Love God Love People Week 1

Love God; Love People

Week 1 - The Greatest Commandment

Big Idea - During His earthly ministry, Jesus was asked: “Which is the greatest commandment?” His answer helps clarify things for his disciples both then and now; Love God and love people.

Matthew 22:34–40 NKJV

34 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 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.”Main Scripture - Matthew 22:34-40, Deuteronomy 6:1-19, John 13:34-35

Introduction

Welcome church! Today is a great day as we’re starting up a new 4-week series here called Love God, Love People.

The Bible is packed full of love, and conveniently for us, God is love. So we have an optimal opportunity here to learn and be encouraged by the very source of love as we learn from the scriptures that He gave to us. It sounds simple right!?! But, we know it can’t be that simple…

As many of us in the room know, love isn’t just a matter of knowing what it is and how to learn it. Love is complicated, messy, confusing, exhilarating, encouraging, and so many other things I could never imagine having to list them all out at once. That’s in part why we’re taking 4 weeks to talk about the greatest commandment Jesus gave us through the scripture, to Love God and Love Others. He says that, “All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.” So that’s where we’re going to start today too.  

Main Idea

Some background information for our main text for the day, and essentially for the series, is probably necessary here. So before we tackle the verse, let’s look at the context and some of the surrounding information happening when Jesus is asked about the greatest commandment. 

Read Matthew 22:34-36

Matthew 22:34–36 NKJV

34 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 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?”

At this point in Jesus’ ministry, he’s got the Jewish religious leaders upset with him. They’re mad about his teaching, about the challenge he poses to their authority, and many other things related to their beliefs, teachings, and control over the Jewish people. So, if they can discredit him, or get him to say something blasphemous or heretical then they can launch a campaign to shut him down and be rid of the problems he’s caused. 

In verse 34 we learn that He silenced the Sadducees, one of the religious groups, who had come to challenge him about the resurrection of the dead. Upon hearing this, the Pharisees decide to send in one of their philosophical champions with a question to derail Jesus. This lawyer, an expert in Jewish law, comes to Jesus and asks him, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” His answer sets the stage not only for our series here today, but for Christians throughout history to better understand the heart of God for His people. 

The Greatest Commandment

Jesus immediately replies to this expert lawyer with an answer that sends shockwaves through everyone there.

Read Matthew 22:37-40

Matthew 22:37–40 NKJV

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.”

This is one of those statements, or verses, you and I should probably commit to memory, write on note cards, and keep in the forefront of our minds as much as possible. What Jesus does here in His reply is truly amazing. He takes some of the most important instructions from the Old Testament law and puts them into one simple summary statement. 

Verse 37, where Jesus says, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This comes from Deuteronomy 6:5 and is part of the Jewish Shema prayer. If you’ve never heard of the Shema prayer here is a brief description from The Bible Project; “The Shema became a twice-daily prayer within Judaism. It was so widely practiced in the second-temple period, Jesus himself grew up praying it. This prayer was formative for Jesus and he drew upon it in his teachings.” In this case, Jesus reminds the lawyer, and the crowd listening that the greatest commandment has been on their lips and in their prayers every day, probably even twice a day. 

Jesus then follows up with another reminder from the Law, when he cites the second greatest commandment from Leviticus 19:18; “...you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The leaders present would’ve known each of these passages and commandments that Jesus shares. However, it’s not likely that anyone had ever put the 2 of them together and then said, “All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.” Jesus had both the divine authority and insight to make this claim, and who in their right mind could argue with Him? 

Jesus is Lord

A lot of us spend time trying to figure out what it means to be Christian, and consequently, what we are to be doing differently once we become Christians. Oftentimes, we focus our efforts on sinful behaviors that we need to stop, or words we need to eliminate from our vocabulary. 

I’m sure many of us here today have similar stories of “conversion”... And many of us have struggled with verses like 2 Corinthians 5:17 which says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” We wonder why we still struggle with old behaviors and sinful patterns if in fact we are “new creations.” 

With that said, I’m a huge fan of how simple Jesus makes this for us: love God and love people. That’s the summary statement of Jesus' words from Matthew 22. And since we believe Jesus is Lord, the Messiah, the Savior of all mankind, then I think we can also agree that if He gives a command then it’s worth listening to. In fact, the gospels equate obedience with love. Check out these verses from John 15; 

Read John 15:9-13

John 15:9–13 NKJV

9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

Jesus says, “Remain in me as I am in the Father… Obey my commands… And my command is this; Love one another as I have loved you.” And if we love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds, then it follows that we will also love the people He puts in our lives. We’ll talk later in this series about how difficult this can be sometimes, but for now, we still need to focus on the instruction to love one another. 

A New Command

As we have already seen, the greatest commandment comes from Matthew 22:34-40, which was basically a summary of a couple passages from the Old Testament Law. The gospel of John gives us some fresh insight, a “new command” from Jesus as we seek to further understand what it means to live in light of the greatest commandment. 

Read John 13:34-35

John 13:34–35 NKJV

34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Love one another, love your neighbor, love your family, love your community… BUT, here’s what’s new, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” This is where Jesus picks up the idea we just read from John 15, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” The new command, which helps to explain the greatest commandment, is that we are to trade our lives for one another. 

What does that look like exactly? How do you practically trade your life for others? I’m not sure I can fully answer this question, as it will probably look differently for different people. But here’s a great place to start:

Trade what’s valuable in your life so others may experience fullness of life. 

Your time, energy, money, pick-up truck, guest room, dinner table, whatever it may be. Whatever is valuable to you, trade it in. Trade it intentionally so the people around you might flourish in their relationship with God. Trade it so others may feel loved, seen, cared for, and valuable. 

That’s what Jesus did for us, and that’s what He’s asking us to do. 

Trade what’s valuable in your life so that others may experience fullness of life. 

Conclusion

As I’m sure you know, love is a pretty hot topic these days. In fact, it’s been like that for thousands of years… love is an intrinsic part of being human. I hope this series will make you stop and think about love, how it impacts your life, how you love others, and how God loves you. After all, it was love that motivated God to send His son to live, die, and be resurrected so we may experience fullness of life, or at least that’s what John 3:16 says.

And as we’ve seen today, Jesus has an awful lot to say about love. So, as you think about the greatest commandment, and the new command, I pray there will be people who come to mind for you. Specific people in your life who could use a little more love. People who need to feel loved, seen, cared for, and valuable. 

They are all around us, everywhere we go. The opportunities are endless. 

But you have to be willing, you have to be obedient. You have to love like Jesus loved, which is scary, difficult, and often inconvenient. So as we pray today, let’s believe God will enlarge our capacity to love, and that through it all, people will see Jesus at work in our lives.