The Greatest Commandment, Part 2
Text: Matthew 22:34–40 ESV
Review
Over our Summer Chapel series, we went through the Great Commission from Jesus in Matthew 28 and saw the amazing grace God has given us by including us in his plans for saving his people. He, the very triune God, has brought us into his love and asked us to make disciples of all peoples by baptizing and teaching them about him. We have a commission from our God, and of course, we want to obey that command. We want to “go” and be on mission with our God. Yet, the natural question can be, “How do I tell people about this God that we know and love? How do I explain him and his heart to them?”
So, we pivoted last week to talk about the Greatest Commandments in Matthew 22:34–40. When we think about Jesus’s call to share our faith, one simple way to think about what that means is to think about the Greatest Commandments: Love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind and love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
We focused last week on loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind (or might). We saw how both the Greek mindset and the Hebrew mindset understood these phrases (from Matthew 22:34–40 and Deuteronomy 6:4–5) as an expression of our whole being. From the inside out, top to bottom, God has claimed all of us in Jesus Christ and expects us to whole heartedly and—if we are to keep that verbiage going—to whole souly and whole mindly—give ourselves over to our loving God. Scripture is replete with examples of how to do this, and we are thankful that our God has chosen to reveal to us what he finds lovely. We also saw and remembered that this call to “love” is a call to relationship. Relationship helps us make sure that the never-ending list of ways we could love God doesn’t become a checklist, but rather, a way for us to know this God who is entirely other than us and enter into his love as well. To have a relationship with him. And we do that most clearly through our faith in Jesus Christ.
Like It
It’s this phrase Jesus uses between these two sections—"a second is like it”—that bridges from loving God to loving neighbor. They are similar in Jesus’s mind. In fact, if we look at how this second great commandment is used elsewhere in Scripture, we see an interesting pattern. Look at what Paul says in Galatians 5. He has been talking about Christian freedom and pivots here to talk about love:
“Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” “ (Galatians 5:13b-14 ESV)
And again, in Romans 13:9, Paul says:
“For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. (Romans 13:9–10 ESV)
These ideas—loving the Lord your God and loving your neighbor as yourself—are so similar that in these examples Paul simply uses love of neighbor as summing up all the law and prophets in itself. Paul isn’t ignoring that love for God is necessary and even primary—he clearly knows and states elsewhere that we must love our God. But in these passages, he is talking about caring for others, and the most simple way to sum up all the Bible says about that is to say “love your neighbor as yourself.”
As I mentioned last week, love of neighbor is the most visible way we walk out our love for God. While there are many ways that we love God uniquely in our inner being, and there are some things that we can do solely toward him externally—like singing to him, praying to him, demonstrating trust in him—our love of God is most clearly manifest as we begin to engage our neighbors. That is what makes these two so similar and so wrapped up with one another. We almost can’t talk about love of God without talking about its most obvious outward expression, love of neighbor.
That is also why this passage is uniquely helpful to us as we think about the Great Commission. Our call to go and love all people is a distinct moment to image forth our love of our God. In fact, it is perhaps the best way we demonstrate our love of God to those around us. But more on that later.
What
When we come to this passage we want to look first at the what—what is Jesus calling us to do? He is calling us to love. Just like we are called to love our God, we are called to love our neighbor. At first that may seem so familiar and so simple, that we forget what a great battle it will always be to love anyone other than ourselves—God or neighbor.
Our entire existence is challenged on this one point—love. So often our goal is to strive to complete this life in our own power. To live up to our own expectations, other’s expectations, and provide for all our needs…on our own. I have a project to do around my house—don’t worry, I have it covered. Have I made a mistake? Don’t worry, I’ll fix it. The human condition is one of trying to make it through whatever stage, even all of life itself, without any help. It is pride that is the greatest of our sins because it gives us the false security or false hope that we don’t need anyone else. Love, on the other hand, draws us and points us to others. Love of God points us to our God who provided for our salvation himself in Jesus Christ. Love points out all the ways we fall short and need someone else that can fulfill the call of God that we can’t.
Love of neighbor reminds us that God has ordained this life for us. We don’t live solitary existences only relating to God. This is what keeps any of us from thinking that a hermit lifestyle in a cave, alone with our bible and praying and singing songs to God, is the highest form of love and enlightenment we can have. Love of neighbor is the twin hook that God hangs all he asks of us throughout Scripture.
Love of neighbor draws us into relationship with others. No matter how introverted or outgoing you may be, whether it is 2 people or 200 people, God has designed and called you to a life of focusing outwardly. First to him, then to your neighbor.
Love for neighbor reminds us of the inherent image-bearer quality that all people carry. They were made by our loving God, and they have the same base desires and goals that you and I have. No matter how much you may disagree or agree with someone, they still want to be respected, safe, comfortable, cared for—and loved.
My kids have marveled at times that I would tell them that babies are some of the most selfish people you will ever meet. That isn’t always how they are portrayed in television and internet ads. Yet, as my kids have grown and interacted with more babies, they have slowly come to agree with that idea. A baby may smile, but that is because you did something to please them, not because they are trying to please you. They cry to get food, a changed diaper, wrapped up more in their blanket, or picked up. They take and demand with no thought or concern for the other. They do not understand the concept of loving outside of themselves. Love of neighbor is the pride killer that a baby can’t understand. This commandment reminds us that the world does not revolve around us.
Who
And if love is orienting us first to God and then to others, we have to then see that Jesus is asking us to focus that love to our neighbor. We are lucky that in our American culture that even if someone doesn’t know or believe anything about God and Jesus, they undoubtedly know something about the parable of the Good Samaritan. Maybe not by name but certainly by concept.
The parable of the Good Samaritan from Jesus in Luke 10:25–37 reminds us that our neighbor is anyone who God puts us close to. Whether it’s your roommate, your family, that odd kid across the hall in your dorm, the guy who lives across the fence who chooses to dump their grass clippings over the fence into your yard, or even the person you just happen to walk by on the street or sit near at McDonalds—they are your neighbor. In Jesus’s parable, it was a Samaritan who did the right thing—someone a good Jew would never talk nor associate with, let alone help when they were injured. It was this Samaritan who did the right thing and helped the wayward traveler.
No matter how familiar this idea is, it isn’t any easier to live out. We are quick to love ourselves, and in our own pride, it is easiest to love that which is most similar to us. We group up with those that have the same political views as us, the same favorite sports, the same jobs. In doing so, we use love poorly and allow it to restrict us from completing the Great Commission we just looked at that told us to “go”! Go and engage all peoples, all nations. This will undoubtedly cause us to need to look outside of those we easily identify with, to see those we usually don’t.
This is most importantly a problem for the Church. We admittedly will have a narrower view on our theology and how we expect that will be lived out in our lives together. That is what makes up each local church expression. Because of that narrower view we want to strive to find as many other “neighbors” who can be on that mission with us. Neighbors of different heritage and ethnicities. Neighbors with differing political views, jobs, even literal neighborhoods. We hope and pray as a church that God will use his focus on neighbors to push us as his church to look to find any of those he would have us connect with. It is this focus on neighbor that should cause us to be strategic with where we live and work, and it is also what compels us to look to fulfill the Great Commission in finding entirely new neighbors—ones we have never been around or perhaps that have never been around a Christian before.
How
Yet, at the core of loving neighbor, is the challenge to love them “as yourself.” Just like loving the Lord our God is challenging when we consider loving him with everything we are, we are similarly challenged when we are called to love neighbors as ourselves.
At first, this statement may seem to soften the requirement. “That is easy,” we may say to ourselves.” I know what I like, so I can definitely love my neighbor well.” I like raspberry Mochas, McDonalds, Sci-Fi and action movies, old cars, and books with big words and theological statements. Of course, everybody would love it if I just give them the things that I like. It sounds funny, but we often think this way. We think our way of engaging the world is the only way to engage, what we like and treasure is ultimately best and good. So, we offer it to everyone else, expecting them to have the same reactions we have. And we often find this isn’t the case.
This does point to a particular truth—we are all cauldrons of desires and passions. Mostly that is good. We desire to be recognized and encouraged at work, to find meaningful friendships and relationships, to have the food we need to eat each day, to have a comfortable place to rest in the evening, and to be successful and well regarded. But loving your neighbor as yourself doesn’t mean expecting them to love the same things you love. That their cauldron boils in the same ways yours does. Rather, it is calling you to take your mind and understanding and focus it on their passions and concerns. It is like, if you could, you would take off what makes you and wrap yourself around their cauldron of passions and ignore your own and feel what they feel, see what they see, and understand what they understand. You do this instinctively with yourself, but it is one of the harder things to do with another person.
This is why we are living in a cultural moment where many of our black and brown brothers and sisters are begging for those of us who are not a person of color to truly love them as we love ourselves. To not negate our own experiences, but for a moment, to stop and understand their experiences—which are by their very nature so different than mine. To hear from them and feel what it is like to grow up a minority. To hear their stories, to feel their pain, to share in the burdens they have been given that a majority culture member will never have.
It is the same whether we talk about big differences like being a man compared to a woman, being black or brown compared to white, or if we talk about small differences like the difference my siblings had in their growing up experiences, or the plight of all slowly balding men. Loving your neighbor as yourself means being willing to consider and care for their cauldron of passions and experiences as you would instinctively care for your own. As if that wasn’t enough, Paul encourages us to do this more than just periodically. This “as yourself” love for neighbor should characterize our lives.
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:3–4 ESV)
And—if I may—this focus has repercussions for us in a season like COVID. There is always a time and place to debate policy and regulations. There are times to look at good data and discuss what are the best steps forward. There is a time for helping people to engage in debates in a healthy way and even try to change minds. But especially at a heightened moment of concern, lack of good information, and a new global challenge upon us, we as Christians want to default to love. Loving other Christians and loving those in a watching world well. As we saw earlier in Galatians 5:13–14, any freedoms we may think we have in Christ should not be used to gratify our own fleshly desires, but rather used to serve others. So, if you could, what passions, thoughts, desires, and cares would you notice if you wrapped yourself around those neighbors God has put you near in this season, and what would be the most loving way to serve them?
Our Lord himself loved us at great cost. When Jesus tells us to love, he says this:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34 ESV)
Yet he showed us that his love was truly in loving the other as himself by giving up his freedoms:
“Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5b–8 ESV)
Our savior modeled and has called us to this extreme love of neighbor as ourself because he did the same thing for us and all his people through the cross.
Overwhelming
We talked about how loving the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind could seem overwhelming if you looked at it like a list. If every passage in Scripture became a checklist, we would be discouraged. Yet if we view our life as one exploring and opening up the relationship we have with God himself, then the never ending complexities we see in our God become a joy because we are meeting and knowing a person through that endeavor.
Similarly, it may feel like loving our neighbor as ourself means we will completely be trod over. We will never do anything we enjoy; we only try to run around and please the whims and desires of others. Some people do this—they play the never-ending game of people pleasing and find that it becomes a new god in their life. That is why these two commandments go together.
While loving your neighbor as yourself is the quintessential external outworking of loving God, loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind keeps your neighbor from becoming an idol. Yet even more, loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind defines what your neighbor needs best to be loved. If you spend countless hours working on your neighbor’s house, you serve them dinner often, you find people on the street to take care of and provide for, yet you never share with any of them Jesus Christ, you have not loved them. The reason why the Great Commission and the Greatest Commandments go hand-in-hand is because they have the same goal. As I love my God with everything I am and I find myself challenged to care and consider my neighbor’s real experiences and needs, I find that I am also compelled to call them to my God who has loved them and saved them in Jesus Christ. No house project for a neighbor, no gift card for a friend, no handful of change to someone on the street nor many evenings sitting with someone in need can ever substitute for them knowing Jesus.
Does that mean we don’t do those things and only preach the gospel to them? Never! I just spent the last half hour explaining why that matters and how it is an expression of your love for God. But your love for God should run deep through each interaction, and it should be the inescapable emphasis your neighbor knows is driving you.
Conclusion
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. Love your neighbor as yourself. These two calls help us rightly orient our own hearts when we go on this mission of making disciples. It takes what could seem to be a list of to-dos and simple acknowledgements by other people and makes it relational—both to God and to our neighbors. We no longer share about our God and about our Savior as though they are facts to remember to repeat on a test. They are the joyful discussion about a person we love and care for—who has loved and cared for us as well—that we are sharing with others. A God we have come to know with all our being as we have sat before him in prayer, in study over his word, and in connection with his people. It is this love for God that roots our love for neighbor. As we care for their real needs, desires, and passions, it is with an ultimate eye to sharing with them our love for God that they may enter into that same love and find there, in Jesus Christ, the answer to all their true needs and desires.