The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 612

;

LOVE

572

where He

treats,

not of love for the enemy, but of neighborly and

He has just washed the disciples' feet; no enemy is And then He says, not, " Moses present, He is among friends. gave you the old commandment to love one another, but I say. Love even your enemy, and this is My new commandment"; but, " A new commandment I give unto you, that [in your own circle] brotherly love.

you love one another." Hence it is evident that

new commandment

this

whole representation, as tho the

commandment of And apart from this,

of love opposed the Mosaic

hatred, can not for a

moment be

maintained.

the divine law of Sinai can not be anything but a perfect law

;

and

Jesus, Himself being its Author, can not contradict Himself.

In order to prevent the drawing of such pernicious inference from the words "a new commandment," St. John declares emphatically " And now I beseech thee, lady, not as tho I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another" (2 John 5). And to make it still more impossible, he calls the same commandment old and new, according to the viewpoint from which it is considered " Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment, which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. Again a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in Him and in you because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth." :

:

The way is now open to arrive at new commandment, especially with

the right understanding of this reference to the subject under

treatment.

Jesus and the disciples have entered the inner sanctuary of His

Golgotha discloses itself. The painful strife of the feetwashing and of the expulsion of the traitor is ended. And during these solemn moments Jesus speaks of His departure, of the coming of the Holy Spirit, and of the new relation which henceforth God's passion.

people shall sustain to the Messiah. return there

is

but one salvation for

From Paradise all

to the Lord's

the elect, but one

way

in

which all walk, but one gate through which all must pass. The whole redemptive work flows from one unchangeable counsel. And herein lies the unity of the Old and New Covenants. But, altho we fully acknowledge this unity, we may not overlook the fact that, in different dispensations and circumstances, the

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