Rule Number 2 (Matthew 22:34-40)

Love God and love people. That sounds simple, but is it? How much did you change your life this last week to love God more? It's easy to say we love God and that we will pursue a greater love of him, but it's hard to make him our passion all the time. It's a process. Don't give up.

What about people? Do you love people? God is easy to love. But people can be very hard to love. Today, we will look at the second greatest commandment, love your neighbor as yourself. Are we fulfilling that commandment as well?

The Love of a Pharisee

Matthew 22:34--40 (ESV) --- 34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

As we reread this text, we are reminded of the context. The religious leaders are questioning Jesus in Jerusalem. They have asked him various trick questions, and he has passed every test. They asked about paying taxes to Caesar, hoping to get him arrested, but that did not work. They asked about the resurrection hoping to divide his followers, but that did not work either. Now they ask him about which commandment is the greatest. This is another attempt to drive a wedge between him and his followers. They want to discredit him in some way. But his answers can silence them. He says that every law written in the Old Testament depends on these two commands, love God and love people.

How are the religious leaders doing with these two commands? Isn't it ironic that the testing nature of the questioning reveals that they don't love God or Jesus? They believe they love God and their neighbor. But they are working to destroy an innocent man, eventually having him crucified. They knew these were the greatest commandments, but they still broke them both. This should blow our minds.

I take this to be an extreme warning. Sometimes people believe that they are keeping the laws while they are breaking them. These religious leaders thought they were being obedient and loving God while they were trying to sabotage Jesus. They thought they loved their neighbor while killing Jesus. Where did they go wrong, and how can we avoid that same mistake?

Where Did They Go Wrong?

The Jews looked at the Old Testament laws carefully. They took the breaking of the law very seriously. If you remember, those who were blasphemers in the Old Testament were stoned to death, and God killed those who worshipped idols. They were so afraid of another destruction that they created rules as a barrier around the rules God gave them. But when Jesus showed up, he didn't pay any attention to their rules. He fulfilled God's law and not man's law. This led to a clash between the religious leaders and Jesus. They wanted to kill Jesus because they thought God wanted him dead. They had deceived themselves into believing that Jesus was evil, and they were totally blind to the evil that was in their own hearts.

What About Us?

Is there an important lesson for us in this? Can we do the same thing? It's not a loving thing to create rules God did not create. Why not? Because we restrict God's glorification and accuse innocent people of sin. It may seem loving to create rules for protection against evil, but all we are really doing is creating a burden for people to carry that they don't have to carry.

We see this pop up again in the church. Paul mentions judgmental rule-makers throughout his letters to the Romans, Galatians, Colossians, and Timothy. Peter and James also mention it.

Galatians 5:13--15 (ESV) --- 13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Colossians 2:16--23 (ESV) --- 16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. 20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations--- 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)---according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

God didn't want men to create laws that would protect them from breaking God's laws. He wanted their love for God to protect them. It reminds me of children creating additional rules to help their siblings be better children. How would you feel as a parent if your children fight over a rule that you didn't give them? Judgment and harshness are not what God was looking for when he gave commandments.

I have heard people do this all the time, and I have done this myself. When we read the Bible to create a list of things we must do to please God, we remove the focus on these two commandments. This is probably one of the most destructive things we do.

How Can We Avoid Making The Same Mistake?

If we take this warning seriously, we will be careful to avoid their mistake. We do not want to add anything to the laws that God has given or hold someone to a higher standard than the one God has set. We don't want to be harsh and judgmental. But we often find people in the church to be this way. I was this way, and I still struggle with this from time to time.

Maybe you are scoffing at this idea. Maybe you think, "God wants us to be obedient to all of his commands. Loving God and loving people is just a gateway to all kinds of rebellion and disobedience." Of course, God wants us to be obedient to all of his commands. But we must balance truth and love. Remember 1 Corinthians 13.

1 Corinthians 13:1--3 (ESV) --- 1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Paul clarifies that we can have all knowledge and know all of the truth, but we are nothing if we don't have love. We have to get past our pride and start seeking to discern what is true and loving. We need to submit to one another in love. If we fail to do this, we will destroy each other. We must love our neighbor as ourselves. We have to live with them in patience.

1 Corinthians 13:4--12 (ESV) --- 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Too often, we assume that we love people by telling them the truth as we understand it. But have we been patient and kind? Have we put away envy and boasting? Are we arrogant or rude? Are we insisting on our own way? It's so easy to be irritable and resentful. Sometimes we rejoice in something wrong instead of rejoicing in the truth. Love bears all things. When Jesus says, "Love your neighbor as yourself," he wants us to give others the many chances we give ourselves. We don't give up on ourselves. We bear with our own weaknesses. Love bears with the weaknesses of others in the same way.

Why Don't We Love Others As Ourselves?

We need to love everyone around us and pursue their well-being at all times. Maybe as I say this, you are thinking of someone who really needs to hear this. Consider how this applies to you. If we ever find ourselves thinking negative thoughts toward others, are we really loving them as we love ourselves?

Consider how we love ourselves. When we sin, do we think, "I didn't mean to do that?" How many times have you said, "It's okay for me to do that because this happened to me," "If someone does this, I can do that," or "My life and happiness is threatened, I have to do this." We are quick to justify our sins. We think that because someone has wronged us, our actions are justified. Usually, that's not true, but why don't we extend such grace to others when they wrong us? We are terrible judges when people wrong us.

I love myself more than I love you. But Jesus wants us to love each other as we love ourselves.

If we wish that someone in this church would go away because of all the problems they cause us, we don't love them as ourselves. The mission is for God's church to unite, transform, and build each other up to be like him. We don't want a single person to go away. We are a diverse group of people who don't fit into a mold set by men. Anytime different people come together, there are going to be problems. But we are called to love each other anyway. Satan wants to tear us apart, but God is glorified when we forgive and love each other. There may be a time when we have to let someone go or when we have to withdraw from someone. But that should not make us feel better. It should grieve us like these religious leaders grieve Jesus. Our hope is for them to be transformed. If we want them to leave, there is something wrong with our hearts too.

How Can We Love Others As Ourselves?

How do we do that? The truth is that we love ourselves too much. There is no room for us to love others. We don't have time. I have to learn to stop making everything about me. To help us with this, I want us to look at a few other texts.

Look at Jesus

Philippians 2:3--8 (ESV) --- 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Jesus didn't come down from heaven because we deserved it. He didn't do it so that God could exalt him. He was God. He lowered himself just to lift us from death. You might think that in response, Jesus expects us to love and serve him. That's probably true, but the primary thing he commands us to do is love each other. In this section of Matthew, we see that he summarizes the old law, but did you know that he created a new law elsewhere?

John 13:34--35 (ESV) --- 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Jesus commands us to show our love for him by loving each other. In this text, he tells us to love each other as he has loved us. Wow! What an expectation of sacrificial love. He wants us to get down off our pedestal of self-righteousness and serve others. Then, he says that all people will know who is Jesus' disciple by the way they love one another. If we bite and devour one another, that's not loving.

Feel Indebted

Romans 13:8--10 (ESV) --- 8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Paul takes the second law and says we owe one another love. How many of us think this way? Don't we base our love for others on what they do for us? What have you done for me? If we are strangers, what have you done for me? If we are enemies, what have you done for me? Have you ever felt as though you don't owe someone love? When we look at other people, we should see the love Christ has shown to us and feel obligated to love them. We owe our greatest enemies love because of what we have received from Christ. The only way we could ever love others as Christ has loved us is if we fully understand how undeserving we are of Christ's love.

Be Transformed

It's interesting to me how we tend to read Galatians 5 with rose-colored glasses.

Galatians 5:19--23 (ESV) --- 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Often, when we look at works of the flesh, we only see sexual immorality, impurities, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, drunkenness, and orgies. These are things we don't tend to struggle with (or at least what we think we don't struggle with). What about enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, and envy? Do we see these in the church? Do we see these in ourselves? To avoid making the same mistakes as the religious leaders in Jesus' day, we must stop leaving these out. These sins are sneaky and destructive.

See My Sin

The first step to avoiding this mistake is for us to see all of the rules God has given us as equally important and valuable. Maybe we are aware of our sexual temptations, and we can avoid those traps. I hope that we are so that we can move past that. But we also need sensors that detect enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, or envy too. These sins are associated with the inner thoughts and intentions of our hearts. They come upon us without us even knowing it, and we can add to the list malice, wrath, slander, gossiping, bitterness, cheating, deception, and many more.

The Growth of the Spirit

The second step is to understand what loving other people look like. When we look at the fruit of the Spirit, we avoid peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and gentleness. If we think about self-control, we aren't focused on controlling every sinful action, only the ones we already control. All of these are supposed to be a part of who we are in Christ. If patience isn't being created in us, the Spirit has not been allowed to transform us because we won't let him in. It's a slow process, but it should be progressing continually.

Conclusion

Loving others as we love ourselves was the second most important law in the Old Covenant. Now Jesus commands us to love each other as he has loved us. By loving our neighbor, we are showing love for God and fulfilling the law. That's why Jesus mentioned the second law when he was only asked for one law. He couldn't just give one law without explaining a crucial piece of that law. Failing to love our neighbor is failing to love God. Loving our neighbor is fulfilling the law of God.

The point Jesus makes is that God is pleased to see us with a passion for him and a love for each other. All of our doctrines must be considered with these two commandments in mind. We need to reconsider everything we believe in light of these two commandments. Being kind and tenderhearted toward others warms God's heart because that is the hardest thing we will ever do. It's not easy for us to put away all malice, slander, wrath, bitterness, clamor, gossip, betrayal, cheating, lying, manipulating, jealousy, envy, strife, harsh judgments, and any other kind of destructive habit. When we feel like we have one cleared out of our lives, another one pops up. But God sees everything we are going through for him. He knows it’s a process and he loves us as we grow. His grace always flows toward those who are open to change.