Love God Love People – Greatest Commandment

Joke:  Walking up to a department store’s fabric counter, a pretty girl asked, “I want to buy this material for a new dress. How much does it cost?”

“Only a kiss a yard, ” replied the smirking male clerk.

“That’s fine,” replied the girl. “I’ll take ten yards.”

With expectation and anticipation written all over his face, the clerk hurriedly measured out and wrapped the cloth, then held it out teasingly. The girl snapped up the package and pointed to a little old man standing beside her. “Grandpa will pay the bill,” she smiled.

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Love God; Love People

Week 1 – The Greatest Commandment

Welcome church! Today we’re starting up a new series called Love God, Love People. But before we get started here’s a few love quotes:

• “You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” – Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice
• “Love is the whole thing. We are only pieces.” – Rumi
• “All you need is love.” – the Beatles
• “Love recognizes no barriers.” – Maya Angelou
• “I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” — Mother Teresa
• “I married Miss Right. I just didn’t know her first name was Always.” — David Young
• “Love is a lot like a backache: it doesn’t show up on X-rays, but you know it’s there.” — George Burns

The Bible is packed full of love, and here’s some really good news for us, God is love.

So we have an opportunity 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. . .

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

I’m sure must of you are aware that love isn’t just a matter of knowing what it is and how to learn it. Love is complicated.  Love can be messy, confusing, exhilarating, encouraging,  so many other things I could not possibly list them all.

That’s in part why we’re taking a few weeks to talk about the greatest commandment Jesus gave us through the scripture, which was 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 as well. . .

Let me lay a foundation and look at the context and give some of the surrounding information happening when Jesus is asked about the greatest commandment.  We find it in Matthew 22. . .

Matthew 22:34–36 (NIV): Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

At this point in Jesus’ ministry, he’s got the Jewish religious leaders about upset with him. They’re mad about his teaching, about the challenge he poses to their authority, with some other things that had to do with their belief system, their teachings, and their control over the Jewish people.

So, if they can discredit him, or get him to say something contrary to what they have been taught then they can launch a campaign to shut him down and be rid of the problems he’s caused.

Sounds a lot like our cancel culture today doesn’t it?

And 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.

So, when another group the Pharisees heard what was going on they decide to send in one of their philosophical champions with a question to try and 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.

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

Matthew 22:37–40 (NIV): Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

All 613 laws you religious folk set up hang on these two things. . .

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  And  Love your neighbor as yourself.

What Jesus does here in His reply is 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.

I’ll come right back to the Shema prayer but let me read a few verses from Deuteronomy 6 a minute. . .

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 (NIV): Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Now, If you’ve never heard of the Shema prayer here is a brief description as given 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.”

It’s the equivalent of the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father in heaven. . .)

And so, 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 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.”

Now if you were to read Leviticus 19 you would find listed a relatively lengthy list of some of the laws.  I’m not going to read them all for you only the one that related to our text from Matthew

Leviticus 19:18 (NIV):  “ ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

So, the leaders present would have 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 finished it off by saying, “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?

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.

And quite often, we focus our efforts on the sinful behaviors that we need to stop, or words we need to eliminate from our vocabulary.

I’m sure many of you here today have similar stories of your “conversion”. . .

And many of us have struggled with verses like 2 Corinthians 5:17 which says,

I used it last week but let me repeat it again for you. . .

2 Corinthians 5:17 (TPT): Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new creation. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new.

We read that and then we wonder why we still struggle with old behaviors and sinful patterns if in fact we are “new creations.”

With that said, I love 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, you do believe that right?  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.

John’s gospel tells us. . .

John 15:9–13 (NIV): 9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Jesus says, “Remain in me. . .in other words 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, minds, and strength then it should also follow that we will also love the people He puts in our lives.

And in case your wondering we’ll talk later in this series because I’m sure most of you realize just how difficult that can be sometimes, but for now, let’s just continue our focus on the instruction to love one another.

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 the light of the greatest commandment.

John 13:34–35 (TPT): 34 “So I give you now a new commandment: Love each other just as much as I have loved you. 35 For when you demonstrate the same love I have for you by loving one another, everyone will know that you’re my true followers.”

Love one another, love your neighbor, love your family, love your community, your co-workers. . .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 that question, because I think it will probably look different for different people.

But here’s a starting point:

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.

I’m not talking about getting rid of what you have, but using what you have to glorify Papa.

Jesus paid the ultimate price by trading his righteousness for our sin.   And He asking us to be willing to trade our will for His will, our dreams for His dreams.   To surrender our life so that He can give us abundant and eternal life.

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

As I’m sure you know, love is a pretty hot topic these days.

Maybe you have heard people say well we just fell out of love.   No you didn’t, that’s impossible.   You can fall out of a tree, you can even fall out of bed, but you can’t fall out of love.   Love is a choice

This thing called love well it’s been  a hot topic for thousands of years. . .love is an intrinsic part of being human.

My prayer is that 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, this 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 even, 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.   And that they will have the opportunity to encounter Him because they see you are truly a follower of His because you have learned how to Love God and love people.

Let’s pray together.