Sermon Tone Analysis

The Greatest Commands

This will I really felt that I should talk about God’s love, and about how to Love the way that Yeshua commanded us to.

We are going to start with the time Yeshua was asked about the greatest commandment, and then we will cover a bit of the John the Beloved’s perspective, and then look at Rav. Sha’ul’s view.

Let’s read Mark.

12: 28-31

Loving God

When Yeshua was asked this important question by one of the people who had studied Torah.

What is the greatest commandment?

There are 613 of them to choose from.

It is interesting that Yeshua does not quote from the 10 commandments, but instead point to 2 commandments that encapsulate the whole.

The first is from Deut.

6:4-9 .

Now we recite this Scripture , the Shema, every week.

And while it is a tradition, it needs to be our foundation both of our Congregation and of our individual lives.

We are to set God’s Word, His Commands, above our own hearts, our own wants, our own feelings, and our own thoughts.

That means if there is a difference between the way we feel, and what the Word of God says, then we need to give way to God’s direction.

The rest of the passage in Deut.

6 is very clear that the way to love Adonai is through obeying the commands that He has given.

We will cover this a little more when we touch on John’s perspective.

And although Yeshua was only asked what the greatest command was, and he could have stopped at 1, He knew that the second commandment was just as necessary.

Loving Others

So Yeshua quoted from Lev. 19:18 where it says:

The question asked by the Scholar was about how the Torah could be summarised.

Yeshua had already answered several different questions that can be read in the previous chapters, and it was because of Yeshua’s wise answers that this man had posed this question.

Yeshua’s response here is just as wise.

There are many people who want to find a list of rules that they can follow so that they can enter Heaven, and there are many who are very loving but are not interested in following the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel.

But unless both of these commands are fulfilled, we have missed the mark.

Recognizing Yeshua’s wisdom, the man exclaims: Mark 12:32-33

Yeshua affirmed him and said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

John the Beloved’s Perspective

John, the Talmid is called the Beloved, because he was the closest friend of Yeshua.

I will read just a couple of verses from John 13:21-26

John refers to himself as the “Talmid whom Yeshua loved,” and on that night, the night of the Pesach Seder, John was reclining at the table right next to Yeshua.

There is so much more there, but we will leave that for our talk in a few weeks on Passover.

For now, I want to go over to the first letter of 1 John 2:3-6 and have a look at John’s perspective of the greatest command.

Loving God

Here John gives us three way that we know if someone is following God.

We obey His commands.

This is what Deut.

6 was saying.

We are in a Covenantal relationship with Adonai, and the stipulations of that Covenant is that we love Him will all our hearts, mind and strength, and that we demonstrate that love through our obedience.

We are to keep His word.

The concept of keep and guard are similar.

The Word of God is to be precious to us.

We are not to hold it lightly, but we are to honour and respect what Adonai has said.

We are to walk just as He walked.

We are called to follow Yeshua.

He is the perfect example that we are to model our lives after.

We have not been asked to do something that Adonai is unwilling to do, rather we are to follow Yeshua’s pattern of life and teaching.

This is the concept of Halakhah, which in English is translated, “the way that one walks.”

Loving Others

A little later in John’s letter, he writes the following 1 Jn.

4:7-16

The word that John is using here for love is Agape.

Agape is defined as:

the quality of warm regard for and interest in another, esteem, affection, regard, love

Although it is used throughout the New Covenant writings, it is not very common in Greek Literature.

One example is that of an “army officer, who is held in ‘high esteem’ by his country.”

John is telling us that if we do not have this sort of esteem, affection, regard and love for our fellow believers, then how can we say that we actually love God.

John goes on and once again points out that we love others, because we have received the love of God first.

We have the perfect example to follow.

It is from knowing this love of God, that we in turn can then love others.

The times that we lose esteem for others and begin to regard them less favorable are usually the times that we forget just how much Adonai has demonstrated His love to us in sending us Yeshua.

I have noticed in my life, that the times I get angry with others because of how they have treated me or how they have messed up, and the times that I begin to demand justice because I have been wronged, I always seem to forget just how much I have been forgiven for.

But this love and forgiveness can only be found in acknowledging that Yeshua is Ben-Elohim, the Son of God.

That is when Adonai abides in us through His Ruach.

Rav.

Sha’ul’s Perspective

I want to now go over Rav.

Sha’ul’s perspective.

I will be going over 1 Cor.

13, but before I do, I would like to read 2 verses that he wrote earlier in that same letter.

1 Cor.

6:7-8

This comes at the end of a passage on settling disputes between brothers and sisters within the Community.

Sha’ul seems to be astounded that members in the Congregation in Corinth are actually taking each other to court and can not seem to resolve their differences in the congragation.

He finishes by asking 2 interesting questions.

Why not rather be wronged?

Why not rather be cheated?

Here he is asking if it would not be better to simply accept being wronged and cheated, then to hold a grudge and go after people to get justice.

This is one of the hardest things to do, to simply release others of what they owe us whether it is a financial or an emotional debt.

Why is forgiveness so hard?

Now lets go over to 1 Cor 13

I want to focus in on verses 4 - 8 and look at the definitions of each of the attributes.

And although it is sometimes easy to see our own deficiencies, I want to remember what John wrote, that “God is Love.”

As we go through each of these let’s ask ourselves, “How does this describe God’s nature?” and secondly, “How can I grow in this area?”

Love is patient.

Patience is, “the capacity to tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without becoming angry or upset.”

How long does God wait before he brings judgement?

How long did He wait for me?

Love is kind.

To be kind means to be, “friendly, considerate, and generous.”

How did Yeshua demonstrate friendship and consideration?

How has Adonai been generous toward me?

Love doesn’t envy.

Sometimes it is easier to define something by its opposite.

Envy is the, “discontented or resentful longing aroused by another’s possessions, qualities, or luck.”

Do I envy others?

Love doesn’t brag.

To brag is, “to say something boastfully.”

And to boast is to, “talk with excessive pride and self-satisfaction about oneself.”

God is the creator of the universe, therefore it would be hard from Him to have an exaggerated view of Himself.

But how easy it is for us to fall into pride?

Love isn’t puffed up.