All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.On these two commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets.
5 sermons cite this verse
… 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? I would hope they would say, wow, we can't wait till church lets out. we have never been so loved in our entire lives. …
… 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 the rules are actually opening us up to experience a beautiful life. They're creating conditions where we're all working in the same direction and longing to grow in the same capacity. That we can be people who forgive. …
… You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. He was being pressed to answer which one of those passages was the greatest. and he says, or there's this one satisfying the requirement, but he says, but there's another one just like it. And Jesus is reminding us that our life of faith is rooted in the love of God with everything we have and all that we are, but it's also found in our love for other people. So when I think about like what that looks like, Jesus saying we need to love God with our whole being, you know, that looks like this vertical relationship, right? God is up at the top and we are down at the bottom. And so we connect with God. We love God by paying attention to spiritual practices. We read scripture. We pray regularly. We attend to the sacraments. We live our life of faith individually, us and God. But Jesus says there's so much more. …
… 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 …
… Love your neighbor, here it is, as yourself. all the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments now I think it's interesting that Jesus didn't just stop with the first commandment because if he had loved the Lord your God with all your heart and your soul and your mind that he could have been promoting a very internal personal intangible and unobservable faith it's just me and God and I'm loving God with all my heart over here and don't mind me and I won't mind you. I'm just over here loving the Lord. That's the most important thing, right? He said no. And there's a second thing and it's as important as the first thing, love your neighbor as yourself. In other words, Jesus wanted us to know that the love we have for God and with God is to be demonstrated in the world. It's to be visible and tangible in the world as we love our neighbor as ourself. In other words, our mission in life hello is to be the agents of the love of God to the world. …