THE GREAT COMMANDMENT

Matthew 22:34-40

In this passage, we once again find Jesus answering a question.

In this chapter Jesus has already been questioned twice.
The first time the Herodians and Pharisees come with a question about paying taxes…and Jesus answers and tells them “to give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
And the second time the Sadducees, in all of their self perceived knowledge, come and questioned Jesus about the resurrection…and Jesus tells them that in spite of their reputation of being so knowledgeable of the Books of Moses…they were in fact wrong in their understanding of those scriptures and not only that, they did not understand the power of God.

So two times Jesus has already been questioned in this chapter…and in this passage we find him questioned again…and again, in vs. 35, the question is intended to “test” Jesus.

If they can only find fault with him…if they could only ruin his reputation and discredit Him…then they could turn the people against Him.

And it still goes on today…people wanting to discredit Jesus…ruin His reputation…find fault with Him because if they can they can justify their own sinful actions and the whole of Christianity will fall apart.

So again, this question is a “test.”

So look what the Bible says: “But when the Pharisees heard that He had put the Sadducees to silence, they gathered themselves together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer (an expert in the Law of Moses, a teacher of the Law) , asked Him a question, testing Him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

“Which is the “foremost of all…the most important one?”

Now, you need to understand that that question did not just come “out of the blue.”

This was one of the most debated questions of the day.

What had happened was these Jewish Rabbis had studied the Laws of Moses and what they would do is they would make some laws “weightier” than others.

One Jewish Rabbi at the time was a Rabbi named Shemei…and he had gone through the Books of Moses and had determined that there were 613 laws.
365 were prohibitions…or “thou shalt nots.”
248 were commandments or “thou shalts.”

So the question came up…which ones were more important.

Some Rabbi’s said that “Keeping the Sabbath was a “heavy law” while those laws pertaining to “how you deal with animals or foreigners” were “light laws.”
- Circumcising your male children was a “heavy law.”
- Wearing little prayer boxes or your forehead was a “light law.”

But then other Rabbi’s would come along and say, “No, wearing the prayer boxes is a heavy law too.”

So they would go back and forth trying to decide which was a “heavy law and which was a light law.”

So this is a debate that has been going on for some time…and this “expert in the Law”, in an attempt to “test” or trap Jesus again, wants to know what Jesus has to say about this issue because if Jesus answers one way He will alienate Himself from one group…and if He answers another way He will alienate Himself from another group.

So he asks, “Which is the great commandment in the Law?”

Now, here this lawyer is, as well as others, waiting to hear one of the commandments from the Law of Moses.

He is waiting to hear Jesus say, “You shall have no other Gods before me” is the foremost commandment.
Or “Thou shalt not kill.”
Or some other of the 10 commandments…or some of the ordinances…or traditions.
That is what he is waiting to hear.

But, Jesus doesn’t deal with the symptom…He deals with the heart of the matter.

Look at what He says in verse 37..

This man says, “Which is the great commandment in the Law?”

And Jesus says,

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment.”

Do you understand what Jesus has said here?

Here these people were, debating what the “foremost commandment of all was?”
“We want to know which is number one.”

And what Jesus does here is He gets to the heart of the matter and He says, “You can call one commandment more important than another.”

“You can argue and wrangle and discuss all you want too.”
“But if you do not love God…if you are not committed to God…devoted to God…it’s a waste. It is a waste!”
You can argue all day long…you can even keep all the commandments you want too.
You can keep the Sabbath…you can circumcise your male children…
You can wear your little prayer boxes on your forehead.
You can offer your sacrifices…you can do them all.
But if your relationship with God is not right.
IF there is no love for God…no devotion to God…no commitment to God…
And if you don’t do what you do out of love for God…it’s a waste…and you are still not pleasing to God.

These people were notorious for this. Look at chapter 23: 23-28. Look at this.

23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.

They were giving their offerings but they were leaving out the most important thing: justice, mercy and faithfulness.
There was no love behind what they were doing.

24 “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! 25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. 26 “You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. 27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 “Even so you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

The one thing they needed most of all was missing…and that was a love for God.

And it is the same for us…we can keep all the commandments we want.

We can come to this building and sit here as many times as we can.
We can do good deed after good deed.
You can be baptized…10 times…and visit 200 widows and orphans.
But if there is no love for God…no devotion to God…and if you don’t do those things out of a love for God…
If you do them only because you “have to” or only because “that is what you have to do to be saved”…then you are still not pleasing to God.

Go back to chapter 22 and look at what Jesus says next in verses 39.

“The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

You can almost hear them can’t you?

“Thou shalt not kill is the most important command concerning your neighbor.”
“No, “Thou shalt not commit adultery is.”
“I don’t agree, I think “Thou shalt not bear false witness is.”

And again, Jesus says, “You can keep all the commandments you want.”

You can wrangle and wrangle about which one is most important…and you can teach one as being more important than another.
But if you don’t love your neighbor…and if you don’t do those things for your neighbor out of love…you still aren’t pleasing to God.

Several years later Paul would teach this same principle to some of our brethren in the church at Corinth.

They had been blessed with all these spiritual gifts…
And they were so proud of them.
They could perform miracles of healing…and they could speak in tongues.
And they could prophecy…and interpret the tongues.
I mean they could do all of these great and wondrous things.

But listen to these words from Paul found in I Corinthians 13: 1-2 as he warns these brethren about the use of their gifts.

1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have {the gift of} prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

Brethren, you can do it all….

You can preach…teach…you can honor your father and mother…keep the Sabbath…
Refuse to take the Lord’s name in vain…
What ever it is…you can do it or not do it.
But if you don’t love God…and if you don’t love your neighbor…and do those things because of that love…it means nothing.

In fact, look at what Jesus says next in Matthew 22:40: On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.

If you don’t love God…and if you don’t love your neighbor…you can keep all the commmandments you want…but they won’t mean anything.

Now, I want you to see what this lawyer says next…Matthew doesn’t mention it…but Mark does in Mark 12:32. Look at what he says:

32 And the scribe said to Him, “Right, Teacher, you have truly stated that He is One; and there is no one else besides Him; 33 and to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as himself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

The sacrifices and burnt offerings were necessary.
But without love they were worthless.

Now look at verse 34.

And when Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

Just knowing to do it in love is not enough.

Just saying you love is not enough.
Christ hears what this man says and He tells him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
“You are so close.”
The only thing he lacks is doing it…and doing it out of love.

Did he come to “love God…and his neighbor?”

We don’t know.
Matthew and Mark don’t tell us.
So I guess you will have to write the end to this story yourself.
But you know what is more important than how this lawyer’s or scribe’s story ends?
It is how your story is going to end?

Will you make it to the Kingdom of God…or will you just come close?

I hope it will be the Kingdom of God for you but the truth is, it may all come down to a matter of love.