Thomas Watson · 11 of 31

2.2 The Second Commandment · Part 3

(3) It is advantageous. There is nothing lost by love to God. ‘Eye has not seen, &c., the things which God has prepared for them that love him.’ 1 Cor 2: 9. Such glorious rewards are laid up for them that love God, that as Augustine says, ‘they not only transcend our reason, but faith itself is not able to comprehend them.’ A crown is the highest ensign of worldly glory; but God has promised a ‘crown of life to them that love him,’ and a never-fading crown. James 1: 12. 1 Pet 5: 4.

(4) By loving God we know that he loves us. ‘We love him because he first loved us.’ 1 John 5: 19. If ice melts, it is because the sun has shone upon it; so if the frozen heart melts in love, it is because the Sun of Righteousness has shone upon it.

What means should be used to excite our love to God?

(1) Labour to know God aright. The schoolmen say truly, Bonum non amatur quod non cognoscitur; ‘we cannot love that which we do not know.’ God is the most eligible good; all excellencies which lie scattered in the creature are united in him; he is Optimus maximus. Wisdom, beauty, riches, love, all concentrate in him. How fair was that tulip which had the colours of all tulips in it! All perfections and sweetnesses are eminently in God. Did we know God more, and by the eye of faith see his orient beauty, our hearts would be fired with love to him.

(2) Make the Scriptures familiar to you. Augustine says that before his conversion he took no pleasure in Scripture, but afterwards it was his chief delight. The book of God discovers God to us, in his holiness, wisdom, veracity, and truth; it represents him as rich in mercy, and encircled with promises. Augustine calls the Scripture a golden epistle, or love-letter, sent from God to us. By reading this love-letter we become more enamoured with God; as by reading lascivious books, comedies, romances, &c., lust is excited.

(3) Meditate much upon God, and this will promote love to him. ‘While I was musing, the fire burned.’ Psa 39: 3. Meditation is as bellows to the affections. Meditate on God’s love in the gift of Christ. ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,’ &c. John 3: 16. That God should give Christ to us, and not to angels that fell, that the Sun of Righteousness should shine in our horizon, that he is revealed to us, and not to others; what wonderful love is this! ‘Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?’ Prov 6: 28. Who can meditate on God’s love, who can tread on these hot coals, and his heart not burn in love? Beg a heart to love God. The affection of love is natural, but not the grace of love. Gal 5: 22. This fire of love is kindled from heaven; beg that it may burn upon the altar of your heart. Surely the request is pleasing to God, and he will not deny such a prayer as ‘Lord, give me a heart to love thee.’

VII. And keep my commandments.

Love and obedience, like two sisters, must go hand and hand. ‘If ye love me, keep my commandments.’ John 14: 15. Probatio delectionis est exhibitio operis [We show our love by performing the work]. The son that loves his father will obey him. Obedience pleases God. ‘To obey is better than sacrifice.’ 1 Sam 15: 22. In sacrifice, a dead beast only is offered; in obedience, a living soul; in sacrifice, only a part of the fruit is offered; in obedience, fruit and tree and all; man offers himself up to God. ‘Keep my commandments.’ It is not said, God shows mercy to thousands that know his commandments, but that keep them. Knowing his commandments, without keeping them, does not entitle any to mercy. The commandment is not only a rule of knowledge, but of duty. God gives us his commandments, not only as a landscape to look upon, but as his will and testament, which we are to perform. A good Christian, like the sun, not only sends forth light, but makes a circuit round the world. He has not only the light of knowledge; but moves in a sphere of obedience.

[1] We should keep the commandments from faith. Our obedience ought, profluere a fide ‘to spring from faith.’ It is called, therefore, ‘the obedience of faith.’ Rom 16: 26. Abel, by faith, offered up a better sacrifice than Cain. Heb 11: 4. Faith is a vital principle, without which all our services are opera mortua, dead works. Heb 6: 1. It meliorates and sweetens obedience, and makes it come off with a better relish.

But why must faith be mixed with obedience to the commandments?

Because faith eyes Christ in every duty, in whom both the person and offering are accepted. The high-priest under the law laid his hand upon the head of the slain beast, which pointed to the Messiah. Exod 29: 10. So faith in every duty lays its hand upon the head of Christ. His blood expiates their guilt, and the sweet odour of his intercession perfumes our works of obedience. ‘He has made us accepted in the beloved.’ Eph 1: 6.

[2] Keeping the commandments must be uniform. We must make conscience of one commandment as well as of another. ‘Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.’ Psa 119: 6. Every commandment has jus divinum, the same stamp of divine authority upon it; and if I obey one precept because God commands, by the same reason I must obey all. Some obey the commands of the first table, but are careless of the duties of the second: some of the second and not of the first. Physicians have a rule that when the body sweats in one part, and is cold in another, it is a sign of a distemper; so when men seem zealous in some duties of religion, but are cold and frozen in others, it is a sign of hypocrisy. We must have respect to all God’s commandments.

But who can keep all his commandments?

There is a fulfilling God’s commands, and a keeping of them. Though we cannot fulfil all, yet we may be said to keep them in an evangelical sense. We may facere, though not perficere [build, though not complete]. We keep the commandments evangelically: (1) When we make conscience of every command, when, though we come short in every duty, we dare not neglect any. (2) When our desire is to keep every commandment. ‘O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!’ Psa 119: 5. What we want in strength we make up in will. (3) When we grieve that we can do no better; weep when we fail; prefer bills of complaint against ourselves; and judge ourselves for our failings. Rom 7: 24. (4) When we endeavour to obey every commandment, elicere conatum. ‘I press toward the mark.’ Phil 3: 14. We strive as in agony; and, if it lay in our power, we would fully comport with every commandment. (5) When, falling short, and unable to come up to the full latitude of the law, we look to Christ’s blood to sprinkle our imperfect obedience, and, with the grains of his merits cast into the scales, to make it pass current. This, in an evangelical sense, is to keep all the commandments; and though it be not to satisfaction, yet it is to acceptation.

[3] Keeping God’s commandments must be voluntary. ‘If ye be willing and obedient.’ Isa 1: 19. God required a free-will offering. Deut 16: 10. David will run the way of God’s commandments, that is freely and cheerfully. Psa 119: 32. Lawyers have a rule that adverbs are better than adjectives; that it is not the bonum, but the bene; not the doing much, but the doing well. A musician is not commended for playing long, but for playing well. Obeying God willingly is accepted. Virtus nolentium nulla est [Righteous deeds done unwillingly are worthless]. The Lord hates that which is forced; which is paying a tax rather than an offering. Cain served God grudgingly; he brought his sacrifice, not his heart. To obey God’s commandments unwillingly, is like the devils who came out of the men possessed, at Christ’s command, but with reluctance, and against their will. Matt 8: 29. Obedientia praest and adest non timore poenae, sed amore Dei [Obedience is the chief thing, and this not through fear of punishment, but for love of God]. God duties must not be pressed nor beaten out of us, as the waters came from the rock, when Moses smote it with his rod, but must drop freely from us as myrrh from the tree, or honey from the comb. If a willing mind be wanting, the flower is wanting to perfume our obedience, and to make it a sweet-smelling savour to God.

That we may keep God’s commandments willingly, let these things be well weighed: (1) Our willingness is more esteemed than our service. David counsels Solomon not only to serve God, but with a willing mind. 1 Chron 28: 9. The will makes sin to be worse, and duty to be better. To obey willingly shows we do it with love; and this crowns all our services.

(2) There is that in the law-giver which may make us willing to obey the commandments, which is God’s indulgence to us. [1] God does not require the summum jus as absolutely necessary to salvation; he expects not perfect obedience, he requires sincerity only. Do but act from a principle of love, and aim at honouring God in your obedience, and it is accepted. [2] In the gospel a surety is admitted. The law would not favour us so far; but now God so indulges us, that what we cannot do of ourselves we may do by proxy. Jesus Christ is ‘a Surety of a better testament.’ Heb 7: 22. We fall short in everything, but God looks upon us in our Surety; and Christ having fulfilled all righteousness, it is as if we had fulfilled the law in our own persons. [3] God gives strength to do what he requires. The law called for obedience, but though it required brick, it gave no straw; but in the gospel, God, with his commands, gives power. ‘Make ye a new heart.’ Ezek 18: 31. Alas! it is above our strength, we may as well make a new world. ‘A new heart also will I give you.’ Ezek 36: 26. God commands us to cleanse ourselves. ‘Wash you, make you clean.’ Isa 1: 16. But ‘who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?’ Job 14: 4. Therefore the precept is turned into a promise. ‘From all your filthiness will I cleanse you.’ Ezek 36: 25. When the child cannot go, the nurse takes it by the hand. ‘I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms.’ Hos 11: 3.

(3) There is that in God’s commandments which may make us willing. They are not burdensome.

[1] A Christian, so far as he is regenerate, consents to God’s commands. ‘I consent to the law that it is good.’ Rom 7: 16. What is done with consent is no burden. If a virgin gives her consent, the match goes on cheerfully; if a subject consents to his prince’s laws because he sees the equity and reasonableness of them they are not irksome. A regenerate person in his judgement approves, and in his will consents, to God’s commandments and therefore they are not burdensome.

[2] God’s commandments are sweetened with joy and peace. Cicero questions whether that can properly be called a burden which is carried with delight and pleasure. Utrum onus appellatur quod laetitia fertur [Is a task performed with joy rightly so called]? If a man carries a bag of money that has been given him, it is heavy, but the delight takes off the burden. When God gives inward joy, it makes the commandments delightful. ‘I will make them joyful in my house of prayer.’ Isa 56: 7. Joy is like oil to the wheels, which makes a Christian run in the way of God’s commandments, so that it is not burdensome.

[3] God’s commandments are advantageous. They are preventive of evil; a curb-bit to check us from sin. What mischiefs should we not run into if we had not afflictions to humble us, and the commandments to restrain us! God’s commandments keep us within bounds, as the yoke keeps the beast from straggling. We should be thankful to God for precepts. Had he not set his commandments as a hedge or bar in our way, we might have run to hell and never stopped. There is nothing in the commandments but what is for our good. ‘To keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee for thy good.’ Deut 10: 13. God commands us to read his word; and what hurt is in this? He bespangles the word with promises; as if a father should bid his son read his last will and testament, wherein he makes over a fair estate to him. He bids us pray and tells us if we ‘ask, it shall be given.’ Matt 7: 7. Ask power against sin, ask salvation, and it shall be given. If you had a friend who should say, ‘Come when you will to me, I will supply you with money,’ would you think it a trouble to visit that friend often? God commands us to fear him. ‘But fear thy God.’ Lev 25: 43. There is honey in the mouth of this command. ‘His mercy is on them that fear him.’ Luke 1: 50. God commands us to believe, and why so? ‘Believe, and thou shalt be saved.’ Acts 16: 31. Salvation is the crown set upon the head of faith. Good reason then have we to obey God’s commands willingly, since they are for our good, and are not so much our duty as our privilege.

[4] God’s commandments are ornamental. Omnia quae praestari jubet Deus, non onerant nos sed ornant. Salvianus. ‘God’s commandments do not burden us, but adorn us.’ It is an honour to be employed in a king’s service; and much more to be employed in his ‘by whom kings reign.’ To walk in God’s commandments proves us to be wise. ‘Behold, I have taught you statutes: keep, therefore, and do them; for this your wisdom.’ Deut 4: 5, 6. To be wise is a great honour. We may say of every commandment of God, as Prov 4: 9: It ‘shall give to thy head an ornament of grace.’

[5] The commands of God are infinitely better than the commands of sin, which are intolerable. Let a man be under the command of any lust, and how he tires himself! What hazards he runs to endangering his health and soul, that he may satisfy his lust! ‘They weary themselves to commit iniquity.’ Jer 9: 5. And are not God’s commandments more equal, facile, pleasant, than the commands of sin? Chrysostom says true, ‘To act virtue is easier than to act vice.’ Temperance is less troublesome than drunkenness; meekness is less troublesome than passion and envy. There is more difficulty in the contrivance and pursuit of a wicked design than in obeying the commands of God. Hence a sinner is said to travail with iniquity. Psa 7: 14. A woman while she is in travail is in pain — to show what pain and trouble a wicked man has in bringing forth sin. Many have gone with more pains to hell, than others have to heaven. This may make us obey the commandments willingly.

[6] Willingness in obedience makes us resemble the angels. The cherubim, types representing the angels, are described with wings displayed, to show how ready the angels are to serve God. God no sooner speaks the word, but they are ambitious to obey. How are they ravished with joy while praising God! In heaven we shall be as the angels, and by our willingness to obey God’s commands, we should be like them here. We pray that God’s will may be done by us on earth as it is in heaven; and is it not done willingly there? It is also done constantly. ‘Blessed is he who does righteousness at all times.’ Psa 106: 3. Our obedience to the command must be as the fire of the altar, which never went out. Lev 6: 13. It must be as the motion of the pulse, always beating. The wind blows off the fruit; but the fruits of our obedience must not be blown off by any wind of persecution. ‘I have chosen you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.’ John 15: 16.

Use. They are reproved who live in a wilful breach of God’s commandments, in malice, uncleanness, intemperance; and walk antipodes to the commandments. To live in a wilful breach of the commandment is:

(1) Against reason. Are we able to stand out against God? ‘Do we provoke the Lord, are we stronger than he?’ 1 Cor 10: 22. Can we measure arms with God? Can impotence stand against omnipotence? A sinner acts against reason.

(2) It is against equity. We have our being from God; and is it not just that we should obey him who gives us our being? We have all our subsistence from him; and is it not fitting, that as he gives us our allowance, we should give him our allegiance? If a general gives his soldiers pay, he expects them to march at his command; so for us to live in violation of the divine commands, is manifestly unjust.

(3) It is against nature. Every creature in its kind obeys God’s law. [1] Animate creatures obey him. God spake to the fish, and it set Jonah ashore. Jonah 2: 10. [2] Inanimate creatures. The wind and the sea obey him. Mark 4: 41, The very stones, if God give them a commission, will cry out against the sins of men. ‘The stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.’ Hab 2: 11. None disobey God but wicked men and devils; and can we find no better companions?

(4) It is against kindness. How many mercies have we to allure us to obey! We have miracles of mercy; the apostle therefore joins these two together, disobedient and unthankful, which dyes sin with a crimson colour. 2 Tim 3: 2. As the sin is great, for it is a contempt of God, a hanging out of the flag of defiance against him, and rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, so the punishment will be great. It cuts off from mercy. God’s mercy is for them that keep his commandments, but there is no mercy for them that live in a wilful breach of them. All God’s judgements set themselves in battle array against the disobedient: temporal judgements and eternal. Lev 26: 15, 16. Christ comes in flames of fire, to take vengeance on them that obey not God. 2 Thess 1: 8. God has iron chains to hold those who break the golden chain of his commands; chains of darkness by which the devils are held ever. Jude 6. God has time enough, as long as eternity, to reckon with all the wilful breakers of his commandments.

How shall we keep God’s commandments?

Pray for the Spirit of God. We cannot do it in our strength. The Spirit must work in us both to will and to do. Phil 2: 13. When the loadstone draws, the iron moves; so, when God’s Spirit draws, we run in the way of his commandments.