Love is the Language of Law

Dr. Bruce Waltke points out in his NICOT commentary on Proverbs that "'love' is the language of law." The first commandment is one of loving God with all that we are, and therefore there cannot be any sharp dichotomy between what is considered "legal" and what is considered "familial" anymore than we can do some kind of philosophical lobodomy to divide between "rational" and "emotional" in the human experience, Immanuel Kant notwithstanding. Waltke goes on, quoting one Mr. D. Hillers: "To say then that 'love the Lord your God' is ultimately legal language is not to take it out of the realm of emotion but only to say that the legal concept shapes the emotional term. To love is to test one's sincere affections on the covenant Lord and to give this affection its expresion in loyal service." In other words, law does not fight against love, rather law is the direction, the shape that love takes in the world.