问题7：神的律法有什么要求？
答：要求个人的、全然的、永远的顺服；尽心、尽性、尽意、尽力爱神；并爱人如己。神所禁止的事永远不做，神所要求的事应该常常去做。
儿童版：我们当尽心、尽性、尽意、尽力爱神，并爱人如己。

Question 7: What Does the Law of God Require?
Answer: Personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience; that we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love our neighbor as ourselves. What God forbids should never be done and what God commands should always be done.
For Kids: That we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love our neighbor as ourselves.


歌谱 Lead Sheet

经文

《马太福音》22 章37 节至40节：

　　耶稣对他说：「你要尽心、尽性、尽意，爱主你的神。这是诫命中的第一，且是最大的。其次也相仿，就是要爱人如己。这两条诫命是律法和先知一切道理的总纲。」

注解

约翰·卫斯理

　　尽心、尽意、尽性、尽力爱耶和华神是基督教教义的第一大分支。你要以耶和华神为乐，在祂里面寻得一切的满足。你要听并且遵行祂的话，「我儿，要将你的心归我。」当你把灵魂的主权全然交给祂，让祂掌管后，你会情不自禁地呼喊：「我要爱祢，哦主，我的力量。主是我稳固的磐石；是我的救主，我的神，我所信靠的。」基督教教义的第二大分支，也是第二大诫命，与第一条紧密相联、不可分割，即「爱你的邻舍如同自己」。「爱」，就是以最温柔的善意、最诚挚的情感、最强烈的愿望，抵挡和剪除一切罪恶，尽可能地活出一切良善。「你的邻舍」，不仅是你的朋友、亲属或熟人，也不仅是那些尊重你、向你感恩或回报过你善意的人，而是所有人。不排除那些你素未谋面或连名字都不知道的人，也不排除那些你知道是邪恶的和忘恩负义的人，甚至是那些鄙视你的人。即使是面对这些人，你也要爱他们如同自己，也一样的渴望他们能够幸福，一样不知疲倦地为他们的灵魂和身体保驾护航。这就是爱。

默想

胡安·桑切斯

　　这些应许都与一份新的盟约有关。神将通过大卫的后裔，一位应许的王来订立新的盟约。新约圣经表明，订立这约的王就是耶稣。

　　耶稣来做我们自己不能做的事情。耶稣从高天降下，取了人的形状（仍是完全的神），为要救赎我们。（参见来2:14-18）耶稣代表全人类全然遵行了神的旨意，并代替所有违背律法的人受了死的刑罚，从而成全了律法。福音是一个宣告，任何人只要承认自己违背了神的律法，愿意离弃罪恶，并相信耶稣，就可以罪得赦免，耶稣全然的顺服也归算在他们身上。

　　耶稣借着祂的生活，祂的受死、埋葬，从死里复活订立了新约，应许一颗新心（参见耶31）和神的灵的内住（参见结36）。我们能够遵行律法的唯一希望在于新约所应许的重生。重生后有基督新生命的人被赐予了一颗新心和内住的圣灵，使我们有能力去顺服。

　　好消息是，新约下神的子民被赐予能力，得以遵行神的律法。我们再次看到，神的命令并不能建立我们与祂的关系。顺服是我们对神救赎之工的回应，是出于信心的爱的回应。神在耶稣基督里救赎了我们，我们以信靠做出回应，在爱里顺服祂。

祷告

　　伟大的立法者，祢口中的律法纯全，祢配得我们全然的顺服。求祢让我们思想，祢的律法不只是要求外在的服从，更是要我们全心全意的顺服。如此谁能做到呢？我们承认自己远远不能遵行祢的律法。阿们。

Scripture

MATTHEW 22:37–40

And [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Commentary

JOHN WESLEY

Loving the Lord God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength is the first great branch of Christian righteousness. You shall delight yourself in the Lord your God; seeking and finding all happiness in Him. You shall hear and fulfill His word, “My son, give me your heart.” And having given Him your inmost soul to reign there without a rival, you may well cry out in the fulness of your heart, “I will love You, O my Lord, my strength. The Lord is my strong rock; my Savior, my God, in whom l trust.” The second commandment, the second great branch of Christian righteousness, is closely and inseparably connected with the first: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love—embrace with the most tender goodwill, the most earnest and cordial affection, the most inflamed desires of preventing or removing all evil and bringing every possible good. Your neighbor—not only your friends, kinfolk, or acquaintances; not only the virtuous ones who regard you, who extend or return your kindness, but every person, not excluding those you have never seen or know by name; not excluding those you know to be evil and unthankful, those who despitefully use you. Even those you shall love as yourself with the same invariable thirst after their happiness. Use the same unwearied care to screen them from whatever might grieve or hurt either their soul or body. This is love.

Devotional

JUAN SANCHEZ

When you ask, “What does the law of God require?” the short answer is perfect obedience. Now, that sounds daunting, but we have to understand the context in which the law was given. It was given in the context of grace, God’s saving initiative. When God rescued Israel from Egypt and brought them to Sinai and declared, “If you obey my voice and keep my covenant,” he essentially then said, “I will be your God and you will be my children.” So the context of the law is God’s saving initiative. The perfect obedience that the law demands is a response to God’s saving initiative, and it is a wholehearted devotion.

The way that the Old Testament puts it is: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut. 6:5). The context of grace motivates a response of wholehearted devotion to the God who saves. It is a response of faith that is called love. And that love flows to love of neighbor as well.

There is only one problem. We cannot obey perfectly. But there is good news. In Jeremiah 31 God says that he will write the law on his people’s hearts. In Ezekiel 36 God further explains: “I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes” (vv. 26–27). These promises are linked to a new covenant that God would initiate through a promised king from David’s line. The New Testament reveals that the promised King who inaugurates this new covenant is Jesus.

Jesus came to do what we ourselves could not do. While remaining fully God, Jesus came from heaven and took on our humanity in order to save us (Heb. 2:14–18). As our human representative, Jesus fulfilled the law of God by perfectly obeying God’s commands and by paying the penalty of death that all lawbreakers owe. The gospel is an announcement that all who confess that they are guilty of breaking God’s law and turn away from their sins and trust in Jesus have their sins forgiven and Jesus’s perfect obedience accounted to them.

Through his life, death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus inaugurated the new covenant with its promises of a new heart (Jeremiah 31) and the indwelling of God’s empowering Spirit (Ezekiel 36). Our only hope of fulfilling what the law requires is the new birth that was promised in the new covenant. Those who are born again to new life in Christ have been granted a new heart and God’s indwelling Spirit, which empowers obedience.

The good news is that under the new covenant, God’s people are empowered to obey God’s law. Once again, we see that the commands of God don’t establish a relationship with God. Obedience is our response to God’s saving work. It is a loving response of faith. God has saved us in Jesus Christ, and we respond by trusting him in loving obedience.

Prayer

Great Law-Giver, you have spoken a perfect law, and you deserve perfect obedience. Let us not merely think that your law requires outward submission; it demands the full assent of our minds and our hearts. Who is equal to such a task? We confess that we fall far short of keeping your law. Amen.