The Great Commandments

Let me begin by asking you a question. So do look up. What are your priorities for 2008? Passing exams and getting a degree? Getting a job? Getting married? Making more time for the family? Seeing Newcastle United win or at least play football! Or perhaps to see Sunderland stay up or then again maybe not! Have a think for a moment. Well what does Jesus say our first priorities should be? Have a look at Matthew 22:34-40:

“34Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Now the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus. The expert in the law, we are told, tested Jesus with his question. But we can be thankful that the question was asked because what a reply! How good can come out of evil! In terms of our priorities essentially Jesus says, first things first. V37:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

And as many of you know our church’s vision statement is based on these Great Commandments and the Great Commission - Godly Living, Church Growth and Changing Britain. But if we’re not putting first things first, if we’re not loving God and our neighbour, if we’re not living in a godly way in the power of the Spirit as individuals and as a church then we’re not going to grow and we’re not going to change Britain. But as we see from these verses loving God genuinely with all of our being will lead us to love our neighbours as ourselves, which is vital for church growth and for changing Britain. C. S. Lewis wrote this:

When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. Insofar as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving toward the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased."

Looking at it another way, first the Ten Commandments, then Jesus, make it very clear that there are two kinds of important relationships for human beings. One is a relationship between human beings and God, and the other is a relationship between human beings. And the way we treat each other is a reflection of what we think of God.

You see when we love God wholeheartedly, as we’re commanded to here, then we begin to share his priorities, his love for people, and his desire for holiness, for church growth and for changing Britain. D L Moody said,

“The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to him.”

And Jesus says (v40) that all the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. So what does Jesus mean?

Well he’s not saying that you can scrap what the Bible says and just do what you consider to be the most loving thing in the situation. No, in John’s Gospel, Jesus said (John 14:21) that

‘if you love me you will obey my teaching’.

And anyway - and this is very important - Jesus’ teaching is the most loving. His commandments are true compassion. The two great commandments do not dispense with all the rest, but the rest depend on them. You see the word ‘hang’, which can be translated ‘depend’, is a technical term for laws that are derivable from others. So Jesus’ words direct us to understand and apply the commandments of the law within the context of an obligation to love God and man.

Jesus is also saying that all the Law and the Prophets come from these two commands. He’s saying that everything in the OT in some way depends on these two commands. Jesus is saying that God’s plan is that we love him with all our heart and that we love one another as we love ourselves. They are God’s priorities. And if they are God’s priorities they need to be our priorities: that we love God with all our heart, soul and mind and that we love our neighbours as ourselves – everybody.

Do our priorities reflect his priorities? Is everything we do as Christians and as a church supported by these two commandments? Are we spending time with God each day? Are we prayerful as a church? Are we praying for our neighbours to go to Christianity Explored? Are we praying for our neighbours in Kenya? Are we willing to welcome those who are new to our fellowship after the service rather than only speaking with our friends? You see these great commandments are familiar to many of us but let’s not assume that we really know them and are living them out. We live in a me centred culture which says: Put yourself first, you deserve it. But we are to be different.

We are first to commit ourselves to the Lord, to love him above everything and everyone else, to know him and to do his will in the power of the Spirit, in response to his love for us shown supremely on the cross. No one loves you like God does and no one and nothing else deserve your love like he does. And Jesus reminds us that God doesn’t just think it’s a good idea for us to love him. He commands us to do so, which brings us to my next point

A COMMANDMENT TO LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD

Of all that comes to mind when we think of what we’re commanded to do as Christians, how often do we remember that God commanded us to love him? And that this is the first and greatest commandment?

The romantic and emotional understanding of love, which dominates our culture does not make room for the kind of love which can be commanded, and a command that we can obey as a decision of the will.

But the original word for love here in both v37 & v39 is not ‘phileo’, which expresses what you might call friendly affection, but rather ‘agapao’, which refers to the commitment of devotion that is directed by the will and which can be commanded as a duty.

Loving God therefore is a choice we can make and an action we can take. Loving God is an action that engages every aspect of our being. So Jesus says we must love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, with all that we are and all that we have. Nothing is exempt from obedience to this command. Heart in the Bible is the seat of the will, intellect and feeling – the command centre of the body. The soul has been described as the ‘source of vitality and power that brings strength to the will and focuses all our energies on pursuing all that we know of God’s will and desires’. The mind is the faculty that directs our understanding, shapes our opinions and perspectives, and cultivates our reflections, meditations and perceptions at an intellectual level, and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5 and quoted by Jesus in Mark 12) refers to our physical capacities and resources. So what does it mean to love the Lord your God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength?

LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART

Loving God with all your heart means you are no longer to be hard hearted and that your heart is not to be divided in its loyalty. As the first four of the Ten Commandments say: ‘You shall have no other gods before me’; ‘You shall not make for yourself a graven image’; You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God’; and ‘remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy’, ie keep Sunday special for God, putting him first.

LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR SOUL

Loving God with all your soul means loving him wholeheartedly following him all the time and everywhere, whatever the pressures. One example is Daniel who continued to love the Lord, be devoted to him and put him first even when he faced being thrown to the lions.

LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR MIND

Loving God with all your mind means using your intellect in seeking after God, using our God given brains in his service and taking every thought captive for Christ.

LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH

Loving God with all your strength reminds us that this is not an effortless process. It takes effort to put him first each day and to obey his commands.
Essentially loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength means a fundamental loyalty to him. Does that describe your love for the Lord? Or is yours just a superficial allegiance? An outward show only, like the Pharisees? If so you may need to talk and pray with someone after this service.

So what does all this mean in practice for each member of the church? Well to be specific and practical, this:

• Spending time in reading the Bible and in prayer each day – if you’ve not any Bible notes get hold of some from the back of church tonight. It was John Wesley who said a reading Christian is a growing Christian – so while you’re getting some Bible notes why not also get a good Christian book to read from the bookstall? Let me mention two that the bookstall has multiple copies of – Know and Tell the Gospel by John Chapman is excellent on that subject and Guidance and the voice of God is helpful for thinking through God’s will for your life.
• Coming each week to worship God with the congregation at Jesmond Parish Church both morning and evening if you can. And being committed to a regular Bible study group and prayer triplet.
• Being in the giving scheme and giving a proportion of our income to God's work regularly and systematically. As Jesus said (Matthew 6:24):

‘You can’t serve God and money.’

So what is necessary for us to obey this commandment? Well obedience requires a commitment to do what is commanded. So we must make

A COMMITMENT TO LOVE THE LORD OUR GOD

Loving God means far more than just saying we do. Do you desire his presence? Do you treasure the ways he provides for us to know him? Do you obey his commands? Jesus said (John 14:21):

“Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

In what way are we to love God with all our heart, mind and soul?

With sincerity or an undying love, as in Ephesians 6:24, where Paul writes:

“Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.”

With priority. We are to love him supremely. In Matthew 10:37 Jesus says:

“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me”.

With constancy. Jesus said (John 15:9-10):

“ If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love; just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.”

Why are we to love him?

It’s not to earn God’s love, forgiveness and a place in heaven. Eternal life cannot be earned. It is a gift of God through faith in Christ. As we’ve been seeing, we are to love him because he commands us to and because he wants us to – he is a jealous God. It is a Christian duty. But also because he first loved us. 1 John 4 says that,

‘We love because he first loved us.’

And that

‘this is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.’

In response we are to put our faith in Jesus, love him, put him first in all we do and obey him. When we really realise his love for us and what it cost him we will love him in return. We will want to, we will want to be in his presence and obey him. When we love someone we want to please them. Love is the secret of true obedience to God. Love is also the secret of right behavior towards others, which brings us to the second great commandment.

LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR AS YOURSELF

Who is our neighbour? Well Jesus taught that our neighbour is not just the person living next door but everybody – including our enemies, including those who the rest of the class or the rest of our work colleagues find very difficult to love. And we’re to love our neighbours as ourselves. In other words we’re to be willing to put their needs before our own. So he who loves his neighbour will not only not harm him in any way but he will desire to do him good in every way even if that is costly. The Good Samaritan not only stopped to help the Jewish man who had been robbed and beaten but took him to where he could be cared for and paid for his care. We’ll also be concerned about their spiritual welfare. So we should be inviting them to the Christianity Explored Taster Session. The leaflet is in your service sheet. Or it may be that you can help to host a table at the Tasters or help with the subsequent course. But more on making disciples next week as we look at The Great Commission. Loving our neighbour and wanting the best for them will also mean that we should be involved in changing Britain. We live in a nation where a love for God is becoming rarer and therefore where a love for one’s neighbour is also becoming rarer, where teenagers are being regularly stabbed to death. We need to get the gospel out and pray and act to change this nation whatever the cost. But lastly you might be thinking

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE SUCH A LOVE?

How can we love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbour as ourselves? It is not a natural feeling. We are born in sin, selfish and hateful says Titus 3.

For Christmas I bought myself – I mean my son – a remote controlled plane! But could we get it to fly – no! It seemed impossible. But then we went back to the maker’s instructions and examined them more carefully. The next day the plane was airborne. Not that we can fly it perfectly. In fact it then crashed and broke in two! Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbour as ourselves seems impossible. So what do our Maker’s instructions say?

Well 1 John 4 tells us that love comes from God and that everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. So first of all you need to be born again through faith in Jesus Christ. There needs to be a commitment to our God that is total: and such a commitment is only through Jesus Christ himself. Jesus said (John 14:6):

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.”

To be growing in our love for him will mean following Jesus Christ as Lord and being filled with his Holy Spirit daily. Love is a fruit of the Spirit and that fruit needs to be growing in us daily. So we are not to quench the Spirit or grieve the Spirit but rather be asking God to give us the Holy Spirit daily. This morning we were looking at prayer from Luke 11. At the end of that section Jesus says that if we ask our Father in heaven to give us the Holy Spirit he will. That is how we can love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbour as ourselves.

Recently my daughter asked me, ‘Dad are you ever cold inside because you’re never cold on the outside?’ Well the truth is I am cold on the inside sometimes, cold towards God and my neighbour. We do fail to perfectly love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength even when we have the Maker’s instructions and cause damage. But there is forgiveness for those who repent, trusting in Christ. Who tonight needs to repent, turn to him, admit our lack of love for God and our neighbour and ask him to rekindle that flame and fill us with his Spirit?