Love Loud

The Gospel of Matthew was written to demonstrate that Jesus was the promised Messiah who had come to both fulfill the Law and provide salvation for mankind.

After having spent a couple years demonstrating who he was by performing miracles, teaching, fulfilling Scriptures and prophecies, and training a group of disciples Jesus headed to Jerusalem to confront the religious leaders and prepare to take his place on the cross.

Tonight we will pick up in chapter 22 of the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus has just finished answering 2 of the 3 questions that are set ups to test him. The first test from the religious leaders had to do with his authority, the second had to do with the future resurrection and the third, our primary text for tonight, has to do with the law and how to live in a way that pleases God.

Matthew 22:35–40 NKJV

35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” 37 Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Now, here, the third attempt to dishonor and shame Jesus focuses on something near and dear to the Jews. The law had been given by God through Moses in what we call the 10 Commandments. Additionally, throughout the OT there were more than 600 additional commands totalling 613 different laws and commands that the most faithful Jews attempted to follow. Of course, since no one can keep the 10 commandments, they certainly failed at keeping another 603 commands as well.

Nevertheless, it was sometimes a point of discussion amongst the scholars as to which of all these commands were the most important.

Jesus’ answer summarized all of the over 600 commands into just two. And while this may have been revolutionary to some of those standing around when Jesus was being tested, the fact of the matter is that God had already laid out what was most important long, long ago.

Tonight I want to take a journey with you back in time to where Jesus got these 2 greatest commands from and why they are of supreme importance to your life today.

After we journey back in time we will return to our text and finish with Jesus’ test question for the religious leaders of his day and leave you to answer the same question for yourself.

The first thing that Jesus said - the command that is of the supreme importance, was to love God with all your heart, soul and mind.

Love God

Now we could spend the next hour defining specifically what these three words mean or comparing it with the parallel passages in Mark but I’m going to summarize it for you for now and then move to where it came from. In short, Jesus is saying you need to love God with everything you have, with all of your being, with your thoughts, feelings, actions, with your mind, mission, and money, with your attitude and actions.

But this is not new. In fact this was a very well known passage of Scripture from the OT, specifically from the book of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 NKJV

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

So, here some 1400 years before Jesus was preaching, teaching and healing, God had Moses write these words that Jesus is now referring to.

So Jesus is trying to get the religious leaders of his day to return to the basics …to get back to the most important thing - loving God properly.

While the Pharisees had great knowledge of the Scripture, their day to day understanding of how to live it out was sorely lacking.

The words God gives are not just for memorizing, they are for living loud. God doesn’t just want mental assent or mundane obedience, He want robust obedience out of a heart filled with love and gratitude.

So before we go any further let’s take a few minutes and determine what the word love means.

What is Love

Love is one of those things that most of the time, though not all the time seems obvious when you see it in action

God is love

1 John 4:8 NKJV

8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

God’s actions demonstrate love

John 3:16 NKJV

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Now we don’t need to end with just this most well known verse in our efforts to understand God’s love.

God, in his love chose Abraham to make a covenant with.

God, in his love chose Moses to lead his people out of Egypt.

God, in his love chose Joshua to take the promised land.

God in his love sent prophet after prophet to try and get the people of Israel to turn their hearts back to Him and forsake their idolatry.

Jumping to the NT God declares that Gentiles are welcome in His family in Rom 11.25-26, fulfilling promises from the OT of which people like Rahab were just a foreshadow of.

So we see that based on just the character and actions of God alone, love is not just attitude, it is action.

A most famous passage in the NT 1 Cor 13:4-8 further lays out what it means to love.

Borrowing from Christopher Morgan

The Love of God Our New Life and Love for God Lead to Our Love for Others (1 John 4:7–11)

it is clear that the primary failure of the Corinthian church was its failure to love. Some were impatient and unkind, filled with jealous ambition and egos, and puffed up. They insisted on their own way and were argumentative and resentful. They even rejoiced in wrong rather than righteousness (chap. 5). Some in the church promoted themselves rather than seeking to promote the good of the overall body. Instead of humbly serving others, they humiliated others. Instead of transcending the social class system, they highlighted it. Instead of following Jesus’ example of service, love, and sacrifice for the good of others, they used the symbol of his sacrifice for self-promotion! Instead of viewing their spiritual gifts as a God-given means to strengthen the church, they boasted of their superior knowledge and spirituality. As David Garland notes, “Although the gifts of the Spirit are conspicuous in their assembly, their lack of love is even more conspicuous.”7

The Love of God Our New Life and Love for God Lead to Our Love for Others (1 John 4:7–11)

These descriptions show that the particular expressions of love vary to meet the needs of the context. In the context of frustrating circumstances and people, love appears as patience. In the context of the successes of others, love does not allow envy but rejoices with those who rejoice. In the context of our own successes, love restrains us from self-promotion and leads to humility. In the context of someone’s sin against us, love appears as forgiveness and not keeping track of wrongs. The Bible depicts loving others as expressed also in sharing the gospel, caring for the poor, helping the marginalized, building the faith of others, promoting unity in the church, teaching truth, correcting error, urging repentance, etc. Sometimes the people we love receive it, appreciate it, return it, and even pass it on to others. Other times they misunderstand our love, reject it, or even despise it. But whether or not it is received, love shows up in a variety of forms and applications due to the wide range of circumstances we encounter.

So returning to our passage in Matthew which is based on the passage in Deuteronomy we can see that love looks different in different situations, love if from God, and God is love.

So God didn’t just willy nilly provide this instruction for the Israelites, he provided it based on how he had already love them. Remember in the Exodus how God had rescued the Israelites from the Egyptians and remember how before that God had made a covenant, a promise with Abraham to make a great nation out of him and to bless the whole earth.

God is not just laying out abstract or random laws. He is looking to provide both protection, provision and promised blessings to His people.

Look further with me at the preceeding verses in Deut 6.1-3

Deuteronomy 6:1–3 NKJV

1 “Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, 2 that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. 3 Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you—‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’

So, in his love God is promising to bless the Israelites for trusting him, being faithful to him, and demonstrating this by obeying him.

The Israelites faced a lot of temptation in their day just as you do. They were often tempted to put their trust in something other than God. For them it could be Egypt to protect them from Assyria (instead of trusting God), for them it could be offering sacrifices or offerings to a different god that other people worshipped (instead of trusting God), for them it could be brokering peace by marrying multiple wives (instead of trusting God). For you it could be stealing instead of trusting God, it could be laziness instead of endurance and trusting God, it could be desire for societal status instead of trusting God. It could be relying upon your own ideas instead of God’s. All of these are possible temptations today. All of these are what the bible would call idolatries today. All of these are ways of choosing to trust something or someone instead of God.

God is saying to build your life upon Him, the solid rock - in everything that you do. And show this by how you live, how you talk, how your train your children, how you treat your employees, how you use your money, how you talk, etc. In every facet of your life, in every thought, attitude and action - to quote the new testament

1 Corinthians 10:31 NKJV

31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

This may seem overwhelming at first but this is whole hearted devotion to God. This is what it means to love God with your heart, mind, body, soul.

Ultimately, because Jesus is God in the flesh, what we do with Jesus shows whether or not we love God.

Love Neighbor

Leviticus 19:18 CSB

18 Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.

Elsewhere in the Gospels when Jesus tells someone to love their neighbor, he is asked “who is my neighbor”?

Now, the very fact that this question was put to Jesus indicates the flaw in the desires of the person asking the questions. As Darrell Bock says...”love does not figure out how to get out of loving, it just loves.

They are asking Jesus who their neighbor is in an effort to shorten the list of people they need to love or ‘be nice’ to.

When you look at Jesus’ ministry he ministered to the fogotten and down trodden. He healed the lame, gave sight to the blind, touched lepers. Now Jesus was doing at least two things here. He was demonstrating he was the promised messiah that Isaiah and other prophecied about and he was also revealing the loving heart of God to the world. Yes, God sees you, just like he saw Hagar. Nothing goes unnoticed from God.

Loving your neighbor means loving everyone. Loving everyone means there is no longer room for hate or vengeance. Loving everyone means demonstrating the love of God that loved so much he

John 3:16 NKJV

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Love is what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

To love god and love others.

Jesus says it is the wicked who refuse to forgive after they have been forgiven (Mt 18.21-25)

Once our eyes have been opened to the enormity of our offense against God, the injuries which others have done to us appear by comparison extremely trifling. (John Stott)

Love extends far beyond the level of comfort.

summary

what is love

why we love

how we love