Love God and Love Others

Hey Journey it is good to be back on this stage with my favorite people in the world. For your information next week we start a new series called “Top Played” where we will have different people each week give a message on their favorite passages or stories in the Bible. Basically, give us your best sermon you can give us on your favorite text and lets see what God does. We have a special guest coming in a few weeks. You will know more about him later. This morning I am going to be sharing with you out of the book of Matthew the 22nd chapter as we wrap up this context series that we have been in that I have absolutely loved. Give me an Amen if you’ve loved it too.

Before we jump in I want to ask you a few questions to get us thinking. Let’s start with what what. What do you love more: Cats or Dogs? Apple or Android? Yeti or Hydroflask? Now Let’s get to the Who do You Love More: We are going to keep it local…Suns or Cardinals? Let’s get a little deeper…Your Spouse or Your Kids? Biblically it should be your spouse…kids leave spouse stays…Next one Jesus or God the Father? The answer should be yes, inside of the trinity The Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all God, but they are not each other. It’s a confusing concept to be sure, but listen closely, what Jesus said, the father says, what the Holy Spirit does Jesus would do. They are in complete alignment with each other. and  God or People? Be honest with yourself…but we will get back to those questions in a minute.

Let me tell you what I have loved this series it’s because I love studying and reading the bible and if you have gotten anything out of this series it should be that context matters when interpreting and reading the bible. We can’t take one verse or verses or stories in the bible out of context and make them mean something it was never intended to mean. In fact before we jump to the text I want to give you a quick Hermeneutics lesson before we jump into our text today that will help lay the groundwork for where we are going. It’s a lot, take pictures or notes here we go.

In bible college studying and interpreting the Bible is called Hermeneutics. Everyone say Hermeneutics. It may be a new word for you but it's been around for centuries and it's just the academic word for studying and interpreting the Bible. Now when in college we go to the Bible with some already established presuppositions about the scripture. 1: Divinely inspired by God through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. - It’s a collection of 66 books, with 40 different authors, written on three different continents, 3 different lounges over the span of 1500 years and it has one central story: the fall of mankind and God's restoration for it through Jesus. 2: The Bible is Inerrant and Eternal. Meaning it is without error, it is perfect, and it will last forever. 3: It is how God has decided to reveal himself to us. Through his sovereignty he has decided to reveal himself to us through this book and through the person of Jesus Christ who is the word of God incarnate. 4: Christians view it as Gods Authority over our life Meaning it is God’s perfect playbook for how we are to live our lives in relationship with Jesus. Since it is his guide it is our ultimate authority that when we disagree with it, it is not the Bible that changes it is us who have to change. God doesn’t change, so what he said then, he would say now regardless if we agree with it or not.

Those are a few of the presuppositions that we have when interpreting the Bible and there are a few Key Rules or Guidelines that help us interpret scripture. First and foremost 1: Scripture Interprets Scripture. This means the Bible harmonizes with itself and it never contradicts itself. We cannot look at one passage or verse in a vacuum. To understand what the Bible and therefore God says on a subject we must look at the whole of the book. We have covered this one a lot 2: Context Matters Every word in the Bible is part of a verse, Every verse is part of a paragraph, Every paragraph is part of a book, Every book is part of the whole of Scripture. Because that is the case, no verse of Scripture should be divorced from the verses around it. Lastly but certainly not least 3: We do not interpret based on Personal Experiences. We interpret our experiences and our world through the lens of scripture, we don’t interpret the scripture through the lens of our experiences. Are you tracking me?

There are many more to interpreting scripture but I believe if we all just did those when we read the bible, it would bring proper context to our study and it would help us understand the scripture more. That’s been the whole purpose of this series. If I am being honest with you I had a different set of verses I wanted to unpack with you today at the beginning of this series, but through prayer and conversations with others the Lord placed it on my Spirit to discuss a few verses I think are the most taken out of context verses in Western Christianity today. We are going to use what we just learned to properly understand it. So let's look at the text. Matthew 22 Jesus is going though a back and forth question and answer with the Religious leaders they were trying to trap him into either blasphemy against God or treason against Rome and he refuted them to the point they were silenced. Until someone tried to test him one more time…And this is what it is said in Matthew 22:34-40 the Greatest Commandment. ``34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

All the law and Prophets hang on these two commandments. But look at what Jesus didn’t say, he didn't say these two commandments are equal in importance to each other. He didn't say loving God is as equally important as loving people. Rather he put them into the proper place. It’s not 1A and 1B, it's the first and second. It’s the greatest commandment and then a secondary one. Don’t miss this.

He said loving God with your heart, all your soul and all your mind is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it…love your neighbor as yourself…Let me ask you again, who do you love more…God or People? As a Jesus follower, there is only one answer. It’s God. It’s Jesus; It’s the Holy Spirit. So how has this verse been taken out of context?  Because too many Jesus followers in the western world and especially in the American church have flipped these two things or have tried to make these two equal to one another. We have placed people before God and or on equal adoration and love with God. We make loving people the greatest commandment and loving God a secondary virtue.

We hear it all the time, especially from a lot of people who do not have a proper understanding of scripture that Jesus simply told us to love people. Who are we to tell other people to follow Jesus, who are we to And he did. No doubt, in fact, Jesus died for people, and more than that he lived and lives for people. But not so that people can do whatever they want. Rather it lived, died and lived for people to come under the authority of God, follow his commands, follow his decrees, and follow HIS way of life as outlined in scripture. Why scripture, because once again we said it earlier, as Jesus followers we are under the authority of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. And this book is how he has decided for us to know and follow him.

But the greatest command that we have in this life isn’t to first love people. It is to have such a love for God that nothing else compares to it. Compared to this love there is no equal or comparison Jesus himself said in Luke 14:26-27, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. It’s a next level type of Love for God, and when we have this type of allegiance to God, we love people the way God does because it comes from a Godly perspective. I wrote this down in my notes and I would love for you to write it down, take a picture do what you have to do…When we love people first we have a lesser love for God. When we love God first we have a greater love for people.

When we love people first, we will inevitably, without a doubt, begin to compromise on the things of God. In fact I know many people who 1: Apologize to people for what God has said in scripture. 2: They disregard and oftentimes reject the commands and instructions of God in order to look more tolerant or loving towards other people. 3: Their personal experience trumps what God has said. Once again we do not read our personal experiences into the Bible, we let the Bible form and shape our experiences. In this instance they want to be socially correct and not biblically correct, but friends once again, we can only properly love people if our first love is for God.

He reveals to us how to love people. Look at Jesus. Would anyone say he was intolerant? Scripture interprets scripture right? All the time we read in scripture that Jesus dined with people who looked nothing like him. In fact you’ve heard me say it…Jesus liked people who looked nothing like him and the people liked him back. Many times the sick, the broken, the hurting, those like Zacchias were stuck in cycles of sin and what Jesus didn't do was allow them to continue. Rather time and time again Jesus loved them, and called them to repentance. He never said their sin was ok, he never said what they were doing was great in the eyes of God, he never said to “you keep doing you” and never once did he disregard God because he had a personal experience that made him say “You know what…God was wrong.”  He told them the truth of God in the loving spirit of God. Some repented from their sins, some did not. That’s how it works. But He didn't allow his love for people to overtake the rightful place of God in his heart. This is the way Jesus loved them, and this is the way he loves us, and friends. If this is how Jesus loved people, why do we think we should love differently than him?

And look, I know this is hard, because you have your experiences, you have your family members, children, grand children, co-workers, Nieces and nephews, the list can go on and every single one of them and every single one of us is created in the image of God, broken by sin and Jesus desires for all people to come to faith in him. He doesn’t desire all people to live how they wanted, and as Jesus followers we do a disservice to God and the Gospel if we tell people,

You might argue, “well that’s how they were born, that’s just who they are, they are never going to change and we should expect them too”…the Gospel of John tells us that’s why we must be reborn in Christ, that the Holy Spirit brings transformation. It is a new life in Jesus Christ.

So what does it mean to truly love God first? It means your entire being is committed to and under the authority of the things of God. Jesus said, the greatest commandment is to Love the Lord Your God with all of your heart and with all your soul And with all your mind. To understand what is meant here we have to look at the original words. When Jesus says all the Greek word if HOLOS which means complete. Not lacking anything, whole. Meaning ALL OF YOU. When he says heart the Greek word is KARDIA, with all of your heart Jesus says your passions align with God's passions, your desires align with God's desires, your appetites aligns with God appetites, your affections, purpose and endeavors all align with Gods. Which means as Jesus said in Matthew 16:24, you will have to deny yourself, not indulge yourself. Why deny? Because Jeremiah 17:9 and Mark 7:21-23 both say the heart is deceitful above all else. Why do I bring these passages up? Because once again scripture interprets scripture and biblical context matters. We love God with a new and transformed heart that strives after what he strives from.

The Greek word for Soul is Psychē.  This means your very breath, your very being, the transcended part of you that goes beyond yourself. Because You are not a body with a soul you are a soul with a body and that soul will live beyond your physical body. You soul is not dissolved with death. This is every moment in your life is for the glory of God. I’m remedied of Colossians 3:17 when it says whatever you do whether word or deed do it all in the name of Jesus, giving thanks to God the father through him.

Lastly, Your Mind this word means Dianoia. With all of your understanding, thoughts, thinking and feeling. God is an intelligent God, and he has created intelligent people to know him and to begin to understand him. However we will not understand everything about God. As Jesus followers we should be the most knowledgeable about our faith, about the scriptures, about the apologetics of the faith so that we can rationally and clearly help others as they question. But listen when we love God with all of our minds, it also means that there will be times we don’t understand so we will trust God.

If we love God with all of our heart, soul mind and strength you know what will happen, we will follow him better. And we will LOVE PEOPLE better. Jesus gave the second command to Love your neighbor as yourself…. But there has been much confusion about what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. This doesn’t mean that we must love ourselves before we can love anyone else; it doesn’t mean love is blind to sin as often times we are blind to our own sin. Tt means that in the same way we take care of ourselves and are concerned about our own interests, we should take care and have concern for the interests of others. Physically, emotionally and more important spiritually.

So what does this mean? At some point in your life you came to the realization through the Holy Spirit that you are a sinner needing the saving grace of Christ Jesus through his atonement on the cross. You realized that you can’t do it on your own, you realized that God is perfect, holy and righteous, and you are not and you need him. And you gave your life, you believed in Jesus, you were saved from your sins and transformed into new life.  If loving your neighbor as yourself is to look after their interest as your own, that means leading them to the cross…not leaving them in their sin. That’s following the commands properly.

In fact you know how Jesus says we show we love him? In John 15:14 Jesus says we are his friends if we do what he commands. In John 14:15 Jesus says if you love me, keep my commandments.  John 8:51 Jesus says, “very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.” In 1 John 2:3 it says, “We know we have come to know him if we keep his commands.” John 14:21 “whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. In Matthew 7 Jesus says that one who hears his commands and puts them into action build a strong foundation and lastly the great commission in Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus says, “Therefore Go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.

All through the Gospels and the New Testament there is one sure fire sign of a friend, of a follower and a disciple of Jesus. It is a person who follows and applies his commands. And listen, its a decree, it's a commandment, it's not a suggestion, it's not if you want to do it, as a follower you must do it. It’s not an option not it.   And what was the greatest commandment Jesus gave? To Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and all of your mind. God, Jesus the Holy Spirit takes first place in your love. That then shapes and informs how we love people. Listen friends this was a way different type of Love, back in the first century people didn’t care about those around them, and Jesus told them to love their neighbor as themselves. Meaning, anyone around you, any time you are in vicinity of strangers or friends you are to love them, democrate, republican etc…..Because then we can love our neighbor as we love ourselves. So let me remind you of what I said before…When we love people first we have a lesser love for God. When we love God first we have a greater love for people.

So for you, what’s your next step in making God your first love?

Pray.