Fifth, from mention of the specific “law of Christ.”
Fifth, from mention of the specific “law of Christ.”
§ 69. (V) [They say:] “In 1 Cor. 9:21 a ‘law of Christ’ is mentioned. Gal. 6:2: ‘Bear one another’s burdens and fulfill the law of Christ.’ Therefore Christ handed down laws other than those of Moses.”
We respond. There can be no doubt that the commandment to love pertains to the moral Law. But it is called “the law of Christ” because it is understood and kept correctly only through the Spirit of Christ; because Christ gave it in a new way; because it was selected from the great accumulation of the laws of Moses and was repeated without being wrapped in the ceremonial laws with which it had been surrounded in the Old Testament; etc.
Ambrose (commentary on 1 Corinthians 9): “He says this because when it is in the law of Christ, it is in the Law of God, because what is Christ’s is God’s, and because what is God’s is Christ’s.” [Again] (commentary on Galatians 6): “The law of Christ wants everyone to be saved; and through this, he fulfills the law of Christ who advises his sinning brother to return to his intention, to fulfill the will of Christ.”