"The law of Christ" () is a

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

phrase. The related Bible verses are in the Pauline epistles at and parenthetically ( "being under the law to Christ") at . Some Christians hold the belief that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the inauguration of the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31:31–37 and Ezekiel 37:22–28 "replaces" or "completes" or "fulfills" the Law of Moses found in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Dual-covenant theologians, the Hebrew Roots Movement, and Messianic Judaism are all examples of a groups that reject this belief. Closely related are the subjects of Christian views on the Old Covenant,

early Christianity and Judaism Jewish Christians ( he, יהודים נוצרים, yehudim notzrim) were the followers of a Jewish religious sect that emerged in Judea during the late Second Temple period (first century AD). The Nazarene Jews integrated the belief of Jesus a ...

Paul the Apostle and Judaism Paul the Apostle has been placed within Second Temple Judaism by recent scholarship since the 1970s. A main point of departure with older scholarship is the understanding of Second Temple Judaism; the covenant with God and the role of works as ...

abrogation of old covenant laws While most Christian theology reflects the view that at least some Mosaic Laws have been set aside under the New Covenant, there are some theology systems that view the entire Mosaic or Old Covenant as abrogated in that all of the Mosaic Laws a ...

, and Christian ethics.

In the Pauline epistles

In the Epistle to the Galatians, written by

the Apostle Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

to a number of early Christian communities in the Roman province of Galatia in central

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...

, he wrote: "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." (,

NKJV The New King James Version (NKJV) is an English translation of the Bible. The complete NKJV Bible was published in 1982 by Thomas Nelson, now HarperCollins. The NKJV is described by Thomas Nelson as being "scrupulously faithful to the origin ...

). This phrase appears once and is never defined. It has been suggested that "the law of Christ" could be an allusion to the second greatest commandment ("love thy neighbor") or the

New Commandment The New Commandment is a term used in Christianity to describe Jesus's commandment to "love one another" which, according to the Bible, was given as part of the final instructions to his disciples after the Last Supper had ended, and after Judas ...

("love one another; as I have loved you"). Others suggest this phrase is just another name for "the law of God" as Christians believe the Messiah is God. Possibly related, in a letter to the early Christians of

Corinth, Greece Corinth ( ; el, Κόρινθος, Kórinthos, ) is the successor to an ancient city, and is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part of ...

, in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul wrote: "To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law." (,

NIV Niv may refer to: * Niv, a personal name; for people with the name, see * Niv Art Movies, a film production company of India * Niv Art Centre, in New Delhi, India NIV may refer to: * The New International Version, a translation of the Bible into ...

). In the Greek, the wording is, "to those without law, as without law -- (not being without law to God, but within law to Christ) -- that I might gain those without law."
1 Corinthians 9:21
YLT) It is not clear exactly what Paul means by the phrase, "the law of Christ". Although Paul mentions

Biblical law Biblical law refers to the legal aspects of the Bible, the holy scriptures of Judaism and Christianity. Judaism * Law of Moses * Mitzvah, divine commandment ** The Ten Commandments ** 613 commandments * Seven Laws of Noah, laws applicable to all of ...

several times (e.g., , , , , , , ) and preached about Ten Commandment topics such as idolatry (e.g., , , , , , , , , ), he consistently denies that

salvation Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its ...

, or justification before God, is based on "works of the law" (e.g., ), though the meaning of this phrase is also disputed by scholars, see for example the New Perspective on Paul#Works of the Law.

In the gospels

Many Christians believe that the Sermon on the Mount is a form of commentary on the

Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ ...

. It portrays Christ as the true interpreter of the Mosaic Law. In the Expounding of the Law, Jesus said that he did not come to abolish the law or the prophets, but to fulfill (complete, end, expire) them (). Jesus explicitly warns of severe concequence to those who break and teach others to break one of the least of the commands of God () In the non-canonical

Gospel of Marcion The Gospel of Marcion, called by its adherents the Gospel of the Lord, was a text used by the mid-2nd-century Christian teacher Marcion of Sinope to the exclusion of the other gospels. The majority of scholars agree the gospel was an edited versi ...

's version of Luke 23:2 we find the extension: "We found this fellow perverting the nation ''and destroying the law and the prophets''". While the New Testament records several unique sayings of Jesus that may be described as "commandments," it only records one that he explicitly identified as such. This is the

of that the disciples should love one another as he himself had loved them. At times, Jesus referred to commandments of God from Old Testament scripture. In , a Pharisee lawyer asked Jesus "which is the great commandment in the Law?" Jesus responded, "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." Such commandments, as discussed by or relating to Christ, are commonly seen as a basis of Christian ethics.

In the Epistle of James

uses the phrases of "royal law" and "law of liberty" in reference to the Second greatest commandment, part of :

Theological interpretations

In his Summa Theologiae I–II qq. 106–9, a section of the ''Summa'' known as the ''

Treatise on Law ''Treatise on Law'' is Thomas Aquinas' major work of legal philosophy. It forms questions 90–108 of the ''Prima Secundæ'' ("First artof the Second art) of the ''Summa Theologiæ'', Aquinas' masterwork of Scholastic philosophical theology. ...

'', Saint Thomas Aquinas discusses the Law of Christ as the "New Law". He argues that it was virtually contained in the Old Law, that is the Old Testament, as a seed but only brought to perfection by Jesus Christ who perfectly fulfilled it. The ends of the Old and New are one and the same, being subjection to God's order, but they are different in that the New Law makes attaining the end possible. Meanwhile, since all law ultimately has reference to Divine Reason governing all things, the New Law contains and helps the human being fulfill the

Natural Law Natural law ( la, ius naturale, ''lex naturalis'') is a system of law based on a close observation of human nature, and based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independently of positive law (the express enacte ...

which prescribes acts of

virtue Virtue ( la, virtus) is moral excellence. A virtue is a trait or quality that is deemed to be morally good and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. In other words, it is a behavior that shows high moral standards ...

. Thus, Aquinas defines the New Law as "chiefly the

grace Grace may refer to: Places United States * Grace, Idaho, a city * Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois * Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office * Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uninco ...

itself of the

Holy Ghost For the majority of Christian denominations, the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, is believed to be the third person of the Trinity, a Triune God manifested as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, each entity itself being God.Gru ...

, which is given to those who believe in Christ," but adds that it also "contains certain things that dispose us to receive the grace of the Holy Ghost, and pertaining to the use of that grace." Therefore, "the New Law is in the first place a law that is inscribed on our hearts, but that secondarily it is a written law". (ST I-II q. 106.3) The Catholic theologian Bernhard Häring presents the Law of Christ as Christ himself in his person because Jesus was able to fulfill the law and provide us with the effect of this fulfillment. The Evangelical theologian Douglas J. Moo argues that "the law of Christ" is strongly connected to the Mosaic Law, for example that nine of the

are included.''Five views on Law and Gospel'', Gundry ed.
an online copy at DJMOO.COM
, p. 368: ‘Love is central to this law, and there is strong continuity with the law of Moses, for many specifically Mosaic commandments are taken up and included within this "law of Christ".’ P. 370: ’Indeed, we can confidently expect that everything within the Mosaic law that reflected God's "eternal moral will" for his people is caught up into and repeated in the "law of Christ." Having recognized the place within "the law of Christ" of specific commandments, however, I want to insist that they must not be given too much prominence.’ P. 376: ‘The content of all but one of the Ten Commandments is taken up into "the law of Christ", for which we are responsible. (The exception is the Sabbath commandment, one that Heb. 3–4 suggests is fulfilled in the new age as a whole.)’ George R. Law argues that the

New Covenant The New Covenant (Hebrew '; Greek ''diatheke kaine'') is a biblical interpretation which was originally derived from a phrase which is contained in the Book of Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 31:31-34), in the Hebrew Bible (or the Old Testament of the ...

is the Law of Christ, and that the details are expressed in the Sermon on the Mount.

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * *{{cite book , last=Sundkvist , first=Mikael , date=2008 , title=The Christian laws in Paul: reading the Apostle with Early Greek interpreters , publisher=University of Joensuu , location=Joensuu, Finland , isbn=978-952-219-104-5

External links

Campus Crusade for Christ: Four Spiritual LawsCambridge Journal: The Law of Christ
Bible-related controversies Biblical law Biblical phrases Catholic doctrines Christian ethics in the Bible Christian terminology Christology