Being Great: Loving God
This is the second sermon in the series about loving God and serving Him faithfully.
whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant,
27 and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave;
28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
37 And He said to him, “ ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’
38 “This is the great and foremost commandment.
39 “The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’
40 “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
Love God First
3173. μέγας megas; a prim. word; great:—abundant(1), all the more(1), arrogant(1), big(2), completely*(1), fierce(2), great(115), great men(2), great things(2), greater(30), greater things(1), greatest(10), greatly*(1), grown*(1), high(2), huge(1), large(8), larger(2), larger ones(1), long time(1), loud(42), mighty(1), more important(2), older(1), one greater(1), perfectly(2), severe(2), stricter(1), strong(1), surprising(1), terribly(1), too much(1), very much(1), wide(1).
4413. πρῶτος prōtos; contr. superl. of 4253; first, chief:—before(3), best(1), first(128), first of all(2), first importance(1), first man(1), first one(1), first things(1), first time(1), foremost(5), leading(2), leading man(1), leading men(5), outer(3), previous(1).
“First and greatest” (v. 38) refers to one, not two, qualities: the “and” is explicative, i.e., this command is primary because it is the greatest.
4 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!
5 “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Love God Fully
3650. ὅλος holos; a prim. word; whole, complete:—all(49), all all(1), completely(1), entire(5), entirely(1), full(1), one piece(1), throughout(1), whole(49), wholly(1).
22:37–38. Jesus drew his answer from the most memorized and recited passage in all the Jewish Scriptures: Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deut. 6:4–5).
Jesus quoted the Septuagint almost verbatim, but he substituted mind (dianoia) for the similar sounding “might” (dunameos). We are to take this list as an emphatic way of saying, “Love God with everything you are in every way possible.” But it was not without significance that our Lord deliberately substituted “mind” here rather than some other term. Christians need to take a lesson from this. We should learn to think critically and biblically.
both refer to wholehearted devotion to God with every aspect of one’s being, from whatever angle one chooses to consider it—emotionally, volitionally, or cognitively. This kind of “love” for God will then result in obedience to all he has commanded (cf. Deut 6:1–3, 6–9).
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
Love God Faithfully
Then is a favorite Matthean conjunction (see on 2:7). Some translations bring out the temporal connection with “At that time” (NIV, GNB). We are to understand that this parable was delivered on the same occasion as the teaching Matthew has recorded at the end of chapter 24,
4103. πιστός pistos; from 3982; faithful, reliable:—believe(2), believer(4), believers(5), believing(1), faithful(44), faithful one(1), faithfully(1), sure(1), trustworthy(7), who believe(1).
21. His master commended this servant. First he says simply, “Well,” which we normally put into English with “Well done,” but which could be taken in some such sense as “It is well.” Or we could understand it as an interjection, “Bravo!” (BDF 102[3]). However we take it, it is a mark of approval. This is something the master understands and approves. He goes on to salute the servant as good and faithful, an expression that approves both his character and his diligence; he had been all that the master expected (Cassirer translates, “excellent and trustworthy servant”).
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;
If you love God you will surrender to Him.
2588. καρδία kardia; a prim. word; heart:—heart(102), heart’s(1), hearts(49), mind(2), minds(1), quick(1), spirit(1).
If you love God you will serve Him.
5590. ψυχή psuchē; of unc. or.; breath, the soul:—heart(2), heartily(1), life(36), lives(7), mind(1), minds(1), person(1), persons(3), soul(33), souls(14), suspense*(1), thing(1).
If you love God you will share Him.
1270. διανόημα dianoēma; from διανοέομαι dianoeomai (to think); from 1223 and 3539; a thought:—thoughts(1).