“Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?”“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?”Master, which is the great commandment in the law?Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?
4 sermons cite this verse
… but here I would say there's two commandments. The first commandment, found in Matthew 22, verse 36, Jesus is asked, which is the greatest commandment? The first commandment, he says, love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind. This is the first, and the great commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets, meaning all the law and the prophets sum up in these two things, love God and love your neighbor as yourself. So you don't, I mean, it is good to go memorize the 10 commandments, but to live this way, I need to love God with all my being. How do you know if you're loving God with all your being? Well, the test is, do you love others? How do you treat others? Now, you might say, I think I'm pretty loving. Well, if we were to go over to some of the local establishments right after Second Service lets out, and we were to ask the waitresses and the waiters how they were treated by Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, what do you think their answer would be? …
… Here's what he says. He says, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. You see, Jesus isn't throwing away any of the laws. Instead, he's doing something even bigger. He's explaining why they all matter in the first place. You see, he's inviting us to consider the fact that each and every one of these laws are all pointing towards the same thing. They're inviting us to live a life of love, a life of justice, a life of kindness and compassion. he's saying the most important thing for us to do is to love. Now some people might think rules are restrictive or commandments are things that are going to limit our lives. But what Jesus is doing here is he's reminding us that no, that's not the case. …
… that drives obedient faith. Matthew 22, verses 36 through 38. a lawyer came and asked Jesus, teacher, what is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, you shall obey me. Is that what it says? No. He says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. Why? Because if we genuinely love God as we saw before, then that will drive faithful living. That will drive obedience. Love towards God will cause you to hate sin because sin separates you from God. It was this sort of love that Jesus was looking for from the church at Ephesus, and it was this sort of love that the church at Ephesus had lost for Jesus. What about you? what about me has our love grown cold for jesus first thing that jesus is going to do is he's going to address his church he's going to speak to them and then he's going to make three observations about their spiritual condition and so today we have one main point and we're going to have three sub points if you're taking notes you want to write that down three observations about their spiritual condition. …
… And you remember Jesus says, and in Matthew 22, 37, he says it this way, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind. Now, what's interesting is he's quoting Deuteronomy 6, 5, but in Deuteronomy 6, 5, it says you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your being and with all your might. with all your strength. Jesus changes that from all your strength to all your mind. And the word mind, I've taught this at resurrection before, but it's a Greek word, dianoia. And dianoia means to practice critical thinking, to think through things. Literally, it means to reason through or to think through things. And so to love God with your understanding, to love God with your mind, with your critical thinking skills, you're meant to be a critical thinker. There are places within the world, and in the United States, I hear this sometimes, where there are people who are academics or intellectuals, and they think that they have to choose between the intellect and faith, not just science and faith, but the intellect and faith, that maybe you can't be a person of reason and critical thinking skills and be a Christian. In fact, sometimes they think the things that you Christians believe require me to suspend my critical thinking skills, but that's not the case. Jesus was saying, use your critical thinking skills, love God with your mind and not just your heart and your being. So when I think about this, I think, well, the early …