34 But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. 35 One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
Now a lawyer from among the Pharisees takes his turn at Jesus. Lawyers were the experts at interpreting the Law of Moses, trained with incisive minds and well versed in the rabbinical debates over the relative importance of God’s many commandments. As was common in those days, so today many spend copious amounts of time and energy arguing the “finer” points of Scripture, the relative merits of the plethora of Scripture teachings. Each group in Christendom, it seems, has its defining doctrine or characteristic, supposing that they themselves have the corner on a specific truth or doctrine which no one else appreciates as much or emphasizes enough as they do.
Pride of doctrine is detestable in God’s sight. If God has revealed to you clarity in the truth, it is only by His grace, and such should be held with humility, not as a means of exalting oneself above other Christians deemed less faithful. The lawyer, as one bad example of this, came in his arrogance testing Jesus with his disingenuous question about which are the greatest commandments.
In response, Jesus gave a straightforward answer: Love God completely and unreservedly (quoting Deut 6:5), and then love your neighbor as yourself (quoting Lev 19:18). All other teachings in Scripture depend upon these two commandments. Pretty simple. Modern liberal Christianity, rising in the early 20th century got this backward, putting the salt and light ministries of the social gospel (“loving your neighbor”) as the pinnacle of the Christian faith, rather than a right relationship with God (“loving God”). There is a move in the early part of the 21st century among some evangelicals to revisit this liberal position, swinging the pendulum to balance dry evangelicalism that has confused fidelity to the letter of Scripture with love of God, the spirit of Scripture. The apostle Paul put Biblical teaching in this way, “The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Tim 1:5).
Lord, because You first loved us, we can love You in response. Only then can we truly love others (1 John 4:19). Help me keep that order straight.
0 Comments