Three Directions of Love
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Text: Matthew 22:34-40
34 And when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they themselves gathered together.
35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with a question:
36 “Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?”
37 Jesus declared, “ ‘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.”
PRAY
Introduction: Choosing the best or most important food on the menu
How many of you enjoy going out to eat?
We usually make it out a couple of times a month. Our favorites are Culvers and Cracker Barrel.
What is the hardest part about going out to eat (other than the cost!)?
For me, one of the hardest things is choosing what to eat.
If you go to a fast food place, you’ll usually have a menu behind the counter with the different options on it. Usually there are dozens of options - burgers, chicken, fish, fries, and then of course all of the dessert options. If you don’t already know what you want before you go in, it can be an overwhelming choice.
Or if you go to a nicer restaurant like Cracker Barrel, they might hand you multiple menus - breakfast menu, lunch and dinner menu, dessert menu, drink menu - how many different options do you have? Even if I think I know what I want when I go in, it’s often still a hard choice.
But at some point (even if you ask for more time) you eventually have to choose. Which is the best or most important food on the menu - the one you’re going to eat today?
This choice is of course nowhere near as important as the choice Jesus is asked about in this passage. The choice of a meal only affects you for a day (or a few days if you choose wrong!), but the choice of which law of God is most important is something that will affect your whole life.
Choosing the most important law
In the Law (books of Moses) there are over 600 commands. Which of these 600 is most important?
Laws about proper sexual conduct
Laws about foods to eat or not eat
Laws about sacrifices
Laws about festivals
Laws about how to treat other people
The 10 Commandments
If you didn’t have these words of Jesus, what would your answer have been? What is the most important law?
It’s hard to know how we would respond since we have the answer.
I think I’d probably pick one of the 10 commandments. They’re repeated in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, so clearly they’re important.
Jesus basically boils it down to one word: Love
First, love God with all you are
Second, love others as you love yourself
And what does He say? All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commands. In other words, all that God has commanded in the Old Testament can be summed up in these two commands: Love God, and love others.
Sounds simple, right?
I want to try to show you how this connects with the Great Commission which is our lifelong goal and work as individuals and the church.
Let’s start with a vision of obedience to the Great Commission.
ABC VISION
ABC VISION
Vision = long-term goal; what do we want to be and to do long-term?
ABC Vision: To be disciples who make disciples of Jesus Christ
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
20 and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
How do we become disciples who make disciples?
Being a Disciple:
Choose to follow Jesus
Be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
Learn how to obey Jesus (a lifelong process)
Making Disciples:
Call other people to follow Jesus with you
Baptize those who choose to follow Jesus
Teach them the content and application of Jesus’s commands - both by your words and by modeling obedience for them
And what Jesus says is that the essence of all of God’s commands is love - love for God and love for others. So to be a disciple and make disciples of Jesus Christ is to grow in love for God and others and teach others to grow in love for God and others. This is the goal of discipleship: growth in love.
That’s what Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy also:
5 The goal of our instruction is the love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a sincere faith.
Paul’s (and Timothy’s) goal in teaching others is love - the kind of love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a sincere faith. His purpose in his instruction and teaching is that people would grow to love God and love others. Right thinking leads to right living.
Do you see the connection between discipleship and love? The essence of discipleship is learning and teaching obedience to Jesus’s commands, and Jesus says that the essence of His commands is love - Love the Lord your God & love your neighbor as yourself.
So growing in love is what it looks like practically to be and make disciples.
ABC Mission
ABC Mission
That’s why I have stated our mission as a church this way:
ABC Mission: To grow in love for God, one another, and the lost.
Being and making disciples is our long-term, lifelong goal, and growing in love is the process by which we get there.
Notice that I’ve divided the second commandment into two parts:
Love for one another (other believers)
Love for the lost
The Scriptures often make this distinction, so I think it is warranted.
Love because you are loved
Love because you are loved
Before we consider what it means to love God and others, we need to consider something first.
Both our motivation to love and our ability to love come from God’s love. You cannot love God or others until you have received God’s love for you.
Have you trusted in and received God’s love for yourself? 1 John 4:16.
1 John 4:16 (BSB)
16 And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us.
His love for us enables and motivates us to love Him and others: 1 John 4:19.
19 We love because He first loved us.
The only way that you will be able to love God and others is if you have first received love from God. Only then can His love flow through you back to Him and to others.
Three Directions of Love
Three Directions of Love
Let’s consider these three directions of love one by one. Up, In, & Out.
UP: Love for God
UP: Love for God
Matthew 22:37-38.
37 Jesus declared, “ ‘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.
Jesus is quoting here from Deuteronomy 6:4-5.
Love for God is more than a feeling affection, but it is not less. Jesus says in Matthew 10:37. Our desire and affection for Jesus should be greater than the desire and affection we have for our family members.
37 Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me;
Love does not = obedience; it produces obedience. We obey Jesus because we love Him.
John 14:15.
15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
IN: Love for One Another
IN: Love for One Another
1. 1 John 4:7-8, 11
7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
John 13:34-35
34 A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another.
35 By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”
OUT: Love for the Lost
OUT: Love for the Lost
Outsiders will come to know God’s love by observing our love for one another in the family of faith: John 13:35
35 By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”
The second commandment: Matthew 22:39
39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
Neighbor does not only refer to other believers but everyone around you (the Good Samaritan)
Even your enemies and those who mistreat you: Matthew 5:44-48
44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even tax collectors do the same?
47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even Gentiles do the same?
48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
The perfect love that God commands from us is a love that not only loves God and those who love us, but even those who hate us and mistreat us.
The greatest way for us to show love to the lost is to tell them about Jesus and invite them to follow Jesus with us. Matthew 28:19
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
Practical Questions to Test Your Love for God, Your Neighbor, and Other Believers
Test Your Love
Test Your Love
Do you love God?
Do you regularly read His Word?
Do you memorize and meditate on Scripture?
Do you regularly spend time in prayer?
Do you set aside significant time to spend with Him? (like you would do with a friend or family member)
Do you listen to Christian music that helps you worship God?
Do you seek to honor Him with your choices in how you spend your time, how you spend your money, where you go, what you do, and how you talk?
Would other people know that you love God by listening to you talk?
Do you love other believers?
Do you regularly gather with other believers? (not only on Sunday morning)
Are you using your spiritual gift(s) to encourage and help other believers?
Do you regularly pray for other believers?
Are you loving in the way that you talk to other believers and about other believers?
Do you forgive other believers when they offend you?
Do you seek to resolve problems in relationships with other believers?
Do you help with the financial needs of other believers when you can?
Do you love the lost?
Do you pray for your neighbors and others to be saved?
Do you pursue friendships with lost people in order to witness to them?
Do you purposely seek opportunities to share the gospel?
Do you help out needy or poor people?
Do you love your enemies or people who have hurt you?
These things describe what we all should be like individually and what we should look like as a church.
We must be disciples who make disciples of Jesus Christ.
We do that by growing in love for God, for one another, and for the lost.
Remember, this love is not ultimately from us, but from God. God is love, and when we receive His love, it flows through us back to Him, to other believers, and to the lost around us.
Application
Have you received God’s love?
Evaluate your life. In which of these areas do you need the most growth? Take time to specifically consider how you can grow in love toward God, other believers, and the lost around you.
For Further Study and Application
How do you know God loves you? (Romans 5:6-8; 1 John 4:9-10) Have you trusted in His love?
How can you grow practically in your love for God?
How can you grow practically in your love for other believers?
How can you grow practically in your love for the lost?