For this - "This" which follows is the sum of the laws. "This" is to regulate us in our conduct toward our neighbor. The word "this" here stands opposed to "that" in Romans 13:11. This law of love would prompt us to seek our neighbor's good; "that" fact, that our salvation is near, would prompt us to be active and faithful in the discharge of all the duties we owe to him.

Thou shalt not commit adultery - All the commands which follow are designed as an illustration of the duty of loving our neighbor; see these commands considered in the notes at Matthew 19:18-19. The apostle has not enumerated "all" the commands of the second table. He has shown generally what they required. The command to honor our parents he has omitted. The reason might have been that it was not so immediately to his purpose when discoursing of love to a "neighbor" - a word which does not immediately suggest the idea of near relatives. The expression, "Thou shalt not bear false witness," is rejected by the best critics as of doubtful authority, but it does not materially affect the spirit of the passage. It is missing in many manuscripts and in the Syriac version.

If there be any other commandment - The law respecting parents; or if there be any duty which does not seem to be "specified" by these laws, it is implied in the command to love our neighbor as ourselves.

It is briefly comprehended - Greek, It may be reduced to "this head;" or it is summed up in this.

In this saying - This word, or command,

Thou shalt love ... - This is found in Leviticus 19:18. See it considered in the notes at Matthew 19:19. If this command were fulfilled, it would prevent all fraud, injustice, oppression, falsehood, adultery, murder, theft, and covetousness. It is the same as our Saviour's golden rule. And if every man would do to others as he would wish them to do to him, all the design of the Law would be at once fulfilled.

For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery - He that loves another will not deprive him of his wife, of his life, of his property, of his good name; and will not even permit a desire to enter into his heart which would lead him to wish to possess any thing that is the property of another: for the law - the sacred Scripture, has said: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

It is remarkable that ου ψευδομαρτυρησεις, thou shalt not bear false witness, is wanting here in ABDEFG, and several other MSS. Griesbach has left it out of the text. It is wanting also in the Syriac, and in several of the primitive fathers. The generality of the best critics think it a spurious reading.

For this, thou shalt not commit adultery,.... The apostle here reckons up the several laws of the second table, with this view, that it might appear that so far as a man loves his neighbour, whether more near or distantly related, he fulfils the law, or acts according to it. He omits the first of these, the fifth commandment, either because he had urged this before, so far as it may be thought to regard magistrates; or because, according to the division of the Jews, who reckon five commands to each table, this belonged to the first: and he puts the seventh before the sixth, which is of no great moment; the order of things being frequently changed in the Scripture, and which is often done by Jewish writers, in alleging and citing passages of Scripture; and with whom this is a maxim, , "that there is no first nor last in the law" (c); that is, it is of no importance which stands first or last in it: it follows,

thou shall not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet; which are the sixth, eighth, ninth, and tenth commands of the decalogue, Exodus 20:13,

and if there be any other commandment; of God, respecting the neighbour, either in the decalogue, as there was the fifth, Exodus 20:12, or elsewhere, the apostle repeating this by memory:

it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself; see Leviticus 19:18; this is the summary and epitome of them; so Christ reduces the laws of the first table to the head of love to God, and those of the second to the head of love to the neighbour, Matthew 22:37, as the apostle does here, and in Galatians 5:14, and the Apostle James, in James 2:8.

(c) T. Bab. Pesachim, fol. 6. 2.

Thou shalt not commit adultery, etc.

Omit thou shalt not bear false witness. The seventh commandment precedes the sixth, as in Mark 10:19; Luke 18:20; James 2:11.

It is briefly comprehended (ἀνακεφαλαιοῦται)

Only here and Ephesians 1:10. Rev., it is summed up. Ἁνά has the force of again in the sense of recapitulation. Compare Leviticus 19:18. The law is normally a unit in which there is no real separation between the commandments. "Summed up in one word." The verb is compounded, not with κεφαλή head, but with its derivative κεφάλαιον the main point.

Namely thou shalt love, etc. (ἐν τῷ ἀγαπήσεις)

The Greek idiom is, it is summed up in the thou shalt love, the whole commandment being taken as a substantive with the definite article.

Neighbor (τὸν πλησίον)

See on Matthew 5:43.

For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is {h} briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

(h) For the whole law commands nothing else but that we love God and our neighbour. But seeing that Paul speaks here of the duties we owe one to another, we must restrain this word law to the second table of the ten commandments.

13:9 It is briefly comprehended. It is summed up in the single sentence.

In this saying. See Le 19:18,34.

Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The several laws that flow from love are gathered up in this saying as a fountain head. See notes on Mt 5:43 22:39.

13:9 If there be any other - More particular. Commandment - Toward our neighbour; as there are many in the law. It is summed up in this - So that if you was not thinking of it, yet if your heart was full of love, you would fulfil it.

9. For this, &c.-better thus: "For the [commandments], Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet, and whatever other commandment [there may be], it is summed up," &c. (The clause, "Thou shalt not bear false witness," is wanting in all the most ancient manuscripts). The apostle refers here only to the second table of the law, as love to our neighbor is what he is treating of.

13:8-10 Christians must avoid useless expense, and be careful not to contract any debts they have not the power to discharge. They are also to stand aloof from all venturesome speculations and rash engagements, and whatever may expose them to the danger of not rendering to all their due. Do not keep in any one's debt. Give every one his own. Do not spend that on yourselves, which you owe to others. But many who are very sensible of the trouble, think little of the sin, of being in debt. Love to others includes all the duties of the second table. The last five of the ten commandments are all summed up in this royal law, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; with the same sincerity that thou lovest thyself, though not in the same measure and degree. He that loves his neighbour as himself, will desire the welfare of his neighbour. On this is built that golden rule, of doing as we would be done by. Love is a living, active principle of obedience to the whole law. Let us not only avoid injuries to the persons, connexions, property, and characters of men; but do no kind or degree of evil to any man, and study to be useful in every station of life.