Section VII: General Rules that Serve the True Explanation of the Decalogue, § 53.
SECTION VII: GENERAL RULES THAT SERVE THE TRUE EXPLANATION OF THE DECALOGUE
§ 53. Before we go on to the specific explanation of the commandments of the Decalogue, we shall first set down some general rules, especially useful for thoroughly understanding the sure and complete meaning of each commandment.
(1) The Decalogue is to be understood according to the interpretation of the prophets, Christ, and the apostles. Just as God’s voice sounded forth in the church of the patriarchs even before the solemn promulgation of the Law, as we have shown already [§§ 15–24], so also in later times, after its promulgation, God explained and declared His Law through the prophets and apostles and, in fact, even through Christ.
(2) In His Law, God gives commands not just to the hands and other external members, but to the heart and to the whole man. That is, in all the commandments of the Decalogue not only external but also internal obedience is required. Rom. 7:14: “The Law is spiritual.”
(3) The Law accuses not only external sins but also the internal sins of the heart and, therefore, the innermost corruption of our nature. For after the fall, the word of the Law was handed down and solemnly repeated, among other reasons, also for this purpose: that it might reveal those commandments whose knowledge had been extinguished in the law of nature through sin. Rom. 7:7: “I did not know coveting except through the Law.”
(4) The Law requires not merely any interior obedience but a perfect obedience, absolute in all details and degrees. Deut. 6:5: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
(5) Negative commands are contained in the affirmative commandments and affirmative in the negative. You see, a good thing prescribed by the Law cannot be performed unless one avoids the contrary evil; and a bad thing prohibited by the Law cannot be avoided unless the contrary good is performed.
(6) In a genus, the species are always included; and in a chief species, the related species are included and even the entire genus. Thus, in the prohibition against adultery, all unlawful lusts are understood to be prohibited.
(7) In an effect the cause is understood to be prohibited. Thus, in the prohibition against adultery, debauchery [luxus], the mother of fornication, is forbidden. In addition, whatever requires chastity also requires the means of chastity: moderation and abstinence.
(8) In something related, the correlate is always understood. Thus when children are commanded to honor their parents, it is understand from the correlate that parents are required to bring up their children “in the discipline and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4).
(9) To find out the true meaning of each commandment, it is particularly beneficial to consider the end and aim of each, for from the end one can judge easily about the means. “The whole end of the Law is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned” (1 Tim. 1:5).
(10) The Law does not merely accuse evil works but also the evil that still clings to the good works of the regenerate. Rom. 7:18, [24]: “I have the will [to do what is right], but to accomplish [what is good] I do not find. Wretched man that I am!” etc.
(11) In the Decalogue, lesser sins are forbidden under the name of more crass sin so that we may truly recognize their greatness and gravity before God’s judgment. For since, according to Christ’s explanation, the Fifth Commandment forbids anger, it is obvious that anger is considered murder before God.
(12) For the full explanation of the Law not only is the enumeration of the virtues and vices in each commandment required, but one must also state clearly the promises and threats that God gave either to the whole Law in general or to the individual commandments in particular.
(13) Indeed, we must gather examples, especially those which the Holy Spirit has noted in Holy Scripture, examples in which God gives credence to His promises and threats.
(14) Because of diverse ends and respects, the same work can be called “commanded” or “prohibited” in diverse commandments. Hence we should not become overanxious or too scrupulous in enumerating the virtues and vices of each commandment.
(15) In explaining the Law, we must maintain an accurate distinction between mortal and venial sins. Although according to the rigor of the Law all sins are mortal of themselves and of their own nature, yet when the Law is presented to the reborn, they have to be shown the distinction between those sins that wound the conscience, cast out faith and the Holy Spirit, and by which the reborn lose their inheritance of eternal life; and between those clinging stains, weaknesses, and imperfections which they must also acknowledge and deplore because of the Law and for which they must ask forgiveness through Christ.
(16) The First Commandment1 is included in all the rest; therefore obedience to all the rest of the commandments takes its origin and source from obedience to the First Commandment. Hence, by remarkable understanding, Luther repeats “we should fear and love God” in each of the commandments. From this, the statement of the apostle is also understood (Rom. 14:23): “Whatsoever does not proceed from faith is sin.”
(17) The last commandment about coveting is to be traced through all the previous commandments to mean that not only outward acts but also even corrupt inner emotions are forbidden in them.
(18) In the Decalogue, moral matters, which pertain to all men, must diligently be distinguished from their Mosaic wrappings, which pertained only to the Israelites in the Old Testament. Chemnitz (Loc., de lege, ch. 7, reg. 10) brilliantly shows how these are to be recognized and distinguished.2
(19) Obedience to the First Tablet trumps obedience to the Second when obedience to both cannot happen at the same time. Luke 14:26: “Whoever does not hate his father, wife, children, and his own soul cannot be My disciple.”
(20) Ceremonial matters yield to moral ones even in the Second Tablet. Hosea 6:[6] and Matt. 9:13: “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’”
(21) The second commandment about loving one’s neighbor is similar to the first, according to Christ’s statement (Matt. 22:39). However, this should not be understood simply [ἁπλῶς] and absolutely, as if one should not love God more than his neighbor. Rather, the similarity consists, first, in a connection of necessity, for obedience to the Second Tablet is no less necessary than obedience to the First. 1 John 4:20: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar.” Second, it consists of the same category of service [cultus], for Christ sets this rule against the Pharisees. When they sacrificed, they would make their offerings in the temple and would perform other ceremonial acts, thinking that God did not care even if they neglected their own parents. The similarity consists, third, in the final cause,3 because the works of the Second Tablet ought to proceed from a love for God that they may become a service which is pleasing to God. Finally, [the similarity] consists of the same category of punishment, because transgressions against the commandments of the Second Tablet also merit temporal and eternal punishments, etc. There is One who bids us observe that the second commandment is not called equal to or on level with the first but similar to it, namely, in quality and condition. They are similar in quality because in both instances pure and genuine love is required, such as when one says that a man is similar to another in nature and quality, though the one surpasses the other in size, rank, dignity, and condition. For just as the love of God is the head and sum of all the rest of the commandments which concern God, so also love of one’s neighbor is the head and sum of those which concern men.
1 Read Praeceptum primum with Cotta instead of only Praeceptum.
2 Chemnitz’s Works 8:647–50.
3 The same as an “end,” i.e., an aim, purpose, or goal. The final cause is the cause for which the doer acts or that for whose sake something happens.