The Bible doesn’t give a specific definition for the law of Christ. However, because we know how the law is fulfilled, we can make an educated guess. Galatians 6: 2 states, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
Caring enough to help someone else in their problems is a command from Jesus. It’s saying to look out for the interests of others as well as our own interests. Like all individual commands from the Lord, this can be included in the two-part command that covers all of God’s Law.
A scribe wanted to know what Jesus considered to be the most important commandment. Jesus answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12: 28-31
I believe this, then, to be the law of Christ. It’s a two-parter: love God with all that we are and love others as we love ourselves. Unfortunately, some have twisted this basic law to mean that all we have to do is love. Love is all that matters, they say. That’s true. But their definition of love is one of do-good feelings that obliterate the need for the letter of the Law. I hear this argument most often when one wants to get around having to be obedient to God’s 4th Commandment.
Love for God is more than being motivated by feelings to do something. An all-encompassing, true love for Him expresses not only feelings, but a show of appreciation, respect, obedience, and sacrifice that acknowledges His good and perfect will. In the case of abiding in the law of Christ, that means the letter and spirit of the individual laws (God’s character) are demonstrated in the believer’s actions.
In other words, God’s Ten Commandments are summed up in the law of Christ, and the law of Christ comes across as the Ten Commandments—the first four pointing to God; the last six pointing to mankind. The two-part command is simply a reminder that true love should be the driving force behind all that we do.