The Great Commandment
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Introduction
On Sunday evenings our sermon series is related to our mission statement - ‘Godly living, church growth and changing Britain’ - and within that framework we are looking at the great commandment - ‘Love your God’ - ‘Love your neighbour’.
1) A question
In terms of the ‘big picture’ Mt. 21-28 covers a very eventful week in Jerusalem, from the triumphal entry to the empty tomb. During that week Jesus engaged in debate with the professional religious teachers - the Pharisees and the Sadducees. I suppose it would be a bit like spending a week with John Humphreys or Jeremy Paxman. Do you remember his persistent questioning - ‘Mr Howard, I’ve asked you the same question 19 times’. For Jesus the persistent and underlying question concerned his authority. Now the Pharisees and the Sadducees were the self-appointed guardians of the nation’s conscience. They enjoyed debate and discussion. They enjoyed playing with words. They were professional nitpickers. You know the sort of thing - a bit like most clergy!
The Pharisees and the Sadducees tried to trap Jesus. They were the professionals and in their eyes he was the country bumpkin. Too young. Too provincial. Too inexperienced. But as they tried to silence Jesus by their questions, they found that he silenced them by his answers. In round one the Pharisees had begun, then the Sadducees took over, and now in the final round the Pharisees tried once again. They plotted and schemed against Jesus. They asked him a simple question - ‘Which is the greatest commandment in the law?’
Now the word ‘Law’ can be used in various ways. When I say the word ‘Law’ we immediately think about ‘breaking the law’ - exceeding the speed limit, parking on double yellow lines, of policemen and 55 Degrees North, of judges and wigs and courts. But in scripture, ‘Law’ means God’s revealed will, his divine instruction, the sign of his favour, and the guidance for his people’s good. You could say that the Law was God’s blueprint for a well-ordered society. Sometimes ‘Law’ referred to the first five books of the Bible; sometimes to the 10 Commandments; or it could refer to the whole of the OT. Notice too that in v40 Jesus extends the Law to include the prophets. For the Jews the OT was divided into three parts - the Law, the prophets and the writings - and Jesus says in effect that the law and the prophets could be summarised terms of loving God and loving neighbour.
2) An answer
The question ‘Which is the greatest commandment’ was frequently debated by the Jewish leaders. To them this was an important question. It wasn’t a sort of exam question - but it was something that was much debated. The religious leaders calculated that there were 613 commands in the law - 248 were positive and 365 were negative. No wonder then that they wanted to know which was the most significant commandment. So at coffee time they didn’t discuss the weather, or sport, or the latest eviction from the Big Brother House, but ‘Which is the greatest commandment?’ And the answer that Jesus gave was not particularly original. Others too had come to the same conclusion. When the same question was asked on another occasion it was the religious leader (and not Jesus himself) who gave the same answer (Luke 10:25-28).
However in Mt 22 the question addressed to Jesus is hostile. It was intended to challenge him, to throw him off his guard. The professionals already knew the answer. So what would this untrained teacher make of the interpretation of the law? Would he make a fool of himself? To the question - ‘Which is the greatest commandment’- Jesus gave a two-part answer from Deut. 6 and Lev. 19. ‘Love your God’ and ‘Love your neighbour’.
a) Love your God
For the devout Jew Deut. 6:4-9 was a frequent and familiar prayer. It was known as the Shema - and every devout Jew repeated it daily. It was a confession of faith. A sort of creed. In other words - ‘This is what I believe.’ It was both an affirmation about God, and a profession of a commitment to God. Love for God was to be total, not partial. Wholehearted and not half-hearted. In terms of biblical anthropology - heart and soul and mind - implies the totality of the person, of his every faculty and capacity. The whole self - mental and moral was involved - the will, the feelings and the desires. Loving God demanded total allegiance to God.
We all know that our profession of faith is easy to recite on a Sunday. We say we love God. We sing we love God. But what is the reality on Monday morning? Is it more than just words? Or does it affect the way in which I live my life, or think my thoughts, or spend my cash, or do my work, or relate to other people? Of course as Evangelicals we would want spell out the nature of the love of God, demonstrated to us in the costliness of the cross. We would want to speak of the preparatory work of God’s law and of God prevenient grace and mercy. Of his sovereign power as he moves in the hearts and minds and wills of men and women. Of the complementary activity of Word and Spirit in bringing us to repentance and to faith in the living God through Christ alone. Our justification leads to our sanctification. These things could be spelt out in more detail, but as Jonathan Redfern preached on recently I won’t develop them further.
b) Love your neighbour
If the first and greatest commandment is to love your God, then the second is to love your neighbour. Of course these commands cannot be separated. But they are not alternatives. We cannot do the one and forget the other. That’s why on the sheet they are printed as (a) and (b) and not (1) and (2). They hang together. All else derives from them. They provide a resume of all of the teaching of the law and the prophets.
From the love of God springs the love of neighbour. Our love for God is not sentimentality, but is expressed in practical ways in love for our neighbour. In his first epistle John tells us that
‘we love because he first loved us’.
And he goes onto say this.
‘If anyone says, “I love God” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command. Whoever loves God must also love his brother.’ (1 John 4:19-21).
In scripture there is a clear connection between saying and doing. Always of course the test for us is to transfer Sunday profession and Sunday words - to Monday lifestyle and Monday values. What we so fervently say and sing on Sunday - may have a rather hollow ring about it on Monday morning - in the classroom, with the difficult client, with the unco-operative colleague. But what we have confessed on a Sunday has to be transferred to what we say and how we live from Monday to Saturday - at home and at work and when we are with our friends. The command is simple - ‘Love your neighbour’. But the question is - ‘Who is my neighbour?’ And for the answer we need to look back to the OT before we return to the NT. Jesus’ answer in Mt 22:39 is taken from Lev. 19. The context of v18 is v1. The emphasis of chapter 19 - and incidentally of the whole of Leviticus - is holiness (this word is used 150 times). Holiness is shorthand for the very essence of God himself. ‘Be holy - be separate, be distinctive, be significantly different - because I the Lord your God am holy.’ The holy God expects his people to be a holy people. The Lord expects us (you and me) to be a holy people. It was the expectation that holiness was to be the characteristic of the people of God - reflecting and echoing God’s righteousness, love, goodness and purity. Holiness is practical and not theoretical. Not something to contemplate (alongside our navels) but to be expressed in our daily lives as we witness to Christ, and love our neighbour.
‘I the Lord your God, am holy.’ He is the Lord your God - the personal God whose name is love. The Lord your God - we are to love him - we are to reflect his holiness - we are to show his love and to live his love in practical ways. In Leviticus 19 the love of God is expressed in terms of a commentary on the 10 Commandments. The two tables of the Law cover our relationship to our God and to our neighbour. After commenting on the 10 Commandments notice how in vv13-17 we are to relate to our neighbour:
Don’t defraud or rob him (v13)Don’t underpay him (v13)Don’t hinder the disabled (v14)Don’t pervert justice but show partiality to the poor and the dispossessed (v15)Don’t slander other people (v16)Don’t endanger life (16)Don’t hate, or bear a grudge (v17)
Here then are seven practical commands for us all to put into practice tomorrow morning! And lest you think that these are all negatives - notice the positive command - in v18b - Love your neighbour as yourself.’ The question addressed to each of us is simple. How do you (or I) express our love for God and reflect his holiness? The command addressed to each of us is simple - but its practice is quite another matter - ‘Love your neighbour as yourselff’. Again we are challenged to consider the question, ‘Who is my neighbour?’ In the context of Lev. 19 the answer is perfectly clear. Your neighbour is your fellow Jew, the fellow members of the covenant community, your fellow believers. But if we leave it like that we would be as virtuous and as smug and as hypocritical as the Jews. For of course we all say, we love our fellow Christians, don’t we?
But when an expert in the Jewish law asked Jesus the same question, he made it clear that Lev. 19 needed to have a far broader application. Rather than being exclusive it needed to be inclusive. Rather than limiting ‘neighbour’ to mean your fellow believers (which was not particularly demanding) but to include your enemies too (which demands a radical self examination). For the Jew love for neighbour was restricted to loving his fellow Jews. However when Jesus said ‘Love your neighbour’ he included the hated, alien Samaritans. Jesus extends love for neighbour to include our enemies too. So in his teaching about the Good Samaritan (in Luke 10) Jesus develops and extends the teaching of Lev. 19. Mere duty is to be replaced by practical caring, love. Jesus spoke of the costliness of love. Jesus demonstrated the costliness of love on the cross. As George Herbert put it - ‘Love bade me welcome’ - and that generous, forgiving love is still available to you and me.
3) The application
It’s easy to preach a sermon and it’s easy to listen to a sermon. But it’s hard for us to hear what God is saying to us. It’s hard to obey his inner prompting. And it’s even harder to apply his word to our lives. For either we commend God to unbelievers or else we deny him by what we think, and what we say and how we act. Its no use saying or singing ‘Jesus we love you’ and fail to apply this to ourselves as a Christian community. What does it mean for us here to love our neighbours? To members of the school community next door? To the Quakers across the road? To the international students living in nearby flats? To those working in the nearby offices? Its no use saying or singing, ‘Jesus we love you’ and then as individuals fail to express the love of God at to the difficult person in the office, the shop, the classroom, on the Metro or at the golf club. Jesus we love you - but not yet! Jesus we love you - when it is convenient! Jesus we love you - on our terms and with our agenda!
One of the early church Fathers (Tertullian) reported the words of the pagans who noticed something different about the local Christians. But their comment wasn’t ‘Aren’t those Christians sound?’ ‘Aren’t those Christians active in good works?’ No! Their comment should challenge each one of us here tonight. The pagans said of the Christians - ‘See, how they love one another’. There was something about the quality of their lives, the manner of living and their practical service, which commended Christ to the unbelievers around them. Their faith wasn’t simply conveyed by words alone but by the quality of their lives, their unity in Christ and their practical works of service. Important words from the second century; important words for the 21st century; important words for each one of us.
Of course love can be soppy and sloppy. You see that on TV dramas. You read about it in novels and magazines. But the costliness of the extra mile, the expression of servant ministry, the example of humility - do we see that in our midst? Do outsiders look at us and say - ‘See how those Christians at JPC love one another.’ From time to time on Maundy Thursdays I’ve washed a person’s feet. It is a humbling experience. The equivalent for us is to clean their dirty shoes. I wonder could you turn and look around for a moment. Look at the person sitting in front of you and behind you. Would you wash their feet? Would you clean their shoes? How would you put yourself out for them? Do you love them because they are your fellow believers? There is of course a profound and significant difference between liking and loving. Some Christians think that they have to like everyone. No - the command is to love them. After all God loves us - and we need to reflect his love to those around us. Even to those we don’t particularly like. But the test is loving beyond our own circle of family and friends at JPC. To the lonely; to the dispossessed; to the asylum seeker, the Big Issue Seller. That’s costly love. That’s demanding love. That’s sacrificial love. That’s inclusive love.
There is a simple way of remembering this as you leave here tonight. Look at the yellow card at the exit. It isn’t particularly original - but its true. The sign at the door says ‘I am now entering the mission field’. We don’t have to go overseas to be a missionary. We witness to Christ as soon as we leave this building and drive home tonight. We are a witness to Christ to non-Christians tomorrow morning. We are to express God’s love to our neighbours and we are to show God’s love to our enemies too.
Why is this? Because God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son to die for our sin and shame and guilt and failure. Why is this? Because we are commanded to ‘Love God’ and to ‘Love our neighbour’.
At the end of John’s gospel, Jesus asked a simple question. ‘Peter, do you love me?’ And from God’s Word may I ask you a similar sort of question? It’s a question in two parts.
• ‘How, and in what way do you express your love for God?’
• ‘How, and in what way do you show your love for your neighbour?’