Put Into Practice - Love - Part 2
Matthew 22:36-40
Pastor Don Jones
Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 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.
Loving God
We began our look last week with the first part of the great command. When asked what the greatest command was Jesus said,
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.
I hope you did not go home hoping that so and so heard the message. Each one of these messages is directed at you. As Jesus was taking about dealing with others He said,
Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother¡s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother¡s eye.
As I said last week this command from Jesus begins with "you love the Lord." We are not allowed to point our finger at others but we must direct out attention inward. Each of us is responsible only for ourselves. When we one day stand before Jesus He won’t ask you about anyone else but you. You are to give account of your actions.
I also hoped you took the time to ask yourself if you were worshipping the Lord with all you are and all you have. If you haven’t taken the time, then you will be given the opportunity to rededicate your life at the end of the service. If you are holding something back, give it to the Lord. We are to give all of our life to Him.
What’s the first step? We must first love and receive His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the way, the only way to a relationship with the Father, Almighty God. He said in John 14:6,
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Through Christ and Him alone we love God by receiving the gift of His Son and thereby obey the first part of the Great Commandment. How can you possible say you love God and reject His Son? You can’t, it is not possible. If you have not demonstrated your love for God by receiving His Son I urge you to do so today.
There will be a time of decision at the end of the service today and I urge you to make that decision public. Why? Jesus always called His disciples openly and publicly. There are no secret agent Christians.
How are we to love the Lord our God after we receive His Son? We are to love God with all we are and all we have. This is what is meant by heart, soul, and mind. All of it, everything is His. We are to sacrifice our desires, our will, and our lives before Him to do with as He pleases through Jesus. He is to be absolute first in our lives.
Do you remember when you first loved another person? I do. I couldn’t wait to spend time with her. I was completely selfish when it came to her time. I wanted to spend ever moment I had to be with her. When I was with her I forgot about everything else. I was in a daze where she was the only person in the world. I didn’t even care if we talked. I just wanted to be in her presence. I was in love and I had it bad.
Remarkably, I still want her to get home as fast as she can to be with me. Just to have her near still calms my mind and spirit. Long ago the oogy feelings went away. I made a conscious choice that from that day forward she was to be the only one.
Our love for God must be a conscious choice. It is a commitment forever. But there also needs to be an intense desire to be with Him. There needs to be passion. We need to love God passionately, putting everyone and everything aside and doing what He desires. Does that conflict with my relationship at home? No, He commands me to love her as Christ loved the church.
But there is a second part to the Great Command. What second command? The Great Command of Loving the Lord your God with everything you are and everything you have. But the Great Commandment does not end at this point. It continues with the "second" which Jesus says is like the first.
And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.
I John 3:23 says,
And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
Who Is My Neighbor?
If we had a narrow view of neighbor or "one another" most of us would be alright. But Jesus defined "neighbor in the parable of the "good Samaritan".
The Good Samaritan - Luke 10:29-37
Amazingly this expert is the one who asked Jesus, "What is the greatest commandment?" He asks another question after hearing Jesus’ response, "Who is my neighbor?" Evidently when it came to loving he was very selective. I am sure he loved his friends and like a good Jew he hated his enemies. He was even willing to forgive someone 7 times because it was required in the law. But he did not love everybody so he asks the question. That’s when Jesus responds with the parable of the Good Samaritan.
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, And who is my neighbor? In reply Jesus said: A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. Look after him, he said, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have. Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replied, The one who had mercy on him. Jesus told him, Go and do likewise.
Jesus must have shocked this expert in the law. The priest and Levite strolled by the injured man. They strolled by on the other side because they knew the man was ceremonially unclean.
The Samaritan was the most hated, defiled, disgusting person in the eyes of a Jew. They were considered lower than dogs. But Jesus said that he was the one who helped. When he asked him who the neighbor was he didn’t even say "the Samaritan" he says the one who had mercy. The Samaritan was the one who was following the command and the priest and Levite were not. That must have really bothered the expert in the Law.
For us, he defined our neighbor as anyone who is near us at the time who needs our help. They are the "one others" in our lives such as our church family, our co-workers, our neighborhood families, and of course our family. It also includes anyone we are near at any given time. Jesus simply said at the end of the parable, Go and do likewise. I John 3:16-17 explains this a little further and says,
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
Jesus said,
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.
Passionately love God with all we are and all we have. Love those around us as we would like to be loved. He even goes so far as to say it is the true indicator to others of loving Him and being His disciple. He said in John 13:34-35,
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
Jesus tells us this is the mark of being a disciple, not coming to church or giving, being a member or doing great works or miracles, He simply says we will love one another, period.
I must say, you sometimes indicate to me by your actions as individuals you are not a disciple of Jesus. As harsh as that sounds, it is a true observation. I know there are times that I do the same.
If we fail at this one point, and we do, we are not practicing being a disciple of Jesus. I John 4:20-21 says,
We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, I love God, yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
You cannot say you love God and treat another wrongly. You can’t do it. There are no excuses at this point. There is no rational you can employ. If you want to get angry about it, get angry with the Lord. These are His words not mine. The opposite is true as well. I John 4:11-12 says,
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
So how do we practice this love? The Great Command says we will love others as we love ourselves. It says,
And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus says the standard of love is how we would like to be treated as individuals. I must say, some of you really dislike yourselves. The even greater standard is we are to love one another as Jesus loved us. Scripture says, "Forgive as Jesus forgave you. Wow! Remember, we are talking about actions and motive when dealing with other people not just words.
I have a nephew that I dearly loved. He is 4 years younger than me but I have to some extent admired him for his accomplishments in life. He went to Purdue on a football scholarship until his knee was destroyed that freshman year. He is a business genius. He takes struggling businesses and turns them around in months not years.
But 3 years ago he did something horrible. He called his mother (my sister) and cussed her out for something she didn’t do. Even if she did you don’t use that language with your mother. A few weeks later my sister went for open heart surgery to replace a valve. Her normally great physical condition had deteriorated to the point she was going to die if she did not have the operation. She called over and over to her son for forgiveness. They would not even pick up the phone. The day of the surgery she was crying out for her son as she went under but he hadn’t even called to see how she was.
We as a family hadn’t heard from his family for 3 years. Out of the blue, we received a call from his wife on our machine acting like nothing had happened. When my loving wife called, over my objections, I was angry. She shouldn’t have called. He not only hurt his mother but he also would not communicate with my mom, his grandma. A few days later we received a realtor card in the mail. Guess whose picture was on the card; his was. I am sorry but I cannot forgive him. He hasn’t even apologized.
I am in trouble because the standard for forgiveness as a disciple is Jesus. He forgave me even when I didn’t know or even care to know Him. He died for me even though I didn’t know it. I really don’t want to forgive my nephew because I really think what he did was unforgivable, but not according to what scripture says. I must forgive him.
Jesus gave us the real meaning of the Ten Commandments in the Sermon on the Mount. He said,
You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, Raca, is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, You fool! Will be in danger of the fire of hell.
Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you; leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
Are you allowed to be angry? Scripture says we will be but it cannot break down or interfere with our love for another. It needs to be addressed and dealt with or we are to not come to worship. Why, because we can’t hate another ands say we love God. We will be major hypocrites. If you have a problem with someone in this church this morning, you need to go up to them and reconcile yourself through forgiveness and love. Don’t let it fester in your life. The longer you wait, the harder it gets. Reconcile then worship.
It is close to the time of decision. If you need to accept Jesus Christ as Lord today, then do it. Don’t put it off. Perhaps you have been holding back some part of you life from the Lord. Rededicate your life today and allow Him to begin using all of you for His mighty purpose.
Maybe you have some anger or a problem with someone in this place. You need to deal with it now. Don’t pretend to worship another day or week. Seek their forgiveness through love and receive the offering in love. Today is a day of fresh starts in this room. Maybe you have a problem with someone that isn’t here. You can still make that call after service. God knows the intent of your heart. Ask Him to give you the opportunity to seek reconciliation. God’s word has given us a lot to deal with and some of it will not be easy. But by His power you can.
An old fisherman used to amaze all the locals with how many fish he was able to catch. It didn’t matter what the weather was like, or how much other fishermen were able to catch, he always caught more than anyone else.
The stories became legend, and soon reached the local game warden. He showed up one morning just as the old fisherman was getting ready to put his boat in the water and told the fisherman he was going with him. The fisherman looked up, and told the warden to get in the boat.
Once they were in the middle of the lake, the old fisherman took a stick of dynamite, lit it, and threw it overboard. A few seconds later there was a huge blast that blew a 20 high fountain in the water near them, and then hundreds of stunned fish floated to the top. The fisherman leisurely grabbed his net and began scooping them up.
The old game warden was in near hysteria. He yelled out to the fisherman that he couldn’t do that because it was illegal. The fisherman looked over at the game warden, and then without a word took another stick of dynamite, lit it, threw it in the warden’s lap and said, You gonna just sit there or are you gonna fish?(Bruce Bill, Sermon Central)
There are many times in our lives when we have to make a choice to either keep sitting there or start fishing. I have just thrown the dynamite in your lap. What are you going to do with it? You have a choice today as believers and non-believers alike. You can love God and others or you can decide not to. You can’t say you have one without the other. Loving God and loving those around you are linked, they cannot be separated. If you have been holding a grudge, not loving, harboring unforgiveness, whatever it is, you can begin anew today. We worship a Lord who is dying to forgive you. Oops, He died to forgive you. Are you ready to make your decision today?
Time of Decision
