“Love: The Hinge of God’s Word”
TEXT
Matthew 22:35-40 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, [36] Master, which is the great commandment in the law? [37] Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. [38] This is the first and great commandment. [39] And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. [40] On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Introduction
A. Much has been said about love, but if you search the horizon, you will discover that most of the things written about love are either condensed or gibberish.
1. In the most popular venues, love is seldom dealt with in any degree of seriousness.
2. Modern humor mocks marriage, while husbands and wives glorify every conceivable breech of virtue, such as sexual immorality and profane and obscene values.
3. Matthew 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
B. In today’s world, love is usually very poorly defined.
1. Love often has a false definition in relationships between couples. People think they are in love, but they can’t explain it.
2. There is a great deal of confusion and cross-referencing of the terms LOVE, ROMANCE, INFATUATION, AFFECTION, TENDERNESS and so forth. Love may include romance, infatuation, affection and tenderness. However, these elements may be present without any love, or even if those elements are not present, it could still be love.
3. A lot of people will tell you that they are in love, or that they have been in love, but there is a huge difference between one person’s definition of love and another’s.
C. The modern church has presented a false definition of love.
1. From the pulpit, preaching against sin and the truth of God’s word is now called judging and preaching without love. The so-called preacher who smiles all the time and tells you what you want to hear to appease your itching ears and fill his pocketbook is falsely labeled a man of love. If you love you someone, you’ll tell them the truth.
D. Our culture, for the most part, has a false definition of love, with a soap opera mentality:
1. We live out THE DAYS OF OUR LIVES as THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS realiz-ing that we only have ONE LIFE TO LIVE, and AS THE WORLD TURNS we want to search for the GUIDING LIGHT that will keep us from falling in love at a GENERAL HOSPITAL in SANTA BARBARA . . .
2. The bizarre definitions of “love” portrayed to millions on the daily soap operas are no laughing matter. Like heat at an ice cream stand, these daytime dramas accelerate the decay at the core of our cultural values.
E. What is Love?
1. 1 Cor. 13:4-8, 13 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, [5] Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; [6] Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; [7] Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. [8] Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away… [13]And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
2. 1 John 4:8 God is love.
3. Love is noble and idealistic. Love is the highest of all the virtues.
a. Paul classified faith, hope and love as the highest virtues, and concluded that love was the highest of the three.
4. Love is fascinating inasmuch that it draws a person into an expression of caring and concern for another.
a. An entirely selfish person cannot love.
5. Love requires the giving of ones’ self to another.
a. It involves an element of self-depletion, self-exhaustion.
b. Love is empathic. It puts itself in someone else’s shoes. Love seeks to understand.
c. Love cares. It does not pre-judge, nor does it pass sentences. Love does not jump to conclusions. Love does not throw down ultimatums. Love does not declare war on its object. Love is tender, it is kind, it is forgiving.
6. Love is essential to the success of any relationship.
a. It is the force that holds two people together while they sort out their differences.
b. Love is the C-clamp and it is the glue. If you love, you will be forced to be patient while the glue dries.
c. Love will not always hold things together, but if anything can hold it together, love will. Love is the last and best chance at sealing a relationship.
7. Love can build a bridge across great divides. Love is more powerful than any other force, because love stands for the best interest.
8. Love will only do good. Love will do no evil.
9. Love is the most irresistible force known to humanity.
a. Loving an adversary is like pouring fiery coals on their resistance. They must eventually respond in some way.
b. Love does only good and thereby creates a debt of gratitude.
c. Love dwells where dislike would never go.
d. Love penetrates hostile environments.
e. Love reaches out.
f. Love does favors that will never be repaid.
g. Love shows appreciation for things that go unnoticed.
h. Love expects nothing in return.
i. Love’s reward is to see others prosper.
j. Love seeks not its own, but the good of others.
k. Love makes a man build up his wife.
l. A loving man nourishes his wife, as a loving woman nourishes her husband.
m. Love compels a preacher back to the pulpit even though his message has been rejected some of the very people he preaches to.
n. Love compels a mother to cook dinner even though they complained about the last meal.
o. Love compels a father to go to work even though hostile forces are working against him.
p. Love compelled Christ to die for the world.
I. The 1st Commandment
A. In the beginning of Matthew 22, the Pharisees had come to catch Jesus in His words in verse 13. Then in verse 18, the Sadducees came to entangle Him in His teaching of the resurrection. Now this lawyer comes with the disputed question as to which was the greatest of the commandments. Even though we despise there motives, we are certainly thankful for their questions, for each one gives the Savior an opportunity to emphasize biblical truths which we all need to know.
B. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. [38] This is the first and great commandment.”
1. The heart pertains to all inward affections.
2. The soul pertains to all consciousness.
3. The mind pertains to all thoughts.
C. The manner in which God must be loved claims total allegiance. If He is not Lord of all, He’s not Lord at all.
D. Rev. 2:4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
II. The 2nd Commandment
A. [39] And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
B. God requires us to love one another. We have no option.
C. It is very easy for people to say they love the Lord with all their heart, soul, and mind; however, the second Commandment will serve as the proof. The 2nd commandment is actually the proof of whether the 1st is kept.
1. If a person truly loves the Lord, will he slander his neighbor?
2. If they see their neighbor in need and as John the Beloved said “And shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the Love of God in him?” (1 Jn. 3:17)
D. John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. [35] By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
E. John 15:17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.
F. Who is my neighbor?
1. “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus answered that question by giving the parable of the Good Samaritan.
a. Luke 10:30-35 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. [31] And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. [32] And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. [33] But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, [34] And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. [35] And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.
2. Love must be demonstrated to people who may be unlovely and unworthy:
a. God’s concept of “neighbor” was broad, extending to the poor, the widows, and the fatherless. The Pharisees tried to narrow the idea, limiting the command to those who were there peers. Jesus would not allow it then, and He will not allow it now.
b. James 1:27 (KJV) Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
3. 1 Cor. 13:1-3 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. [2] And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. [3] And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
a. You can be religious. You can go to church. You can sing in the choir. You can teach a Sunday School class.
b. But if you don’t live by love, you are a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
c. You can drive a nice car and live in a nice house but if you don’t love others, your life is a selfish disaster just waiting to happen.
d. But if you are a master at love, you will be happy even if life dishes you one trial after another.
G. Love your enemies.
1. Matthew 5:43-47 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. [44] But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; [45] That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. [46] For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? [47] And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
H. 1 John 3:11, 14, 16-18 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another… [14] We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death… [16] Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. [17] But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? [18] My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
I. 1 John 4:20-21 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? [21] And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
III. Love Is The Hinge Of God’s Word
A. [40] On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
B. The law of Moses had been so dissected and added to, that the Scribes and Pharisees claimed that there were now 614 Commandments, with 249 being affirmative commandments, and 365 being negative commandments.
1. The religious leadership of Israel had become bogged down in the letter of the Law, while altogether missing the Spirit of the Law.
2. They considered breaking some of these commandments to be grievous, while others were of little consequence.
3. James speaks of this in 2:10: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”
C. Many people think that Jesus invented these two commandments but he didn’t. You can find them in the Old Testament, in Deut. 6:4, and Leviticus 19:18.
D. Jesus sums up the whole law in one word: LOVE.
E. The two commandments, “Love the Lord your God” and “Love your neighbor as yourself” encompass all the Ten Commandments.
1. The first four commands guide our relation to God; the last six deal with our relation to man.
2. Jesus says, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (v 40).
3. Romans 13:8-10 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. [9] 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 briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. [10] Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
F. If I Love God, I’ll live For Him.
1. Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
2. John 14:15, 21, 23 If ye love me, keep my commandments... [21] He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him… [23] … If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
3. 1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
4. No Creed But Christ, No Law But Love.
Closing:
G. Every one of us will eventually pass from this life. When we are gone, everything we have accumulated will be lost. We can’t take houses, land, cars, furniture, collections, art, money, or anything else. Most of the things we have stored in our attics and garages will probably be thrown away. Our clothes will be given away. Nobody will listen to our CDs or read our books.
H. It won’t take long until everything we ever were is gone and forgotten - with one exception. We will continue to live in the hearts of those we have loved. If we have loved God, we will find ourselves forever in His glory. And if we have loved others, we will be remembered fondly forever by those we have loved. If we have failed to love, we leave nothing behind.
