October 27, 2002am:    The Two Commandments    Matthew 22:34-40

By Ronald E. George Jr. at the Fayetteville Baptist Church

A Sunday School teacher was teaching her children the benefits of unselfishness. She concluded by saying: "The reason you are in this world, children, is to help others."

After a moment's silence, a little girl piped up: "Well, then, what are the OTHERS here for?"  from Bible Illustrator.

Why was Adam's first day the longest?  Because it had no Eve.  From Bible Illustrator.

The theological student was playing "Stump the Professor." He asked his instructor, a widely recognized scholar and author, to state in a few words his most profound theology. The academician thought a moment, then replied, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." Centuries earlier a similar scene took place in Jerusalem. A theological "hot shot" approached a country preacher with the toughest question of the day: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" In this case the theologian was playing "Stump the Bumpkin." After all, how could a backwoods itinerant possibly answer the question that the finest religious minds in the country couldn't? That the preacher answered was a surprise; but what he answered was the real shocker. "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.'This is the first and greatest commandment...." The answer Jesus gave in Matt 22:34-40 was not at all unlike the answer of the modern theologian. Just as children in Bible class today learn to sing "Jesus Loves Me" from the earliest age, children in first century Palestine learned to recite "Love the Lord your God" from infancy. In fact, that was what Deut 6:4-9 was all about-parents teaching their children to give God all the love they have. The study of theology is fine if it is kept in perspective. But we must never allow our research to obscure God's revelation. The most profound theological truths are these: God loves me and I must love God.  from Bible Illustrator.

The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing.  -- George Sweeting

Matt 22:34 (KJS) But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. 35 Then one of them, [which was] a lawyer, asked [him a question], tempting him, and saying, 36 Master, which [is] the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second [is] like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Love is the main thing.  What is love?  Love is a decision that is followed by fulfillment on both parts of the relationship.    Completion, execution, implementation, performance and fulfillment of the decision are a vital part of the decision to love.  You can’t have one without the other.  Jesus said that all hangs on these two commands. 

            If I say I love you then I don’t follow through and actually do it then it is empty.  Love isn’t a feeling it is an act performed on one part for the benefit of the other.  Love of God, love of self, and love of others is the whole of the Christian life.  It is the main thing that we are called to do.  Love is an action. 

I.  This is the main thing:  Do you love the Lord?  Will you love the Lord? 

Love is a decision followed by fulfillment.  Who is He?  He is the one who came for you.  He lived for you.  He died for you.  He arose from the dead for you.  He knows you.  He called your name.  He wants you to be his child.  He wants to be your Father.  Love is a decision followed by fulfillment.

Do you love the Lord with you heart, soul, and mind?  Have you been who He wants you to be?  Are you trying to be who He wants you to be?  Will you decide today to love the Lord?  Will you give yourself to Him?  Receive Him as your God and become His child.  Will you follow Him in salvation, baptism, and church membership?  Jesus said if you love me you would keep my commandments.  Will you love the Lord? 

II.  This is the main thing:  Do you love yourself?  Will you love yourself?

Love is a decision followed by fulfillment.  Have you decided to love yourself?  Then you are deciding to love based on the fact that you are a person created by the Lord.  You are a person that Jesus loves and died for.  The “died for” part of that sentence is the fulfillment of His decision.  You are worth it.  If you have decided to love yourself then the fulfillment of that sentence is to give yourself to God to become who you were created to be.  Then you are truly loving yourself and giving yourself the opportunity to experience love in it’s finest. 

III.  This is the main thing:  Do you love your neighbor?  Will you love your neighbor? 

Love is a decision followed by a fulfillment.  Love is not based on your feelings, but on your decision.  Have you decided to love another?  Then will you act like it?  Performing the decision to love is what love is all about.  Do you love your neighbor as you love yourself?  Will you love your neighbor as you love yourself?  Then you have fulfilled the second great commandment. 

“The rule for us all is perfectly simple.  Do not waste time bothering whether you "love" your neighbor; act as if you did.  As soon as we do this, we learn one of the great secrets.  When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love them.  If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more.  If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less.  There is however one exception.  If you do him a good turn, not to please God and obey the law of love, but to show him what a fine forgiving chap you are, and to put him in your debt, and then sit down to wait for his "gratitude," you will probably be disappointed.... But whenever we do good to another self, just because it is a self, made like us by God, and desiring its own happiness as we desire ours, we shall have learned to love it a little more or, at least, to dislike it less.”  By C. S. Lewis 

1Joh 4:7 (NIV) Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for {[10] Or as the one who would turn aside his wrath, taking away}our sins.

11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.

16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.

18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

19 We love because he first loved us.

Love is

   Slow to suspect -- quick to trust.

   Slow to condemn -- quick to justify.

   Slow to offend --  quick to defend.

   Slow to reprimand --  quick to forbear.

   Slow to belittle -- quick to appreciate.

   Slow to demand --  quick to give.

   Slow to provoke -- quick to conciliate.

   Slow to hinder -- quick to help.

   Slow to resent -- quick to forgive

Will you show God and his love to others?