THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT
Text--- Matthew 22:35-40
If you were to ask the average citizen on the street today what is the greatest commandment they would probably say "Thou shalt not kill." Certainly that is foundational to society and very important but it is not the greatest commandment. Others might say it is "Thou shalt not steal." Well, it is not exactly worded that way in the decalogue but that too is a good commandment but it is not the greatest one. "Ok, I got it!", another might say but he would also be wrong.
I could go on and on with the little game but we would miss the greatest commandment until we got down to the root of all of them. We can find this commandment and its companion in several places in the bible but today we are going to turn to Matthew's gospel, the twenty-second chapter, verses 35-40.
We see in the passage today the command to love. That is something we do not naturally have the ability to do as humans--- at least not in its truest sense. That ability must come from outside of us.
I. THE SOURCE OF LOVE (Romans 5:1-5)
"Shed abroad (poured out, gush, spilled) in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."
The world has a cheap imitation of the real thing. The world's version is selfish, conditional, short-lived. The love that endures and is able to love the unlovable is the love that is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Only those who have surrendered their hearts to Jesus and been sealed with the Holy Spirit are capable of this kind of love.
But, in truth, we all fall so very short of God's glory in this area of our lives. We fall into a worldly pattern in relationships and fail to "shed abroad" the love of God in the lives of others and on our Heavenly Father.
II. THE PRIMARY OBJECT OF OUR LOVE (v.37)
A. The Lord--- "ho kurios". This word in the original language means "supreme in authority, controller, master. Oh, how we love to drop that name in conversation--- "The Lord has been good to me" or "Let's go to the Lord in prayer"........ . Certainly it is fine to address God in this manner but I wonder if we really realize the implications. We are so quick to say it but do we really live it--- "supreme in authority, controller, master".
B. God-- there is only one. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Great I Am. We know this but we need to be reminded of it daily because so many other "gods" demand our attention and affection. The primary object of our love, the focus of our love is to be God. He makes it clear throughout scripture that to love another person or thing more than Him is to play the harlot.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments (Exodus 20:5-6).
III. THE MANNER IN WHICH WE ARE TO LOVE
We cannot get around that little three letter word "all", can we? It is interesting that the Greek word that is translated "all" is "holos". Does that sound familiar? It is the word "whole" in our language. So lets just go ahead and use that. We know what it means.
We are to love the Lord our God with our whole:
A. Heart--- our thoughts and feelings. Also, our "middle". In other words, from our innermost part. I guess another way of putting that would be from the inside out. That is not the way we do it a lot of the time. We are concerned that others think we love the Lord so we make sure our actions reflect that but God is concerned about our heart. He is not impressed when we love Him on the outside because He looks not on the outward appearance but on the heart.
We are not very good at looking on the heart. I certainly can't see yours and you can't see mine. We even have a hard time discerning our own but I would like you to try today. Take a peek at your innermost part (this can be painful) and see if you can see God--- all by Himself. There is not room for anybody else--- remember what "all" means.
B. Soul--- "life". Your very being; who you are. The part of you that transcends death itself. The part of you that you must lay down before you can receive eternal life.
Matthew 16:24-26--- is that the way you love the Lord your God?
C. Mind--- "imagination, understanding". We can really get into trouble in this area. The mind that is not completely surrendered to the Lord, that does not wholly love Him is one that is headed for trouble. That is why we are commanded to "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5).
Romans 1 gives us an account of what happens when the imagination is not surrendered to God (verses 21 and following).
Do you let your mind wander away from God and away from obedience to Him and away from the truths of His precious word. Do you ever find yourself agreeing with the thinking of this world--- the rationalizations, the excuses, the denials, the lies. It is so easy to do. We must love the Lord our God with our whole mind. It is so dangerous to do otherwise.
IV. THE SECONDARY OBJECT OF OUR LOVE
Our neighbor--- the one who is "near" or "close by". Jesus further defines this in the parable of the "Good Samaritan" as anyone who is in need.
To paraphrase this passage we should put ourselves in the shoes of those who are close by and love them (not just in word) as we would want them to love us. That is a simple concept but one that we apparently fail to grasp on a day to day basis. How different our marriages, our families, our relationships would be if we would love our neighbor as ourselves.
It is no surprise that Jesus says in verse forty of our text today, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." In other words, the whole bible can be summed up in these two commandments. If you think about it, none of the rest really works until we get these two commandments down.
So, I would ask you the question today, "How's your love life?" Is God in the center of your very being; are you loving Him with your whole life; when your mind wanders does it wander to Him; are you putting others first and loving them as you want to be loved?
A lot of cheap imitations are going to be exchanged this Valentine's Day. Why not give the real thing--- You!--- to God and to others.