Question 4

What doth the law of God require of us?

Christ teaches us that briefly (in Matt. 22;37-40): “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first and great commandment (Rom. 13;10); and the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself (Matt. 7;12). On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Scripture references for paragraph 1

Berean Standard Bible. Public domain text and source credits.

Romans 13:10
10Love does no wrong to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Deuteronomy 6:5
5And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

1 Timothy 1:5
5The goal of our instruction is the love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a sincere faith.

Matthew 7:12
12In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets.

1 John 4:20
20If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

1 John 4:21
21And we have this commandment from Him: Whoever loves God must love his brother as well.

1 Corinthians 13:1-8
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal.
2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.
6Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth.
7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed.

Matthew 22:37-40
37Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
38This is the first and greatest commandment.
39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Source and edition

Heidelberg Catechism. RCA English, E. R. Good & Bro., Tiffin, 1879. RCA English, E. R. Good & Bro., Tiffin, 1879

Public Domain (historic text); CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikisource transcription). Source transcription.

Transcription licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0.

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