Recently, we discussed how one ought to read Holy Scripture by using appropriate and God-given means. The Spirit of God who gave us Scripture is the infallible interpreter and so we ought to interpret Scripture with Scripture and, in doing so, we pray that the Spirit would illumine our minds to understand divine truths, mysteries of the faith. The analogy of faith is the subordinate means of interpretation and consists of the rule of faith and the rule of love. Since we have discussed the rule of faith in several pieces, this article will ground and explain the rule of love.
Scott Swain helpfully distinguishes between the rule of faith and the rule of love; he states, “The rule of love is closely related to the rule of faith. Whereas the latter summarizes the main contours of biblical doctrine (that which is to be believed), the former summarizes the main contours of biblical law (that which ought to be done),” (Swain, Trinity, Revelation, and Reading, 114-115). Like the rule of faith, the rule of love does not merely measure our doctrinal and ethical conclusions but is a means of arriving at a proper interpretation.
Love, Swain notes, follows law. For this reason, the Reformed tradition has concluded that the summary of the rule of love is The Ten Commandments. This is consistent with the teaching of our Lord, who, when asked which is the great commandment, answered, “‘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 foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets,” (Matt 22:36-40). Along similar lines, the apostle Paul said, “Love is the fulfillment of the law,” (Romans 13:10, NASB). Already, one can discern that the rule of love is filled with biblical content, namely, the law. Creatures do not, and cannot, determine how they ought to love God and those created in His image. We must passively and humbly receive God-given laws and fulfill the law by loving God and man. Love is lawfulness and lawlessness can never be identified as love. One might seek to externally keep the law of God and do so from a corrupt heart that aims at an improper end, failing to meet the measure of love, but one cannot ever love while breaking the law of God.
1 Timothy 1:3–7 is a text that warrants and explains the rule of love. Paul left Timothy in Ephesus because men were teaching different doctrines and devoting themselves to myths and endless genealogies. In doing so, these teachers promoted speculation rather than contemplation of the mysteries of the faith. They asked false questions and offered useless and unedifying answers as they sought to be teachers of the law.
Paul contrasts the speculative teaching of these persons with the stewardship that is from God and is by faith (1 Tim 1:4). When Paul says, “by faith,” he refers to the mode of receiving doctrine and the mode of reception reveals the content of doctrine. The fact that it can only be received by faith indicates that doctrines are mysteries of the faith made known by God as teachings which descend from heaven with the authority of the Maker of all things. It must be received by faith because the contents just are the mysteries of the faith. We should note that Paul addresses the mysteries of the faith before he speaks of the rule of love. Augustine explains why: “Faith will start tottering if the authority of scripture is undermined; then with faith tottering, charity itself also begins to sicken. Because if you fall from faith, you are bound also to fall from charity; it is impossible after all, to love what you do not believe exists,” (Augustine, Teaching Christianity, 1.37). Faith precedes love for we cannot love what we do not know. For this reason, Paul does not merely tell Timothy to teach the rule of love; he charges Timothy to promote the stewardship which is from God and silence those who undermine sound doctrine.
Paul contrasts the contents of the false teachers (speculation vs. contemplation) and then contrasts the aims. Apostolic doctrine has love as its telos, “The aim of our charge is love,” (1 Tim 1:5). Doctrine that differs from apostolic teaching cannot end in love because it abandons the rule of faith despite its apparent commitment to the content of Scripture. These teachers—although they use Scripture—do not understand the law nor the deductions they draw from their false premises. As a result, they depart from the contours of biblical law and their lawlessness leads to lovelessness. Augustine, following Paul’s reasoning, asserts, “So if it seems to you that you have understood the divine scriptures, or any part of them, in such a way that by this understanding you do not build up this twin love of God and neighbor, then you have not yet understood them,” (Augustine, Teaching Christianity, 1.36, 40). These teachers of different doctrines fail to understand the law as found in Scripture.
Love is the aim of apostolic doctrine because love neither fails nor ends. God, from whom sound doctrine comes, is love and only teaches and commands what is loving. He has commanded all creatures to love God and those created in God’s image. In the eschaton, our faith will be turned to sight as our hope is realized but love of God and man endures throughout eternity. Sound doctrine promotes that which endures forever.
The rule of love is not some formless blob waiting to be shaped by the creatures of earth; rather, it is a God-given rule formed by faith and law that ends in love as defined by the One who is love. Thus, we ought to take up the study of sound doctrine with the purpose of knowing God and all things in relation to God that we might fulfill the law of love. As we do, we are reminded that we have woefully fallen short as we love that which we ought not to love and fail to fully love God and man. For these reasons, we need the beloved Son of the Father to assume human nature, conform his human will to the rule of love, and lay down his life for his sheep. After accomplishing this work of love, the Son ascends into heaven and, together with the Father, pours out the Spirit of love upon our hearts and causes us to love the One who first loved us.
As we read, we read as those who love the Lord that we have not seen as we await the outcome of our faith. As we read, we read with the rule of love in mind, understanding that it is a God-shaped rule that not only enables us to understand Scripture but also raises our affections toward God and man.