What Many Get Wrong About the Greatest Commandment

What is it that God wants most from us? If we think about this question open-endedly, many people may think about a favorite commandment that pops into their mind. Something that they feel very passionate about theologically. And last week we discussed commandments. We discussed the one through whom God gave the law. Moses, and how even Moses couldn't bring himself nor Israel into the Promised Land, but died before it. Yet that doesn't mean what God had to give through Moses wasn't very important. Some think that this relationship that we have with God is just about getting saved, you know, Pray the prayer. Put your faith in Jesus. Say the words. Get saved and move on with life. Move on with happiness. And, you know, you'll be good. And the law of God, don't worry about that. That no longer matters. Jesus abolished all of that stuff. But what if what some have abolished matter profoundly? to God. See, even if the law of God is not what saves us, which our obedience cannot save us because we are imperfect and we need a Savior, we talked about that last week, but rebellion against what God is calling us to do and how He's calling us to live can certainly compromise our relationship With our Father. In Matthew 22:36, we see the Pharisees come to Jesus and they ask Him, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Now, before we look at what Jesus answers, I want you to ask yourself, if you were to honestly ask the world, What is your great commandment, right? What is it that people in this world live by? I believe the world would answer, be as happy as you can be. Whatever you need to do to be happy, that's your commandment. Honestly, people, they like to do good things as long as it's easy. And that's what Jesus said right in Luke 6. He said, if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. Jesus acknowledges that the world does good to one another when those people do good to them and when they're friends and when they're loved ones. But when those Do not do good to us, will we continue to do good to them? See, when the world's happiness is on the line, that's when things get real. That's when things get hard. And that's when people start telling a lie, engaging in sexual immorality, coveting that which belongs to another, dishonoring their parents, They'll compromise for whatever they think would bring them happiness, for their happiness is their command, for they are their own God. And that's what everything comes down to, and that's what Jesus actually responds with. He said to them regarding what is the greatest commandment: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your This is the great and the first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. So Jesus says that our life's mission must be to please the one true God first and not ourselves. You know what's interesting? Just a while ago, I had a ride in an Uber, and I was conversing with the driver, and he said to me, No matter what faith or spirituality you have, we all agree with the Golden Rule. And, you know, I thought that's quite true. No matter what people believe, no matter what religion they're from, they all agree with the principle of love your neighbor. But few people agree on loving the one true God. But here's the catch, is you cannot truly love your neighbor effectively without loving the one true God. And an unbeliever listening to me right now may even be offended at what I just said. I mean, like, they may say, what? Like, I can love people without loving God? And that's true. But when we define holiness and love instead of letting God define it, we can easily start excusing our actions by saying things like, well, yeah, I did that, but it's not hurting anybody. You know, while supporting prostitution and human trafficking, when we watch our pornography, when we destroy other people's futures as we partake in our drunkenness, While we destroy another's spirit through gossip and evil speech, or when we abuse creation, when we discard the Sabbath day every week, or when we take God's name in vain, when we misrepresent Him while boasting in His name, or when we condemn victims and the guiltless as the Pharisees did. See, it's not just among unbelievers that all this happens. It's among the religious. It's easy to start justifying sin when we are the makers of our own worlds, when we become the gods, when our happiness is our command, and when God's commandments become negotiable. And then we no longer actually love our neighbor despite what we may say. Rather, we hurt our neighbor and despise our Creator. The moment that we fail at commandment number 1 of you shall love the Lord your God with everything you've got is the moment that we start failing at commandment number 2, which is to love our neighbor. As you can see, everything comes back to this greatest commandment that Yeshua talked about of loving God. But let's be real, that's a very difficult commandment at times, especially when life gets really hard and when what God says doesn't make sense to us. I mean, we see this everywhere in the world. It's their main problem with God. And then we see people either walk away from God or they turn him into a more palatable God that makes sense to them. Or they decide to follow Him for who He is, according to the Bible, whether they fully understand Him or not. See, that right there is true worship. That right there is fulfilling the greatest commandment, and that's what the Shema means. And so I want to ask you today, are you in true worship, worshiping the God Of the Scriptures? Or are you in idol worship where you've become the god that you worship, where your happiness becomes your idol, and where whatever God says is only up for consideration second to you? Next, Jesus continues speaking to those Pharisees, and he says something to them that is Very misunderstood by many people today. We have to ask, where does Jesus get these two greatest commandments, and what is their role now in the lives of believers in context of the rest of the commandments? Because there are many others, of course. Now, in Matthew 22:40, Jesus tells us, he says, on these two commandments, love God, love your neighbor. depend all the Law and the Prophets. Now, there's 2 groups of people that have walked away with this verse with 2 different ideas. So some think that the greatest commandments of loving God and neighbor overrules the need for the Law and the Prophets, and other people think that the Law and the Prophets overrules love. And both of these positions actually miss what Jesus is saying, and they are wrong. See, I want to submit to you that in sharing these 2 greatest commandments, Jesus endorses the importance of the Law and the Prophets. To state that the Law and the Prophets depend on the 2 greatest commandments of love isn't devaluing the Law and the Prophets, but endorsing them by explaining that they can only be fulfilled in the context of love. His point is, is that if you keep God's law without loving God and loving your neighbor, you aren't actually keeping it. See, that's what the Pharisees tried in the first century. They spoke loudly about the Sabbath day, While criticizing Jesus for healing a man on the Sabbath. They said that they're keeping the Law and the Prophets, while their actions actually failed to love God and love their neighbor. But it's not only that keeping the Sabbath and bringing healing weren't contradictory to each other. I want to submit to you that keeping the Sabbath depended on loving that sick man that day. For on love depends all the law and the prophets. In other words, if we simply keep these laws and we miss the sick person on the way, we've missed the point. If we go ahead and we try and uphold a law while condemning the guiltless, We miss the point. Loving God and neighbor is the greatest commandment. This is the priority that Christ is asking of us. And also, you can't say you love God while disobeying His law rebelliously. For He said in John 14:15, If you love Me, You will keep my commandments. The law of God and this command to love is in a symbiotic relationship, and priority is always given to love in cases of danger, injustice, oppression. For example, when David and his men ate the showbread at the temple, that bread which was only for the priests, Yeshua endorsed it as righteous because David was running. He was fleeing from danger from Saul, who wanted to hurt him. Even though eating that showbread was technically for the priests and not for David and his men, and would have been breaking the law in any other circumstance. This love, this protection of victims. This prioritization of the sick, this focus on saving the sinner—this was central to the ministry of Yeshua, and how I love Him for it! Because there were so many religious people walking around in His day who missed the point, keeping the law as they said and thought, while missing the person and even God in the process. And even today, that is a massive problem in. Religious circles, brothers and sisters. As he said, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law— justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. Unfortunately, just like in the first century, some people today, but not all, who are loudest about keeping the law are also most ineffective in loving their neighbor. So let us beware the leaven of the Pharisees. Let us prioritize love because this Satan seeks to make us think, well, look, I'm keeping this commandment that I'm so passionate about. Better than this person who isn't. Let me point a finger. See, it's easy to point a finger at the sick, the poor, the victim, or even the sinner. Well, we ought to beat our chests and say, God, forgive me, a sinner. I want us all to put on Christ in this season. Take healing to someone on the Sabbath, not just keeping the Sabbath according to your own happiness. Visit the sick, visit the poor, call a friend in need, love God, love your neighbor, and do it in ways that are sacrificial, not just in the ways that are easy. And I also want to just say a word to anyone who's watching this all and who may think to themselves, well, look, if I just love God and love neighbor according to how I think it best can happen. I don't need to worry about the law and the prophets. I don't have to worry about that which was written down and which God gave through Moses. I want you to remember with me for just a moment where Jesus quoted from when he answered the Pharisees. See, when they asked Him, what is the greatest commandment? And He responded, He quoted from what was given through Moses. Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. So in this chapter, which Jesus is quoting from to answer the Pharisees, this is the greatest commandment: love the Lord your God with everything you have. And then this is the chapter that is quoting these words I commanded you today, which is— which words? What is he talking about? Well, this is in Deuteronomy 6:6. He's talking about the words that he just spoke to them in Deuteronomy 5, which is The 10 Commandments that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai, the commandments of which Jesus said, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come to fulfill them. Anyone who teaches that they are to be relaxed will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever does them and teaches them will be called great. Yeshua truly, truly was trying to teach us how to love according to God's definition, not our own. For when God said, "Do not murder," that's a loving thing. When God says, "Do not steal," that's a loving thing towards our neighbor. When God says, "Keep the Sabbath holy," That's a loving thing towards our God and our neighbor whom we let rest. God wants us to diligently obey the law and fiercely love, as the law depends upon it. And then at the same time, we always remember where our salvation comes from. For by grace you have been saved through faith, not your own doing, But a gift from God, not a result of your works, so that no one might boast. But we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we might walk in them. Ask God this week, Lord, how can I learn and obey Your commandments freshly, with love pouring through them? So that whomever encounters me would not encounter a religious legalist like the Pharisees of the first century, but would encounter a loving disciple of Christ who is passionate about obeying his master, but who is passionate to prioritize loving people around them. That's what He's calling for now. And Lord, I ask that You would help us to see how we could do that in every difficult situation. For when there is oppression, when there is a victim, when there is someone in danger, when situations in life gets hard, that's when things get real. And I ask that You would help us to apply the heart Of love to the law of God in our lives. Thank You, Yeshua, for saving us from ourselves, from our sins, from our lawlessness. Forgive us where we have sinned even today. Forgive us so that we can be ambassadors of You, Of holiness. And Lord, where we make mistakes, where we have profaned Your name, forgive us. Lord, give us Your eyes. Give us Your ears. Give us Your feet that bring the good news to others. And Lord, give us the grace upon other people, upon sinners, that You have given us as we have sinned against You. Lord, help us to love radically, especially those who do not love us back. Help us to treat our enemies not the way that they treat us, but unexpectedly to them with a love that can only be the supernatural love of God. I praise You, and I thank You for all You've done for us, Yeshua. Amen. Amen. Thank you for joining me. May the Father bless and keep you. Comment below what you think, and I can't wait to see you in the next one. Shalom. Shalom.