Duty Toward Neighbor in the 1928 BCP Catechism

Duty Toward Neighbor in the 1928 BCP Catechism is the second of the two duties the Catechism draws from the Ten Commandments. It gives practical shape to love of neighbor in family, civil society, speech, work, conduct, and inward desire. The answer belongs to instruction for baptized persons preparing for Confirmation, and is followed immediately by a reminder that obedience requires God's grace and prayer.

The Catechism's answer

After the Commandments and its account of duty toward God, the Catechism asks, “What is thy duty towards thy Neighbour?” The answer is:

My duty towards my Neighbour is To love him as myself, and to do to all men as I would they should do unto me: To love, honour, and succour my father and mother: To honour and obey the civil authority: To submit myself to all my governors, teachers, spiritual pastors and masters: To order myself lowly and reverently to all my betters: To hurt nobody by word or deed: To be true and just in all my dealings: To bear no malice nor hatred in my heart: To keep my hands from picking and stealing, and my tongue from evil speaking, lying, and slandering: To keep my body in temperance, soberness, and chastity: Not to covet nor desire other men's goods; But to learn and labour truly to get mine own living, And to do my duty in that state of life unto which it shall please God to call me.

The opening joins the command to love the neighbor as oneself (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:39) to the Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12). “Succour” means to help or support: the answer therefore asks for active care of parents as well as respect. Its references to “betters,” masters, and submission reflect the social language of its inherited catechetical setting; they should be read in light of the opening rule of love owed to all, not as permission to injure or exploit anyone.

The remaining clauses reach beyond outward compliance. The prohibitions of hurt and malice connect the sixth commandment with both deeds and inward anger (compare Matthew 5:21–22); truth in dealings and the rejection of slander give the ninth commandment social reach. Chastity and temperance concern the body, while the rejection of covetousness concerns desire. Earning a living honestly and carrying out one's calling give positive expression to duties that also prohibit theft and envy. The list connects the later Commandments to everyday relations without reducing neighbor-love to a checklist.

Scripture and the Communion service

The Communion service places Jesus' twofold summary of the law before the congregation:

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

The Catechism's two duties belong together: love of God is not displaced by concern for others, and the second commandment gives that concern its place in the law. Luke 10:25–37 presses the question of who is a neighbor through the Samaritan's mercy to an injured stranger. The Communion Offertory applies the test of love to material need:

Whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

The Eucharistic invitation also makes charity toward neighbors part of preparation for receiving the sacrament, alongside repentance and faith:

YE who do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins, and are in love and charity with your neighbours, and intend to lead a new life, following the commandments of God, and walking from henceforth in his holy ways; Draw near with faith, and take this holy Sacrament to your comfort; and make your humble confession to Almighty God, devoutly kneeling.

The longer Communion exhortation spells out what reconciliation can require where one has injured another:

And if ye shall perceive your offences to be such as are not only against God, but also against your neighbours; then ye shall reconcile yourselves unto them; being ready to make restitution and satisfaction, according to the uttermost of your powers, for all injuries and wrongs done by you to any other; and being likewise ready to forgive others who have offended you, as ye would have forgiveness of your offences at God's hand

This exhortation joins repentance to restitution and forgiveness. It gives the Catechism's call to justice a liturgical setting: examination of conscience is directed toward mending relationships, not only naming private faults.

Grace, repentance, and catechetical teaching

The Catechism does not leave the pupil relying on moral effort alone. Immediately after the two duties the catechist says:

My good Child, know this; that thou art not able to do these things of thyself, nor to walk in the Commandments of God, and to serve him, without his special grace; which thou must learn at all times to call for by diligent prayer. Let me hear, therefore, if thou canst say the Lord's Prayer.

The ensuing Lord's Prayer joins the request for forgiveness to forgiving others. Asked what the prayer seeks, the pupil begins:

I desire my Lord God, our heavenly Father, who is the giver of all goodness, to send his grace unto me, and to all people; that we may worship him, serve him, and obey him, as we ought to do.

Prayer for grace is thus offered for “all people,” not the pupil alone. The connection encourages examination of failures in charity, repentance, and reliance on divine mercy, rather than treating the answer as evidence of self-sufficiency.

Two earlier American Episcopal teachers illustrate how the inherited obligations were used in preparation for Confirmation. John Henry Hobart's 1819 manual turns them into a personal resolution:

I do resolve, by God's grace, on all occasions, to observe the dictates of truth and justice; to love, honour and obey my parents; to be submissive to all those whom God in his providence hath set over me; to discharge all my duties to my relations, my friends, and my fellow men; at all times seeking to do unto them as I should wish that they in like circumstances should do unto me.

Hobart's resolution moves from family and social obligations to the Golden Rule, explicitly considering what one would wish in the other person's circumstances. His repeated appeal to God's grace relates this moral effort to prayer. James DeKoven's 1867 confirmation catechism gives a concrete account of repentance when a neighbor has been wronged:

Making amends and restoration for every thing in which we have done wrong to our neighbours.

DeKoven's emphasis on restitution develops the Catechism's demand for justice: repentance involves seeking to repair harm as well as acknowledging it. These works predate the 1928 book and illustrate related Anglican instruction; they are not official commentaries on that edition.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Catechism (1928 BCP)
• Offices of Instruction (1928 BCP)
• Confirmation (1928 BCP)
• Ten Commandments in the 1928 BCP Catechism

External Links

• The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: A Catechism