Good morning, beloved,
I’m sinking into a text..wanna come?
34Now when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced ([a]muzzled) the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35And one of their number, a lawyer, asked Him a question to test Him.
36Teacher, which [b]kind of commandment is great and important (the principal kind) in the Law? [Some commandments are light–which are heavy?]
37And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect).(A)
38This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment.
39And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself.(B)
40These two commandments [c]sum up and upon them depend all the Law and the Prophets.
I have a thirst today to study Jesus. I love how Jesus spent so much time quoting the Old Testament. Here’s what’s funny to me about that..until a few years ago, that was an unread piece of the Word to me. Well, loved me some Psalms. I knew the stories from Sunday School. Yet, after I studied in depth, the Kings and Chronicles with Kay Arthur suddenly my attitude towards the OT shifted. This was no longer a study in boredom and non-applicable head knowledge but life..treasure in these pages, and if you are honest, you may find yourself there as well.
Beloved, Jesus quoted the OT, first, because He was a rabbi and by the age of ten He would have had the first five books of the Bible…memorized. Every Jewish child would, at least, have this memorized. Now, as one of the best of the best students, He had decided to become a Rabbi..He would now memorize the entire OT thru Malachi. He would have done this by the age of 13, 14. Ok, well, I’m going to guess He always had it memorized..but you, I hope, get my meaning. This was a typical Jewish students tract.
I could go on and on..but let me just say, take some time and look at this article:
Covered in the Dust of the Rabbi
So, let’s go back to the passage in Matthew. It’s critical to understand that His audience would have known this text. So, He would mention a part of the text and they would know where He was referring and why. That’s how well known their Torah (the OT). The text was not a readily available item in every household as it is today. It needed to be memorized.
Here is Chuck Smith : The law was set forth in negatives. Thou shalt have no other gods. Thou shalt not, thou shalt not. Jesus put it in a very positive way, just love God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, love your neighbor as yourself. And this is the law. This is basically what the law is declaring, that we should have a loving relationship with God first; that is reflected in a loving relationship with fellow man. This is what the whole Old Testament was all about; the law and the prophets hang on these two.
David Guzik: Asked Him a question, testing Him: In asking Jesus to choose one great commandment, they tried to make Jesus show neglect for another area of the law. Instead of promoting one command over another, Jesus defines the law in its essence: love the Lord with everything you have and love your neighbor as yourself.
i. It is clear enough what it means to love the Lord with all we are, though it is exceeding difficult to do. But there has been much confusion about what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. This doesn’t mean that we must love ourselves before we can love anyone else; it means that in the same way we take care of ourselves and are concerned about our own interests, we should take care and have concern for the interests of others.
I have so much to learn. So much in my own life, that my selfishness and pride and yuck get in my way of loving Him first. He gets that! He knows this..that is why this is a journey and there is an end destination. Can I get an amen? Our focus is on the prize: heaven. Questions I am going to be asking myself today:
Am I loving my Lord with how I am thinking?
Am I loving my neighbor as I talk and interact with the beloved in my life?
Am I denying my rights in exchange for the glorious gift of Jesus?
Pray on, friends. Pray on…
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