Class #1

The Commandments and the Christian Virtues

The Four High Commandments of Love given by our Lord Jesus Christ:  The Two Great Commandments and New Commandments:

1&2. Love the Lord your God with all your hear, soul body and mind. 

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matt. xxii. 36-40.

3.  A new commandment I give to you, that you love each other.  Love one another  even as I have loved you.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for each other. Jn 13.34 15.12

9. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.  For he makes his sun to rise on the even and on the good, and sends rains on the just and on the unjust.  For if you love only those who love you, what reward do you have?  Do not even the Publicans do so?  Therefore be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.   (Matt. 5.43-44).   [it should be noted here that at anyone moment we are either serving God, i.e. “being perfect” in goodness, or serving selfish or bad impulses.  Thus most people are in a back and forth growth process, obeying the commandment at one time, and turning away from it the next]

Are all men our neighbors?

Yes, all; because all are the creation of one God, and have come from one man: but our neighbors in faith are doubly neighbors to us, as being children of one heavenly Father by faith in Jesus Christ.

But why is there no commandment of love to ourselves?

In a sense there is:  love your neighbor as yourself is a command to love yourself—not with sinful self-satisfying love, but as the image of God and temple of the Holy Spirit. There is no separate commandment because we love ourselves naturally, and without any commandment. No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it. Eph. v. 29.

What relative order should there be in our love to God, our neighbor, and ourselves?

We should love ourselves not for our own, but for God's sake, and

partly also for the sake of our neighbors; we should love our neighbor also for the sake of God; but we should love God for Himself, and above all. Love of self should be sacrificed to the love of our neighbor; but both should be sacrificed to the love of God.  Sacrificed does not mean “done away with” but rather offered into the ultimate context of God’s love for us:  Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John xv. 13.

Ten Commandments given to Moses

1. I am the Lord your God—you shall have no other gods other than me

2. You shall not make unto yourself a graven idol

3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain

4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy

5. Honor your father and your mother—This commandment includes father and mother, as well as all those who stand in a patristic way, the Shepherds of the Church both living and departed (i.e. the Saints and Fathers of the Church), earthly rulers, those who are our superiors in rank at work, elders in our family, benefactors, and our governors in other ways.  St. Paul said “you have not many fathers…but I am your father”

What does “honor” include here?

a. To behave respectfully to them.

b. To obey them.

c. To support and comfort them in sickness and age.

d. After their death, as well as during their lives, to pray for the salvation of their souls; and faithfully to fulfill their last wills, so far as they are not contrary to law, divine or civil. See 2 Macc. xii. 43, 44; Jer. xxxv. 18, 19. (J. Damasc. Serm. de Mort.)

6. You shall not murder

7. You shall not commit adultery

8. You shall not steal

9. You shall not bear false witness (i.e. you shall not tell lies against someone in any way that injures them

10. You shall not covet (i.e. desire to have for yourself) anything that belongs to your neighbor