"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 greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.'"
Matthew 22:34-40
The Pharisees were a group of people who made laws so they wouldn't break the Old Testament Law. In one sense they built a hedge around the OT Law in order to stay as far away from it as possible. So these men held the OT Law very closely and this is why they asked Jesus which law was the greatest because they believed they were all of the utmost importance and they could not break any of them. They missed the point of God creating the Law in Exodus 20. God made laws in order to protect His people and so they would follow Him alone and experience fulfillment in Him. The intension was not to create a religion to follow a law for the sake of following a law. Anyways, Jesus responds to their surprise with an answer that they didn't think existed. Jesus says, "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is the greatest commandment because if you can follow this one then all the other commandments will naturally fall into place. The Pharisees were so focused on following the Law that they missed the entire point which is to love God with everything you are and have. The first four commandments deal with loving God, if you love God with your heart, soul and mind then these laws will fall into place. If you love God you will also love man (His creation), for He says, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The last six commandments deal with loving people, if you love people these will never be broken.
The Pharisees had everything backwards. Everything they did including "love God", pray, etc. was to keep the laws. Instead God intended for us to love Him whole-heartedly and gave us the Law as a guide in which to do so. This means that it is not the Law that is important, but loving God with all your heart, soul and mind. However, not that we are to not pay attention to the Law because if we love God then the Law will fall into place.
Today we are not given a Law as was given to Moses. Instead Jesus clarified the two greatest commandments, love God, love people. If we love God does that mean we are proud and arrogant? No because nothing is to be put above God. If we love people does that mean we curse and swear? No because we are cursing God's creation made in His image. Everything falls back to loving God. Not just loving Him, loving Him with ALL you heart, ALL your soul and ALL your mind! Love God with everything you have. In other words the whole purpose for your life should be for God's glory.
love God
love people
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I agree if we choose to focus on God it will be very easy to love others and not want to sin. The closer we are to God the further away we get from sin
ReplyDeleteVery true. If we follow those 2 commands, the rest will be followed as well.
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