God's Good Law — TDW Kids

Love God, Love Your Neighbor

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Someone once asked Jesus which commandment was the greatest. Jesus did not pick just one of the ten. He summed up all of them in two great commands.

The first and great commandment. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). The first four of the Ten Commandments are about loving God.

The second. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). The last six of the Ten Commandments are about loving people.

Everything hangs on love. Jesus said, “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:40). Love is like a hook that holds up every other command.

Where Jesus got it. Jesus was quoting Moses. Long before, Moses had said, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).

Love does no harm. Paul listed several commandments and said they “are all summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbor” (Romans 13:9-10).

Love shows in obedience. Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Obeying God is how we show that we love Him.

Not a heavy load. “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). God's rules are good for us.

A perfect law. “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul… The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart” (Psalm 19:7-8). God's commands bring joy.

A lamp. “Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). God's commands show us the way, like a flashlight in the dark.

Love starts inside. Jesus taught that God cares about our hearts, not just our hands. Being angry and unkind inside is the beginning of breaking the sixth commandment. Love begins with a heart that wants good for others.

Rest and worship. The fourth commandment gives a gift of rest. Taking time each week to worship God with His people is one way to love Him with all our heart.

At home. Honoring your parents, telling the truth and not grabbing what belongs to a brother or sister are ways to love your neighbor at home.

What to do. This week, pick one commandment and think of one way to show love to God or to someone else by keeping it.

Jesus' summary of the law in Matthew 22:37-40 shows us the heart of the Ten Commandments.

Two tables. The commandments fall into two groups: duties toward God (1-4) and duties toward neighbor (5-10). Jesus' two great commandments match this shape.

The Shema. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:4-5, the confession Israel recited daily: “The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart.” The first commandment is rooted in this wholehearted love.

Neighbor-love. The second command comes from Leviticus 19:18. Romans 13:8-10 shows that adultery, murder, theft, false witness and coveting are all violations of love; “love is the fulfillment of the law.”

Love and law together. Love and law are not opposites. Scripture joins them. Love gives the law its heart; the law gives love its shape.

Obedience as love. “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Obedience is not a substitute for love but its expression.

Not burdensome. 1 John 5:3 says God's commandments “are not burdensome.” For those whose hearts God has changed, His will is not a weight but a way of life.

Delight. Psalm 19:7-8 calls the law “perfect,” “sure,” “right” and “pure,” and says it rejoices the heart. Psalm 119 is a long meditation on loving God's word.

Jesus deepens the law. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus showed that the commandments reach the heart: anger is the root of murder, and lustful desire the root of adultery (Matthew 5:21-28). Love requires inward as well as outward obedience.

The Sabbath as gift. The fourth commandment extends rest to servants, animals and foreigners (Exodus 20:10). It reveals God's care for the weak and points ahead to the rest Christ offers (Mark 2:27; Hebrews 4:9).

Parents and promise. Ephesians 6:1-3 applies the fifth commandment directly to Christian children and notes that it is “the first commandment with promise.” Honoring parents is a form of honoring God, who gives them.

Truthful speech. The ninth commandment protects a neighbor's name. James and Proverbs repeatedly warn about the tongue's power to wound. Loving a neighbor includes guarding what we say about them when they are not present.

Guidance. “Your word is a lamp to my feet” (Psalm 119:105). For believers, the commandments guide grateful living.

Application. Read Exodus 20:1-17 and, beside each commandment, write one way it expresses love for God or for neighbor.

The Law Points to Jesus

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God's law is good. But no one except Jesus has ever kept it perfectly. That might sound like bad news, but it leads us to the best news of all.

Holy and good. “The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good” (Romans 7:12). The problem is not God's law. Our sin is the problem.

A mirror. “By the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). Like a mirror shows a smudge on your face, the law shows the sin in our hearts.

Guilty of all. “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). Breaking one command means we are lawbreakers.

Not by works. “A man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16). Justified means declared right with God.

A tutor. “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). A tutor is a teacher who guides a child. The law leads us to Jesus.

Jesus fulfilled it. Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17).

What the law could not do. “For what the law could not do… God did by sending His own Son” (Romans 8:3). The law could show sin, but it could not take it away.

The great exchange. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Law and grace. “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).

A new heart. God promised, “I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33). The Ten Commandments were written on stone. Through Jesus, God writes His ways on our hearts.

From Sinai to Zion. At Sinai the people trembled and stood far away. Hebrews says believers now come to “Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant” (Hebrews 12:24). Because of Jesus, we can come close to God without fear.

Obeying with joy. Once we trust Jesus, we do not obey to make God love us. We obey because He already loves us. The commandments become a way of saying thank You.

What to do. When you notice that you broke one of God's commands, do not hide. Tell God you are sorry and thank Jesus for keeping the law for you.

Paul's letters explain how the law given at Sinai relates to the gospel of Christ.

The law's goodness. Romans 7:12 affirms that the law is “holy… just and good.” Paul never blames the law for sin. Sin uses the commandment, but the commandment itself is God's good gift.

Revealing sin. Romans 3:20 states that “by the law is the knowledge of sin.” In Romans 7:7 Paul says he would not have known coveting without the tenth commandment.

The whole law. James 2:10 shows that the law is a unity. To break one command is to stand guilty before the Lawgiver.

Justification by faith. Galatians 2:16 repeats three times that no one is justified “by the works of the law.” Justification is a legal declaration that God gives through faith in Christ.

The tutor. In Galatians 3:24 the law is a paidagogos (say: pie-dah-go-GOSE), a household guardian who supervised a child until maturity. The law kept and guided Israel until Christ came.

Fulfillment. In Matthew 5:17 Jesus claims to “fulfill” the law: He obeys it perfectly, completes what it pointed to and teaches its true depth.

Condemned in the flesh. Romans 8:3-4 says God condemned sin in the flesh by sending His Son, “that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.” The Spirit enables the obedience the law required.

New covenant. Jeremiah 31:33 promised a covenant where the law is written on hearts. Hebrews 12:22-24 shows believers coming not to trembling Sinai but to Mount Zion and “Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant.”

Promise and failure. At Sinai the people declared, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do” (Exodus 19:8). They broke that promise soon after (Exodus 32). Wanting to obey was not enough. Paul says no one is made right with God by keeping the law (Romans 3:20).

Grace and truth. John 1:17 contrasts Moses and Christ, not as bad and good, but as preparation and fulfillment: “the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

The law and the cross. Galatians 3:13 says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. The penalty Sinai announced was carried by Christ, so that the blessing promised to Abraham could reach the nations.

Christian obedience. The moral commands of the Decalogue remain the pattern of love for believers, now obeyed not as a means of justification but as the fruit of it (Romans 8:4; 1 John 5:3).

Application. Read Exodus 20:18-21 and Hebrews 12:18-24 side by side. Note what has changed for those who come to God through Christ.

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Complete all sections to finish!

Read each section and answer the questions correctly.