What’s Love Got to Do With It?

Asking whether our ministry of God's word arises from God's love and leads to offering God's love is no minor point. Nor is it an invitation to embrace the cozy language of compromise meant to lead us into dogmatic squishiness. No, it is really about “The Rule of Love,” a crucial tool that Augustine wrote was essential to interpreting the Bible rightly.

“Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the Holy Scriptures, or any part of them, but puts such an interpretation upon them as does not tend to build up this twofold love of God and our neighbor, does not yet understand them as he ought.” (Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, 1.36.40)

This is why so many of the current "You've got it wrong, and I don't" approaches to interpretation often ring hollow. For goodness' sake, entire ministries are built on being right and showing where everyone but that ministry is wrong. This won't do. There are so many ways to be wrong about being right.

It's time to recall "The Rule of Love" as a guide to interpreting the Bible.

Reformed Theological Seminary (Orlando) president Scott Swain sets the "Rule of Faith"* side by side with "The Rule of Love" in his book Trinity, Revelation, and Reading, summarizing, "The Rule of Faith teaches us that which is to be believed...the Rule of Love teaches us that which is to be done." Noting Jesus' words in Matt 22:36-39, Swain rightly observes that "the rule of love is the sum" of both Old and New Covenants.

Matthew reads, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “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.”

The two-fold obedience of love for God and love for neighbor summarizes the purpose of God’s revelation. Augustine wrote, “The goal of all of Scripture is to engender the love of God and of one’s neighbor” Confessions 13.8.9. So, the purpose of revelation is not simply clarity; it is charity - love for God and others. Is this the goal of our interpretive work? Is it the goal of our ministry of the Scriptures? Does this describe the posture of prayer we take as we begin to study or to preach and teach?

Why is this crucial just now?

Swain's interaction with Augustine leads him to note that the goal of theology is not precision alone but love that yields devoted obedience. He writes, "The rule of love helps us understand the goal of all that God does and says...Why does God redeem us and reveal himself to us... What is the ultimate aim..? That we might love him and might love others in, with, and for him", importantly concluding, "Any interpretation of the Bible that serves this goal, even though erring at certain points, is nevertheless on the right track."

We should always seek to be accurate interpreters of the Scriptures. Yet Kevin Van Hoozer notes that particular virtues associated with love are required of the interpreter to do this work from the outset. Van Hoozer notes honesty, openness, attentiveness, and obedience as essential aspects of love for God and others a Biblical interpreter has to possess to do the work. So love is both a prerequisite for and a fruit of study. Love never seeks to abandon the truth, and the truth, properly understood and proclaimed, will always be reflected in love for God and others.

The Rule of Faith guides us in the faithful interpretation of the truth of the Scriptures; so does the Rule of Love, guiding us in the proper understanding and purpose of the Scripture's truth. If, with Paul, "the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith" (1 Tim 1:5), then we must embrace faith and love to have any hope for understanding and teaching the Bible.

This will require of us a humble striving in study to see Christ revealed in the Scriptures and to know and obey his teaching; it will also require of us a steadfast affection for one another that doesn't respond to every single error with the intensity of a laser-guided missile but lovingly seeks for the truth to prevail. Such love looks not for every lurking error in others but for every possible opportunity to help one another down "the right track."

"Thou has pierced my heart with Thy Word, and I have loved Thee." - Augustine, Confessions 10.6.8

"Knowledge puffs up. Love edifies." - Paul, 1 Corinthians 8:1

• “The Rule of Faith” commonly refers to a succinct confession of Faith that summarizes the incontestable truths of Scripture. The Apostles Creed is often cited as an example. The Westminster Standards speak of the entire body of the Scriptures being the only rule of faith:

  Under the name of Holy Scripture, or the Word of God written, are now contained all the books of the Old and New Testaments…All which are given by inspiration of God to be the rule of faith and life. - WESTMINSTER CONFESSION OF FAITH 1.2.

  All synods or councils, since the Apostles’ times, whether general or particular, may err; and many have erred. Therefore they are not to be made the rule of faith, or practice; but to be used as a help in both. - WESTMINSTER CONFESSION OF FAITH 31.3

  3. Q: What is the Word of God?

  A. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the Word of God, the only rule of faith and obedience. - WESTMINSTER LARGER CATECHISM, 3.

  This language represents Sola Scriptura, the formal principle of the Reformation. It doesn’t deny the necessity and usefulness of creeds and confessions (It’s in a confession!), but ensures that these remain subordinate to Scripture at all times. Swain (and others) are using ”Rule of Faith” to refer to a summary statement of the whole counsel of God. A proper distinction between Law and Gospel, Nicene Christology, and the Apostles Creed would fit that description. The point is that the Rule of Faith is both in the Bible and in agreement with the Bible, and our interpretation of the Bible won’t run aground if we are within its bounds. The Rule of Love walks hand in hand with the Rule of Faith and asks of us whether we have approached the Scriptures with the virtues love necessitates and creates and whether our interpretations promote the love of God and love of neighbor.