The Importance of Loving God
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Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.
Intro
Intro
Context
Passion Week
The Wednesday before Jesus’ crucifixion
The Pharisees had increasingly built a hatred for Jesus as the time grows near
It is Important to Love God in Order to Silence God’s Critics
It is Important to Love God in Order to Silence God’s Critics
But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.
The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
The Sadducees asked Jesus if a woman had been married 7 times to 7 brothers because of death of each one who would she be married to in heaven. Jesus said in heaven we shall be like angels and will not be given to marriage.
The Truth has a a way of muzzling nonsense.
Censorship or canceling is not necessary in a world where truth can freely be spoken.
The word muzzle means to silence.
The Sadducees were not forcibly silenced but the voluntarily silenced themselves because after the truth was spoken by Jesus there was nothing left to say.
The Pharisees because they hated Jesus had a nefarious plan to get rid of him and discredit him in the eyes of the people.
Why the hate you say?
Let’s look at the next question, but this time by the Pharisees.
Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying,
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
Lawyer. Matthew usually calls them scribes. but in this case lawyer may refer to an expert of the law. A cut above a scribe.
The Law had been handed down to the people by Moses.
They viewed Jesus as one who thought he was above Moses and the Law because of their own misinterpretation of the Law of Moses.
They were also jealous of Jesus.
Jesus through his right interpretation of the law was in reality discrediting them.
They sought ways to cancel him.
When they called him teacher it was deceptive form of flattery with an ulterior motive.
Inner evil hidden with outer righteousness.
Their point was to get jesus caught up
People will try and fool those around you while trying to discredit you at the same time.
They asked which is the great command.
The rabbis had 613 laws they had discovered in the Deuteronimc law. A law for the 613 letters in the Decalogue of the 10 commandments. They didn’t want to know which law was necessarily the greatest of the 10 commandments but of the 613 laws.
It is Important to Love God Comprehensively
It is Important to Love God Comprehensively
Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
It is so important to understand love from the perspective of God.
Love must be understood so that it can be comprehensive.
Love must be done right and defined by the originator rather than man.
For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
The Pharisees were binding heavy burdens on the people of God.
People think the Pharisees were strict rule followers but nothing can be further than the truth.
The Pharisees made rules on top of the rules which in reality made the them liberal. Their traditions caused people not to follow God’s traditions.
They were rule makers similar to what we are seeing today. They made rules that tore people down rather than build people up.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
Jesus quoted Deut. 6.5 reminding them of something they should have already known from the 10 commandments and Deuteronomy. The most important thing a man or woman can do is love God more than anything and everyone.
He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
Love ahov in Hebrew and agape love in Greek.
Agape is the love of action and ranks above all the other forms of Greek love.
Agape is the of the will, mind, and action rather than feelings alone.
Agape or Agapeo in this derivative is intelligence, dedication, commitment, and purpose.
Unlike Phileo which is brotherly, emotional, and affectionate
Or eros that is physical
Agape transcends all of that.
All your heart: thinking, thoughts, and. Intelligence.
All your soul: emotions and being.
All your mind vs strength: Mind is the intent that gives the energy to do what needs to be done which is strength. People think all strength comes from muscles but true strength comes from the mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
The 10 commandments, Deuteronomy, and now Jesus repeatedly tell us to FIRST love God.
We have to comprehend the command so that we love God comprehensively!
God wants us to understand he gave us a perfect habitat that was corrupted by sin.
But we still have a habitat.
He gave us his only begotten son.
He continues give us what we need.
God has given us everything so expects us to love him with everything.
It is Important to Love God So That We Can Love Others Comprehensively
It is Important to Love God So That We Can Love Others Comprehensively
And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Jesus gives us our final principal: Love God, Love People.
Don’t love peoples sin but love them out of sin!
If you know how to comprehensively love God, you will love yourself, and love people.
How do we love ourselves?
We give ourselves what we need rather than always focusing on what we want.
When we understand that we can meet the needs of others in need.
If we love ourselves strictly through wants we will hate others because our focus is getting what we want. And to get what we want we have to shut out others.
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Jesus made a powerful illustration when he said this in my opinion.
Jesus said like nails in wood or on a wall or how he hang on the cross as a sacrifice.
The love of God was epitomized through Jesus when he hang on the cross.
Loving God and Loving People fulfills the Law and what the Prophets foretold.
Loving God first and then loving people is the epitome of obeying God.
If we love God and put him first we never fall short of worshipping God appropriately.
Loving God causes us automatically to obey God because we will love him comprehensively through His Word.
Similar to wedding vows...
Conclusion
Conclusion