Greatest Commandment Series David Owens
Sermon #4: “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself” 10.12.03
Text: Matthew 22:34-40
Introduction:
A. Four Sundays ago I began the sermon with these words: “This is perhaps the most important sermon I will ever preach.”
1. I was serious when I said that.
2. These verses we have been studying are the most important ones as stated by Jesus.
3. Today’s sermon is the final one in this four-part series on the Greatest Commandment.
B. Let’s review for just a minute before we continue in our investigation of this very important subject.
1. In the first sermon we asked ourselves the question: Do we really love God?
a. After all, if loving God is the most important thing of all, then what does it mean to love God?
b. Do we really love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength?
c. We talked about some signs that we love God, like: a desire for God, a desire to please God, a love for others, and a heart of gratitude.
d. Next we talked about how to learn to love God more.
e. I suggested that we need to slow down, give ourselves to spiritual things, and engage God in every part of our lives
2. In the second sermon, we came back to these verses on loving God and discussed the fact that loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength means that we love God exclusively, totally, and practically.
3. I know that that part of the command is daunting, but we must not be discouraged by the high calling of loving God with our all.
a. That is our target, and God will help us as we reach toward it.
4. Last week we started to work on the second greatest commandment which is a completion of the first – you must love our neighbor as yourself.
a. I suggested that we cannot fulfill the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself without first being able to love yourself.
b. God does want us to love ourselves.
c. I pointed out that self-love and selfishness are not the same thing.
d. I gave us three reasons to love ourselves: because we are made in God’s image, because God loves us, and because God believes in us.
e. Then, I finished up with a couple of practical suggestions for learning to love yourself.
5. So, then, what is your calling? To love God, love yourself, and then love your neighbor as yourself.
6. Let’s turn our attention to the last part – loving your neighbor as yourself.
C. One of the promising things about this commandment is the fact that it is the perfect guide for fulfilling the law of God.
1. Look at Matthew 22:40, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
2. Romans 13:8-10: “8Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. 9The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 10Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
3. Galatians 5:13-14, “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
4. James 2:8, “If you keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right.”
5. Don’t you think that is very encouraging? If we can concentrate on getting this command in place, then it will guide us in fulfilling all of God’s other commands.
6. If we will get this one right, then we will be doing right!
How to Love Your Neighbor as Yourself
A. I want to give us two handles to try to help us to learn to love others as we love ourselves.
1. Let me tell you what they are, and then let me elaborate on each.
2. The two principles that will guide us are: The Golden Rule and The Jesus Rule.
I. The Golden Rule
A. In the old Soviet Union there were very few laws about factories polluting the water.
1. That was with good reason, because one of the few laws they did have was that any factory which dumped chemicals back into the river had to do so upstream from its own intake pipes.
2. In other words, whatever the factory dumped in the water was going to come right back into it before it went any further down stream.
3. It was amazing how much this simple rule did to cause factories to clean up their own pollutants.
B. What would happen if we knew that everything we put out would come back to us?
1. We often say, “What goes around, comes around,” but what if it was a rule, not just a saying?
2. What if we knew that every harmful word or deed would be rebounded upon us immediately?
3. Wouldn’t that change the way we act?
C. Jesus gives us a positive version of this rule to help us to act properly toward others.
1. Matthew 7:12 reads, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.”
2. Many religions, including Buddhism and Confusionism, have stated a similar principle, but they usually do so negatively.
3. Most notably is the story of an event that took place in 20 B.C.
a. That is around 50 years prior to Jesus giving the golden rule in the Sermon on the Mount.
b. The tale is told of a Gentile who approached Rabbi Hillel and said, “I will convert to Judaism if you can teach me the entire law while standing on one foot.”
c. Rabbi Hillel stood on one foot and said, “Do not do to your fellow what you hate to have done to you. This is the whole law; the rest is explanation.”
4. But notice that when you state the principle in a negative, rather than positive way, you can fulfill it simply by doing nothing.
5. If I lock myself up in the house and never speak to another person I have fulfilled Hillel’s command, “Do not do to your fellow what you hate to have done to you.”
6. Jesus on the other hand, teaches that to fulfill our Father’s wishes, we must do. We must be active. We must seek out good and do it.
7. Jesus says, “Do to others what you would have them do to you.”
8. Here’s the Message’s version of Matt. 7:12, “Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get.”
D. The Golden Rule, just like the Greatest Commandment, requires that we first love ourselves.
1. It all begins with us having a good sense of what is best for us.
2. If we love ourselves then we know how we and others should treat us.
3. Those who properly love themselves know that they wanted to be treated with love, respect, kindness, understanding, forgiveness, patience, and encouragement.
4. When Paul commanded Husbands to love their wives, he commanded them to love their wives as their own bodies. “After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it.” (Eph. 5:29)
5. Most of us know how to take care of our bodies and how to respond to the needs of our bodies.
6. When our stomach’s cry out for food, we find something to eat. When our bodies are dirty, we take a shower.
7. So, Husbands should love their wives like their bodies, take them out to eat and give them a bath.
8. No, what Paul is saying is that a Husband should be as intent on caring for the needs of his wife as he is in taking care of the needs of his own body.
E. So, regardless of the situation, the question that will always work as a guide for our words and actions is: “Is this how I want to be treated?”
1. I need to learn to treat others just like I want to be treated.
2. Next time you are about to do or say something to your husband or wife, ask: “Would I want this said or done to me in the way I am about to say it?”
3. Next time you are about to do or say something to your child, ask: “Would I want this said or done to me in the way I am about to say it?”
4. Next time you are about to do or say something to your co-worker, ask: “Would I want this said or done to me in the way I am about to say it?”
5. Next time you are about to do or say something to your brother or sister in Christ, ask: “Would I want this said or done to me in the way I am about to say it?”
6. Next time you are about to do or say something to your neighbor, ask: “Would I want this said or done to me in the way I am about to say it?”
F. That’s how to love your neighbor as yourself.
II. The Jesus Rule: Treat People as If they are Jesus
A. The story is told of an old monastery that had fallen on hard times.
1. It was once a great order, but persecution and secularism had taken their toll.
2. There were only 5 old monks left in a decaying structure.
3. In the woods surrounding the monastery there was a little hut that had a rabbi from a nearby town.
4. The lead monk decided to visit the rabbi to get his advice on saving the monastery.
5. The rabbi welcomed the monk, but when the monk explained the purpose of his visit, the rabbi could only commiserate with him.
6. The rabbi said that the spirit had gone out of his people, and no one comes to the synagogue anymore.
7. The monk concluded, “So, I guess there is no piece of advice you can give me that will save my dying order?
8. “No, I am sorry,” the rabbi said, “I have no advice to give. The only thing I can tell you is that the Messiah is one of you.”
9. When the monk returned to the monks, they wanted to know if the rabbi had given them any helpful suggestions.
10. The monk said that the only thing he could give was something cryptic – that the Messiah is one of us, but I don’t know what he meant.
11. In the days and weeks that followed, the old monks pondered the words of the rabbi.
12. Could the Messiah really be one of them?
13. As they each contemplated this, they began to treat one another with extraordinary love and respect on the off chance that one among them was the Messiah, and on the off chance that one of them was the Messiah, they began to treat themselves with extraordinary love and respect.
14. As you might predict, the love they showed for themselves and for each other began to draw others to the monastery and many joined their efforts and the monastery was saved from destruction and extinction.
B. What do you think would change about the way we loved others if we began to view each person that we met as Jesus?
1. All of us would jump at the chance to serve Jesus directly and personally.
2. And as you probably know from Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus said that what we do or don’t do for others, we do or don’t do for him.
3. So, in that sense, every person we meet is Jesus.
4. Every person in our home is Jesus.
5. Every person in this church, and at our school and our workplace is Jesus.
6. So, every time we are about to do or say anything to someone, we need to picture saying or doing it to Jesus.
7. I truly believe that that will make a profound difference, don’t you?
Conclusion:
A. “Jesus, Son of God, Savior and Lord, we’ve got a question for you: What is the greatest command?”
1. You know what his answer was, don’t you…after 4 weeks addressing it, you probably have it memorized, right?
2. Jesus said, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’ (and with all your strength). This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matt. 22:37-40)
3. There are no more wonderful commands than those. I’m so glad that love is the primary thing that God demands – aren’t you?
4. There are no more challenging commands than those: Love God with your whole self, and love your neighbor as yourself.
B. How can we love people as God has commanded?
1. Follow the Golden Rule – treat others as you want to be treated.
2. Follow the Jesus Rule – treat everyone as if they are Jesus, because they are Jesus.
C. I know that living this way is not easy, but I know that we can do it.
1. I know we can do it because God wants us to do it. What God wants done can be done by his power.
2. We cannot live this way without God’s help. But the good news is that with God’s help we can love God with our whole selves and we can love others as ourselves.
3. And with God’s help we will love like God loves!!! Isn’t that an exciting possibility?
4. God wants to make the world a better place, this church a better place, and your home a better place by helping you obey the greatest commandments. Please let him do it!!!
