I have always enjoyed math, in fact, I’d say it was my favorite subject all the way up through high school. There was just always something about the simplicity of figuring out the correct steps that no matter how complex the problem, you’d always come to the same conclusion. There is an innate beauty in mathematical formulas that transcends the chaos of this world and reveals an order that has always demonstrated the creative nature of God.
G.H. Hardy, author of A Mathematician’s Apology, once wrote, “Beauty is the first test; there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics.”
Bertrand Russell, mathematician turned philosopher says it this way- “Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty — a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show.”
I would like to think that these men and others like them recognize this beauty because they caught a glimpse of the hand of God at work in our universe. Now, Jeff began a series about God’s math on Easter Sunday, exploring God’s accounting one week and His addition the next. Today we’re going to continue with this series on God’s math by seeing where God has placed us in His grand equation for salvation. (read Deuteronomy 4:1-8)
As I mentioned before, math has a very precise set of rules. Follow them exactly and you will arrive at the correct result. Skip a step or two or conversely add extra steps and the results can be disastrous. Our role in God’s math works similarly.
Moses here stands before the people and presents them with God’s equation: Listen+Do=Live. Listen to the statutes and the rules that God gave the nation of Israel through Moses. Follow through on what they command. Live in the land that God is giving them - Israel.
We see this choice offered to the people of Israel time and time again throughout scripture. As Joshua’s time as leader drew to a close, he gathered the people up for one last huddle, one last pep rally, and he challenged them- “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” -Joshua 24:14-15
As King David prepared for his death and handed the kingdom over to his son Solomon, he left him with these instructions- “Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn, that the Lord may establish his word that he spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’” -1 Kings 2:2-4
When Elijah called out 450 prophets of Baal to a sacrificial duel, he told the crowd that had gathered to watch- “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” - 1 Kings 18:21
And then in the New Testament, as Jesus taught what became known as the Sermon on the Mount, He spoke these words: “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” -Matthew 7:13-14
This choice does, however, comes with a warning- “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.” -Deuteronomy 4:2
And then God reminds them what happened to the men who followed the Baal of Peor. The event is described in Numbers 25- Israelite men were being seduced by the women of Moab and following their gods. Even as Moses and the judges are making things right before God, an Israelite man named Zimri brought a Midianite woman back to his tent to make her his own but the priest Phinehas killed them both with a spear. His righteous zeal brought an end to the Lord’s anger, though 24,000 had died of a plague because they had strayed from God’s commands.
Time after time, through the era of the judges and into the kings, we see Israel fall away from God, choosing to leave Him out in favor of false gods and the ways of the nations that lived around them. Time after time, God punished His chosen people by allowing a pagan nation to come in and oppress the for a while. Time after time, when Israel repented and turned back to God, He restored them as a nation as they followed Him once again. They kept repeating this cycle because people thought they knew better than God and kept adding or subtracting from His commands- often removing the command to have no other gods so they could enjoy the company of their foreign neighbors.
Possibly the most famous of the people who added and subtracted from God’s law were the Pharisees of Jesus’ time. God had given His people the Law through Moses. The Pharisees took it upon themselves to ensure the Jews obeyed the Law by creating additional rules to build a hedge around the Law. And then to make sure there was no chance that the Law would be broken they put a hedge around their hedges. By the time they had finished making hedges, there were 613 rules for the Jewish people to follow- 365 thou shalt nots and 248 do this’s. Jesus calls them out when He says:
“Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” -Mark 7:6-8
While the Pharisees may have started out with good intentions, they had lost track of the spirit of the Law and made it much more difficult for people to follow God. It’s a trap that’s quite easy to fall into even today.
I was part of a group of friends in Bible college that decided it would be good to get together weekly to share in Bible study, discuss our lives, and hold each other accountable where it was needed. My senior year, we included younger roommates who desired to be a part of something like this. It was a very good experience for all of us, one of the pictures in my office is from the wedding of the first of us to be married. In fact, I know I could call on any of the guys in that original group and they’d do whatever they could to give me a hand even today.
But it was interesting to watch the next year as the younger guys invited friends to join them, some of whom really wanted an emphasis on accountability. So much so that they wrote up a document of things they should and shouldn’t be doing as young men of God and required the group members to sign it and then abide by that list. It was sad to hear from others how this group had developed a superiority complex because they were following their accountability list and others weren’t living up to their standard. They had taken a good thing and turned it into a burden. They had become Pharisees.
So how can we ensure that we are following all the commands of God without adding or subtracting from His commandments? It’s in our nature to spell things out, make our list, and make sure we’re sticking to it. That’s how the Pharisees wound up with the 613 rules to live by. Jesus keeps it simple. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all share the discussion of the greatest commandment. The Pharisees were trying to trick Jesus into making a mistake and losing favor with the people. It’s no surprise that they sent a lawyer to seek out the loophole. Jesus shuts them down with His response. Here’s how Matthew tells it:
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” -Matthew 12:34-40
Two commandments. Love God, love your neighbor. You don’t have to remember 613 rules to live by because, as Matthew tells us, all the Law and Prophets are summed up in these two commandments. Love God, love your neighbor. So how do we do this?
Let’s start with a question. Why wasn’t the greatest commandment to love the Lord your God? Why did they add all that stuff about heart and soul and mind (Mark and Luke include strength)? The prevailing understanding of the human body among the Jewish think tank at that time was that each person was composed of three basic components (the Greeks had added a fourth, which explains why the other two gospels included strength).
Love the Lord your God with all your heart. We may think of our heart simply as the seat of our emotions. The arena of the heart contains powerful emotions, affections and desires. The devotion of our hearts is determined by wherever we find value as our greatest treasure.
Love the Lord your God with all your soul. The soul is the part of us that defines who we are. The essence of the biblical definition of the soul means life, personality, the inner self and our identity. It’s where we make our decisions and choices that ultimately decide our lifestyle and behavior. Think of the soul as the “core you.”
Love the Lord your God with all your mind. The mind is the intellect. The Lord said that if we are ever going to understand the Kingdom, our minds need to be constantly renewed. In Romans 12:2, Paul states that a major part of being transformed into the image and likeness of Jesus requires our minds being renewed.
Love the Lord your God with all your strength. Strength refers to our physical bodies. We are to love Him 100%. To go all-out. To give it your best shot. If we fall down, to pick ourselves back up and keep going forward. To love Him with all our might. Loving Him with all our strength is to love with our resources, our abilities and our time. To fully love Him with what we find our hands to do, our eyes to see, our ears to hear, our feet to go, and our mouths to speak.
In other words, to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength means to love Him in the way we live, in the choices we make, and in the behavior and lifestyle we adopt. T
The things we learn on Sunday become the things we live on Monday through Saturday.
Which takes us to the second commandment- Love your neighbor as yourself. When Jesus said this, the Pharisees who were listening would have been reminded of the commands given in Leviticus 19: “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” -Leviticus 19:17-18
Leading up to this second greatest command, God gave a list of ways for the people to love their neighbor as themselves. This list included things like sharing with the poor and the alien; being compassionate, honest, and just; not taking sides; avoiding gossip or slander; releasing grudges; not risking others’ lives; and never taking private vengeance upon another.
How did the lawyer respond? “Who is my neighbor?” To which Jesus tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan, making the point that our neighbor is anyone around us who may be in need. This is one of the things I love about being a part of this church. There are so many ways I see people loving their neighbor. Sometimes it’s through ministries we create together, such as the clothing giveaways, food pantry, and monthly meals. Even more often, it’s people becoming aware of a need and doing whatever it takes to make sure the need is fixed. On a personal level, I’ve seen it as many of you have checked on Elizabeth to see how she was doing, offer prayer support, and even your time if we needed someone else to sit down with her as she caught up on homework.
I want to share another opportunity we have to show Logansport how we love our neighbors as followers of Christ. God has placed us in a unique position to demonstrate loving our neighbors by bringing to our church family people that speak in three different languages. Many of our brothers and sisters who worship here in the afternoon are not so fluent in English, so they worship in Spanish and Burmese. Jose approached me recently about a circumstance that left a member trying to sort out the legal process. He shared with me that there are times when it feels as if people in positions of authority are trying to take advantage of their lack of skills in English to pull one over on them. He asked me to go with them to make sure they understood what was being said and to ensure that they were being treated fairly. Whether it’s here at the church or out in the community, you may come across a similar situation. I want to encourage you to be an advocate for justice, helping your neighbor who may not be able to help himself at that time.
Love God, love your neighbor. Nothing more, nothing less. Do not add or subtract from the commands God has given you. Jesus made it simple by summarizing all the commands with two. Yet we’re human and God knows that. In fact, He is well aware that we, in ourselves, aren’t even capable of such perfect love. That is why He sent Jesus to pay our price on the cross. When we recognize we can’t do it alone, when we realize we need a savior, God is waiting for us to turn to Him. That’s why we offer an invitation every week. We’re going to stand and sing and as we do so, if you need to begin your walk with Jesus come forward to be baptized into Him.
