Ten Words Series: Loving Others (Exodus 20:1-17)

When asked about the most important commandments, Jesus made it simple:

Matthew 22:36–40 ““Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.””

Jesus would have been aware that the Scriptures record 613 commands from God (365 “thou shall not” commands, and 248 “thou shall commands)…He boiled all 613 down to TWO.

How many know we often over-complicate God in ways that cause us to miss the simple truth of obedience…in fact over-complication is another way of avoiding obedience!

The religious elite in Jesus day had levels upon levels of complications, but Jesus just wanted to know one thing: Do you love the Lord God with all your heart?

Not did you get all the commands right, or do you look right, or did you say all the right things….

God is infinitely complex (the Bible says you can’t come to the end of God)…But he is NOT complicated! (the incarnation proves that…God came down like us!)

What we see in Jesus is this principle…

Principle: When you love God only, you will then love what God loves, the way God loves .

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind (Matt 22:37)

I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods beside Me.

You shall make you no carven likeness (idols).

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

Remember the sabbath day as holy.

…Do this: Love God (Commands 1-4), and you’ll find your self doing this: Loving Others (Commands 5-10)

Love your neighbor as you love yourself (Matt 22:39)

Honor your father and mother.

You shall not murder,

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your fellow man.

You shall not covet.

How does Jesus arrive at this simplification of 613 commands?

He finds it in the central command of all the Scriptures called the Shemah…

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 ““Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart.

Repeat them to your children.

Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road,

when you lie down and when you get up.

Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead.

Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates.”

The Commands of God are NOT Rules for Performance…they are a Rule of Life

For centuries Christians have lived by what is called a “Rule of Life.”

A Rule of Life is a dedicated practice (lifestyle) designed to invite the Holy Spirit into our lives to make us into a people like God.

Truth: There is no part of our daily life, our thinking, our politics, our economics, our relationships, our work, etc., that God’s commands do not touch.

If we are to be a people of God, we are must be a people formed by his words and directed by the model of Jesus Christ!

Living the Command to Love Others

(3 Observation concerning Commands 5-10)

[First Observation] Family is Central to God’s Design

The command to honor father and mother sets it apart…all other groups we must love, but fathers and mothers are to be honored.

Last week someone in the group I was in said their momma reminded them this was the only command with a promise of all, as in…If you don’t obey what I’m saying you might not live to tell about it!!!

Truth: No other human institution is attacked more than the family. Why? Because destroying the family destroys God’s created design for joy, peace, and fulfillment.

Honor is a condition of your heart. It’s making a choice to receive someone as God’s special gift to us, even when they fail to live up to that designation.

You honor the gift because it protects your own heart, AND it opens the door to make you a witness to God’s faithfulness.

And Jesus expands that honor… Matthew 12:48–50 “He replied to the one who was speaking to him, “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?” Stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.””

Principle: God places each of us in covenant families (Ps 68:6). That is the way we can experience God’s best for our lives.

[Second Observation] God Loves and Sustains Life at All Stages, In All Places, In All Circumstances.

[If this is online, maybe it will break the internet???!!] I don’t hesitate saying, it is heartbreaking and sinful to hear our president, other politician and leaders, devalue the life of unborn children in the name of so-called “re-productive freedom.”

God is the creator of all life, including the mother. Our work is finding meaningful ways to defend both the life of mothers and the unborn child.

But the church’s defense of Life is not exclusive to the life of the unborn! God calls us to stand at any place, any situation, any circumstance where human life is not loved and valued and demand we love and protect others.

Romans 1:20 “For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.” Creation is our first Bible, pointing us to God!

The church must also remember that ALL CREATION is life to God, not just human life.

[Third Observation] Sin is wanting what you don’t have because you’re convinced God is not enough.

Genesis records the central temptation that binds us all: Is God withholding something from you?

Truth: We can’t know what it means to love and trust God until God draws a boundary and says, “All this, but not this.”

1 John 2:15-17 Common English Bible

Don’t love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. 16 Everything that is in the world—the craving for whatever the body feels, the craving for whatever the eyes see and the arrogant pride in one’s possessions—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world and its cravings are passing away, but the person who does the will of God remains forever.

Prayer: Lord, teach us to Love others like you love.