L07–II. 3. Love is the master of all commandments

      This continues from Part L06 (Table of Contents in Part L01) in a series on the instruction of the Law by C. F. W. Walther and Martin Luther. — In this segment, Walther addresses the second of two misconceptions of the "Golden Rule": "love your neighbor as yourself". — Lehre und Wehre, vol. 7 (Dec. 1861), p. 357 ff.:

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II. What is the proper understanding of these words: You shall love God above all things and your neighbor as yourself?

      3. Finally, to the proper understanding of the word "love your neighbor as yourself," which is rare even in our day, belongs this, that the commandment to love one's neighbor is the greatest and noblest next to the commandment to love God, and therefore love is the master of all commandments and the standard of their fulfillment, as Scripture (Rom. 13:8-10) expressly calls love the law, and indeed according to Gal. 5:14, the fulfillment of all laws.

What Luther says on love as the master of all commandments:

• “So that they must all give way and never be law, nor be valid where love is concerned. We read many examples of this in Scripture, and especially Christ himself shows Matt. 12:3-5, how David ate the holy shewbread with his companions. For although there was a law that no one should eat such holy bread except the priests alone, yet here love was a free empress over the same law”
• “All kinds of laws should therefore be given, ordained, and kept, not for their own sake, nor for the sake of works, but only for the exercise of love”
• “Christ also confirms this in Matt. 12:7, where he prefers mercy to all commandments and laws”
• “If the law is contrary to love, it ceases and should no longer be a law. But where there is no hindrance, the keeping of the law is an indication of the love that lies hidden in the heart. For this is why laws are needed, so that love may be demonstrated by them; but if they cannot be kept without harming one's neighbor, God wants them to be abolished and taken away”

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In the next Part L08…