Matthew 27

Brendan Thomas

Mathew • Sermon • Submitted 21 days ago • Presented 22 days ago

Matthew 22:34–40

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How to obey the greatest two commandments of the faith.

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The greatest Commandments

As we continue into chapter 22 we see the conflicts with the Pharisees and the Sadducees increase as Christ is now in Jerusalem and in the very end of His ministry. The two groups come to him and berate Him with constant questions trying to make Him stumble in front of the large crowds He no doubt had following Him in the cities to listen to Him. We are going to look now at the very last question that these people ask Him before His trial later on. This is the last time they try to test Him before He shuts them down and focuses back on the people following Him to listen. Look down to verse 34 so we can see what this final question of the Pharisees will be.

Matthew 22:34–36 “But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?””

First thing to note to set the scene is that Jesus had just answered a question from the Sadducees and shut them down. This is somewhat important to note as the Pharisees and the Sadducees were not exactly friendly with each other either. It was sort of an enemy of my enemy is a friend situation. They were each branches of the Judicial legal and religious system of order, but the major difference without getting to into it is that the Sadducees did not believe in an afterlife while the Pharisees did and the Sadducees adhered only to what was found in the Law and not anything that could be considered oral tradition while the Pharisees did.

The interesting thing here though is that the Sadducees question had to do with what would happen in the afterlife and the Pharisees question has to do with the Law. So, the Pharisees are coming into this question likely thinking not only of trying to trip Jesus up, but also showing up the Sadducees so that they could gain more political power in the Jewish community. So then, they ask a question about the law to try and beat both parties at the same time. The problem here then is not necessarily the question that they ask, but why they are asking it. It is good to know the commandments of God and how to serve Him best, but why do we want to know? Is it just so we can show off to everyone else around us that we are so Holy? Are we just trying to find a bare minimum rule list to follow? I feel like we often can be in one of these two categories. We seek after information and seek to appear Christian but not to glorify God. We do so either because we care to much about the opinions of men, or because we want to do as little as possible. It is human nature to care about what others think of you and in some ways it is a good instinct. We should want people to have a good opinion of us. It makes life a lot easier if people know, like, and respect you. However, that should never be out primary concern. Our primary concern should always be the glorification of God and the publics opinion of us is related to that if we are believers. If people know we are Christians then they will judge Christ based on our actions so it is our job to care about what others think but only in a selfless manner.

The other option is honestly either a lazy Christian or a non-believer. We can all be a bit lazy at times and try to find the bare minimum that we can do to get through a situation. Our walk with Christ is no different. Sometimes we try to figure out what the minimum is so that we can do that and move on. In this case maybe you would like to know the greatest commandment so you can just make sure you do that one thing and you can skip everything else. Well Jesus’ answer to this question addresses both of these possibilities and makes sure we are corrected if we fall into one of these categories.

Matthew 22:37–38 “Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.”

So, Jesus immediately tells them that the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. That is great to hear and all, but what does that mean for us? How do we actually do that? I know we all have heard this verse before and know we ought to love God but how do we do so? Let’s break the verse down and see what we can learn. First I think it is important to look at the word love. In the New Testament of course it was not originally written in English. It was originally in Greek and in Greek I am sure you know there are multiple words that we translate to love each carrying a different level or degree of love intended by its use. Here to the word used is agape which is the highest form of love. This love is selfless, it is sacrificial, and it is unconditional. It is the type of love that God has for us and now Jesus is telling us that we are to love Him with this same measure of love. We are to be selfless in our love for Him meaning that we are no longer focused on what we can gain but only on how to glorify Him. We are sacrificial meaning that we give up anything to see His kingdom spread and to grow closer to Him, and we love unconditionally meaning that no matter what comes we will always love God.

How then do we agape love God? Well Jesus answers that. He says we are to love Him with al our heart, soul, and mind. Theologians and commentators of scripture will look at this to mean one of two possible things. Some will say that by this it is meant as an all encompassing phrase meaning essentially your whole life. The other view is that each of these three things represents a specific aspect of your life. I personally think that it is technically both of these two options. Each thing listed here represents a part of your life but whenever you take all of these parts and add them up it equals your whole life. So, what do they represent in our lives?

Let’s start with the heart. The heart has been linked to the human will often though history. It is connected to our passions and our desires, what we want in this life. The heart wants what the heart wants. So, to love God with all our heart means that all of our passions and desires are focused on Him. Now in truth, this is impossible. To truly love God with all our heart, soul, or mind is impossible. It is about the effort towards that goal though that God desires to see in us. So, we should be making efforts towards focusing our desires on God. This goes towards that selfless agape love. Submitting our will to the Father in hopes of exchanging it for His so that our desires can be that of righteousness and holiness. I believe that all of us have desires in this room right now that we need to lay down in favor of a desire to do good. Maybe it is something as simple as a strong desire for sweets and you know it is out of gluttony. Maybe it is more than that. Maybe you have a desire for someone that you shouldn’t. Someone who is leading you into sin and causing you to drift further away from Christ. Controlling your will and passions is not an easy endeavor but that is why I encourage prayer and fasting to many of you. What is fasting other than learning to control your desire. Learning to tell your body and mind no in order to honor God. Fasting is practice for the real temptations of the world.

So, if heart is desire what then is soul? These two can sometimes get conflated into the same meaning but I believe they are very different and to conflate them is deadly. You see, your soul is your very essence, it is who you are. In our modern culture many people have mixed these two with disastrous effects. If we base who we are upon what we desire then what we are is despicable at least half the time. That is what we see today with the LGBTQ movement. People basing who they are on their sexual identity. Then whenever we as Christ followers call out the sin it is as if we are attacking them directly and saying who they are is an abomination to God rather than the sin the commit is. We are not the sins we desire. We are spiritual creatures trapped in sinful fleshly bodies. We are designed in the image of God and to love God with all our soul is to accept and respect that. It is to live a life with that in mind meaning that we respect ourselves enough not to hate ourselves and not to put ourselves into degrading situations. To love God with all your soul is to accept that the soul within you was designed by God for much more that the depravity you will wants to put it through and to instead define who you are based upon your relationship with God. It is to find your worth only and fully in the love that God has extended down to you as His son or daughter and not in what the world tells you.

Lastly, how do we love God with all our mind. The mind again is one that is pretty consistent in what it represents. It is representative for human reason and understanding. The world is libel to try its best to turn you against God based on this aspect of your life. It is libel to tell you that intellectually Christianity makes no sense and that God is a fairy tale. Guard yourself against this. Fill your mind with the word of God and read works from Godly authors so that your mind is filled with thoughts of Him. Surround yourself with Christian influences from what you read to what you watch to what you listen to. This is how we love God with all our mind. We make sure that our minds are filled with thoughts of Him. The world around us tries to fill our minds with trash and I will be the first to admit that I cave to it a lot of the time. I love to listen to non-Christian music and watch movies and play video game that are all filled with stuff that probably is not beneficial for me to expose myself to in the long run. But I also make sure to listen to some worship songs at some point nearly every day, I watch videos on youtube of people discussing God and scripture, and I try to read every night some of either a Christian non-fiction text or a Christian fiction book to continue filling my mind with God. If you are putting garbage into your mind then to love God with all your mind you must also be putting in a larger amount of Him.

Jesus does not stop there though, He also gives us the second greatest commandment.

Matthew 22:39–40 “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.””

Two things quickly as we close. The love that is mentioned here is again the agape love. That sacrificial selfless and unconditional love that we have for God we should also have (though not in the same measure) for other people. We should be serving people in every area of our life because if we are loving God properly then loving our neighbor will naturally come out of the overflow of our love towards Him. And finally, He says that on these two commandments all the Law and the Prophets hang. By this Jesus means these two things are the core of the faith. Without first a love for God and then second a love for people then no matter what else you do it does not matter. To rightly serve God in other areas we must first have love abounding in our lives.