Too often, we’ve been told that the law of God is contrary to the love of God and vice versa. But Sinclair Ferguson in his wonderful book, “The Whole Christ,” brings to our attention how both love and commands found in Scripture are “mutually interdependent.”

Commandments are the railroad tracks on which the life empowered by the love of God poured into the heart by the Holy Spirit runs. Love empowers the engine; law guides the direction. They are mutually interdependent. The notion that love can operate apart from law is a figment of the imagination. It is not only bad theology; it is poor psychology (Sinclair Ferguson, The Whole Christ, p. 168-169).