Background to passage: to lay the context again, this is Jesus’s last week of his life. He has come into Jerusalem on a donkey to much fanfare and celebration that would be due the messiah. He has also cleansed the temple in rather dramatic fashion. He has be questioned about his authority, about paying taxes, about the resurrection. He has told three parables directed toward the religious leaders. So, everyone is mad at him, the crowds are amazed, but one thing is abundantly clear, this is an all out clash between Jesus and the religious establishment. Now they are trying to draw him into another theological debate to trap him—an expert in the law asks him what is the greatest command.
Matthew 22:33 ESV
And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.
Matthew 22:34 ESV
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.
Matthew 22:35 ESV
And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.
Matthew 22:36 ESV
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
Matthew 22:37 ESV
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.
Matthew 22:38 ESV
This is the great and first commandment.
Matthew 22:39 ESV
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Matthew 22:40 ESV
On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Opening illustration: Most of you have been to the gym or know someone who works out a lot, not just to stay healthy, but to get ripped and strong. He eats on the right stuff, takes all the supplements for lean muscle mass building, has a precise routine to work out every muscle group on specific days and times, constantly measuring and calculating, but never interacts with anyone else. Headphones on, playlist going, man on a mission, oblivious to everyone and everything else.
He doesn’t spot anyone. He doesn’t encourage anyone. He doesn’t socialize with anyone. He doesn’t help anyone. I realize that working out is about your own body, but most of the time it involves others. This guy had the loving himself down pat, but he missed the loving others.
Main thought:
1) Love God (v. 37)
Matthew 22:37 ESV
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.
1) Love God (v. 37)
Explanation: I think this is one of those truths in the bible that we are so familiar with that it often loses it’s meaning. Jesus drew these two scriptures, both of which were well known, out of Deut and Lev, but may have been the first rabbi to put them together in such fashion. This first command was what was known as the Shema and would have been recited daily by all Jewish families.
The Jews would not have separated heart, soul, and mind like we might try to; it would have equated or summarized the entire being or core being or fullness of an individual’s life. The command to love in this context would have meant to love someone based on their value, to have affection or a special devotion to; to love something or someone more than one’s own life.
In relationship to God this would have meant deep affection for the value and worth of the God of the Universe and the God that had a relationship with his chosen people. It would have also meant absolute allegiance to him. It would have meant including him in every decision made. It would have included worship, as well as a willingness to do all things commanded by the law joyfully and for the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 16:22 ESV
If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!
Illustration:
Application: the meaning of this would have been the same for us. An affection for God. An allegiance to God. A joyful obedience to God. An incorporation of God into every aspect of life. Maybe some questions or areas of life will help us evaluate:
Emotions and feelings — all through scripture we seek pictures, descriptions, examples, commands, of proper desires toward God. Do we long for him as a deer looks for water in a dry and thirsty land? Do we sell all that we have for the joy of a pearl to gain this one pearl of greatest price? Do you rejoice in the Lord in all things, especially as it relates to his value and your relationship? Only you can know the answers.
Priorities and Allegiance — Paul said he counted all things loss for the privilege of knowing Christ. Do you? Are you concerned about God’s will for your life enough that you will prioritize it over all things? Do you regularly ask yourself what God would have you do with any particular decision? Where does your faith rank in the priorities of your life? Are the disciplines of the Christian life present in you?
Obedience — Jesus said, “if you love me, keep my commandments.” He also said that if you keep his commandments you will abide in his love. He said blessed all the ones that hear the word and keep it. Also, he told Peter, “if you love me, feed my sheep.” We know that we know him if we keep his commandments according to 1 John 2:3, 5:2-3, 2 John 1:6. One thing to remember is that the Lord is always concerned about the heart more than the behavior. So with obedience, we always ask the question about motivation: why are we being obedient?
Willing to pay the greatest price — Phil 1:20, we most often think about this idea in a missionary or persecution context, but even in our own generally safe and soft context we can still ask the question about what we value most. This is the watershed truth behind the price we are willing to pay for something. Whether it's cars, houses, or golf clubs, they are worth what people are willing to pay. We truly see what Jesus is worth to us when times get hard, people become mean or vindictive, family or other relationships are on the line, what is he really worth to you.
This is the kind of love that will fuel Sharing the HOPE of Jesus with All People. If we don’t have it, we must cultivate it. This is what the HOPE discipleship strategy is about.
2) Love Others (v. 39)
Matthew 22:39 ESV
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
2) Love Others (v. 39)
Explanation: I wanted this message to tie into Mother’s Day, but as I prepared, studied, and prayed, it really went toward all of us believers. I felt like the love of a mother is one of the best consistent human examples of this love for others because of the sacrifice they constantly make for their families. However, this command is so much broader. The Jews would have interpreted it to mean love for their fellow observant Jews, not non-practicing Jews, or non-Jews period.
The way that Jesus meant it was as broad as it could be — actual neighbors, friends, family, practicing faithful, atheists and Muslims, those that persecute or malign, even enemies. Jesus wants believers to see other people like he does — image bearers of God, inherently valuable, objects of God’s love and compassion. He asks believers to think of and treat others as such.
Argumentation:
Illustration: We will be installing water filtration systems, working with schools, providing medical treatment, and sharing the gospel in Peru in July, Circles sees their neighbors as people trapped in cycles of poverty and abuse, First Choice Women’s Center sees their neighbors that those with unplanned pregnancies in danger of choosing abortion, TIN sees its neighbors as young men without fathers present in their lives, Harmony House sees their neighbors as women who need shelter from abuse, last week Steve and Bill saw their neighbor as someone who needed help moving to an assisted living facility. Sam and Cindy see their neighbors as hundreds of hungry people each week, Some see their neighbors as foster children in need of a home, some see their neighbor as a an actual neighbor with a fallen tree in the yard.
Application: Our culture and society is really good about putting labels on people in order to treat them differently. Sometimes we put labels on ourselves. Sometimes to treat people better or worse, but different.
I kind of left this one out of the previous list because it so directly applies. If you are loving God the best of your ability, you will love others. You will value the things that he values. You will love the things that he loves. You will be the conduit by which God pours out his love in every area of life. Like loving God, if you love people it will show.
You will sacrifice for them. You will lay aside your agenda for them. You will put their needs above yours. You will open your homes and your wallets for them. You will forgive them when they haven’t asked. You will serve them with what they need.
This kind of love requires humility. This kind of love is unconditional. This is the kind of love that will Share the HOPE of Jesus with All People. So, how about your life? Do you see places that you are loving a “neighbor”? Are you involved in a ministry here at Western Heights that is serving our neighbors?
Closing illustration: Corrie Ten Boom worked against the Nazis in World War Two hiding Jews in her home. When she was caught, she was sent to a concentration camp where she was stripped of her dignity, saw her father and her sister (Betsie) die, and suffered more at the hands of other people than we could possibly imagine. This is precisely why her encounter with forgiveness is so memorable:
“It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there – the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain-blanched face.
He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. ‘How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein.’ He said. ‘To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!’
His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.
Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.
I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness.
As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.
And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on his. When he tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.”
Recap
