Only Two

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

— John 14:15

This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.

— 1 John 3:23

Reflection:

Essentially, the whole Old Covenant Law gets whittled down to only two commandments in the New Covenant.

First Commandment:

“Believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ.”

Notice that the commandment doesn’t speak generically as “believe in Jesus”. It highlights that we are to “believe IN THE NAME of Jesus.”

Well, what does Jesus’ name ultimately mean that we must believe in order “to keep” the First Commandment of the New Covenant?

“She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

— Matthew 1:21

To believe in the Name of Jesus then is connected to believing that He came to SAVE US from our SINS. This begs the question, what are our sins doing which we must be saved from?

“Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.” — Romans 5:9

Our sins bring the holy wrath of God’s justice down upon us all.

So, to “believe in the NAME of Jesus” is to have a particular faith, NOT a generic faith. And that particular faith is to believe that Jesus Christ was “anointed” to bear the wrath of God in our place FOR our sins.

This is the primary commandment in the New Covenant, without which, we cannot fulfill the second commandment.

Second Commandment

“To Love one another.”

If we do not accept the first commandment, we will fail miserably in keeping the second, even though we can put on quite a pretense on the world’s stage that we “truly love”. Or if we privilege the second commandment of the New Covenant OVER the first, and preach love, love, love all the live long day, without repentance for our evil in the sight of God, our “love” will turn “sour” really quick.

What was the purpose of all the Old Covenant laws and ordinances then?

To set the right context for the proper understanding of the Two Commandments which Jesus Christ came to bring.

1) To save us from holy wrath.

2) So we can learn to truly love one another without pretense.