want of love
to men. All correct moral feelings are shocked—at prayer
mingled with malice. Who ever heard of a happy or thriving church where the
spirit of love was not? Leighton says, “To pray together, hearts must be
consorted and tuned together; otherwise, how can they sound the same petitions
harmoniously? How unpleasant in the exquisite ear of God, who made the ear—are
the jarring, disunited hearts that often seem to join in the same prayer, and
yet are not set together in love! And when you pray alone, while your heart is
embittered and disaffected to your brother, although upon an offence done to
you—prayer is as a mistuned instrument; the strings are not accorded, are not in
tune among themselves—and so the sound is harsh and offensive.
Try it well yourself, and you will perceive it; how much more
He to whom you pray. When you are stirred and in passion against your brother,
or not lovingly affected towards him—what broken, disordered, contemptible stuff
are your prayer requests! Therefore the Lord will have this done first—your
heart tuned. “Go your way,” says Jesus; “leave your gift, and be reconciled to
your brother; then come and offer your gift.” Every enlightened conscience must
approve this method. No other consists with sincerity or holiness. One of the
great excellences of love to our neighbor is, that it is an immortal principle.
“Love never fails.” “It will survive the wreck of worlds,” says John James,
“out-time time itself, and be forever the work of the servants of God.”
