JESUS: His Commands: "Love God; Love People"  
2-19-06     Audio
Mark 12:28-34 (Matthew 22:37-39)

When you are reading and trying to understand the Bible, it’s important that you pay attention to the context of what you are reading. To whom is this being spoken? What are the circumstances? What has been said just prior to these verses? What is said following them?

I have seen people take a verse out of its context and try to make it say something that God never intended for it to say.

We are beginning a series of messages this morning on the commands of Jesus. And here is the question: are all of Jesus commands binding on us today? You cannot answer that without looking at the context.

Jesus said: "Sell all you have and give the money to the poor."

Jesus said: "Wait in Jerusalem."

Jesus said: "If your eye offends you, gouge it out."

Jesus said: "Leave your job and Come follow Me."

Jesus said: "Pick up your bed and walk."

Jesus said: "Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet

you. Follow him."

Jesus said: "Put your finger in the nail print in My hand."

While all of those commands have meaning and relevance and application to us today, few of us believe we are to obey these commands literally. We may try to spiritualize them, but when Jesus spoke them, He meant for the people to take them literally.

So which of Jesus’ commands do we take literally today? The context helps us to determine that.

Let’s go through Mark 12. Jesus begins with a story, a parable. If you will go back up into chapter 11, v.27, you will see that He is talking to a hostile crowd: the chief priests, the teachers of the Law, and the elders. The story Jesus told was not at all flattering to them, so look at 12:12.

Then in v.13 (read).

Then there are two exchanges between Jesus and these hostile religious leaders – one about paying taxes to Caesar, and one about relationships in heaven. And Jesus gives some amazing teaching here.

Let’s read now in v.28 (read thru v.34).

We are going to be doing a brief series in a few weeks about the answers Jesus gave to people’s questions. And this section could have been in that series as well: "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" That is a great question!

It appears that this man was a bit more sincere than the others. Matthew says that he was testing Jesus, but when Jesus answers him the way he does, he commends Jesus, and Jesus commends him.

Jesus answer is direct and simple and clear: "Love God, and love people." In Matthew’s account of this exchange he includes one more statement by Jesus: All of the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commands. So if we are going to consider the commands of Jesus, we had better start with these two summary commands: "Love God, and love people."

But is this command for us, or was it just for those religious leaders? This one is a no-brainer. Jesus is quoting from and reinforcing a command that was given in the Old Testament more than 1400 years before Jesus was even born. This is a universal command, as are most of Jesus’ commands.

As a matter of fact, Matthew 28:19-20 says: Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

So unless it is very, very clear that a command is given only to a specific individual, or for a very specific circumstance, all of Jesus’ commands are binding on all of us as His followers.

How is that even possible?

Colossians 1:21 describes people who are not followers of Jesus: Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. How can we love God when we are enemies with Him in our minds?

Ephesians 2 begins As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. (v.1-3).

How can the unbeliever love God? They can’t, and it’s useless for us to try to tell them: "all you need to do is to love God." You first have to become a believer, and then you become a lover. We are saved by our faith not by our love.

Ephesians 2 continues: Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. (v.4-5).

In and of ourselves, we are without hope and without God in the world. And there is nothing we can do about it. We have absolutely no hope.

But God…

Romans 5:8 says: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1 John 4:19 says: We love him, because he first loved us.

Our loving God does not start with us. It does not start with our decision to love God, our Herculean efforts to love God, our giving it our very best. Our loving God starts with Him. Our love for Him is only a response, a response to His love for us.

That’s why the preaching of Jesus, and the preaching of the cross is so vital. The cross demonstrates God’s love for us. Jesus dying on that cross for our sins, taking the penalty that we deserve so that we could set free from our guilt and our fear, that shows us God’s love like nothing else can.

People sometimes say to me: "If God really loved me, He would…" and then they give me the thing they most want God to do for them. "And since He isn’t giving me what I want, then He must not love me."

Rom. 5:8 says: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. There is the demonstration of God’s love, and we need no other demonstration. If we do not respond to this demonstration of love by loving Him in return, we will not respond to any other demonstration of His love. It’s that simple.

Our first response to God’s love is to trust Him, not to love Him. We make a decision to place our faith in Him. We see His love for us, and we believing in what He has already done for us in sending Jesus as our Savior, put our trust in what He has done and are saved. Until we trust, we cannot really love.

And this Jewish command, given by God through Moses to Jews, is now given by Jesus to those who would follow Him: Love God; love Him with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. If you are a follower of Jesus, this is His primary command to you: "Love God supremely."

Jesus said: "You cannot love God and…" The Bible calls that idolatry. Anything we love equally with God or more than God is an idol in our life. The devil loves it, but God hates it.

Jesus, Who is Himself God, said: "If you love me, you will obey what I command. Our obedience to God is an evidence of our love for Him. I’m so glad that we are not saved by our obedience, or even saved by our love. We are saved by Grace, and by our faith in God’s grace. But even when we receive His grace and believe in His love, we still fail Him, and disobey Him, and evidence a lack of love for Him. That does not mean, however, that we are no longer saved. We are saved by grace, through faith.

It’s not our salvation that is so much affected by our disobedience as it is our relationship with God and our fellowship with Him. He loves us; He longs for openness with us and time with us. Our disobedience hinders that relationship and shows that our love for Him is lacking.

The other side of this command that Jesus gives to us here in Mark 12 is…

And here’s where it really gets hard. Like the poet said:

To dwell above with the saints I love, that will be glory.

But to dwell below with the saints I know, that’s a different story.

As difficult as it is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, to love people is even more difficult, especially some people.

Some people we find it easy to love; they are just like us: enjoy the same things we do, have the same standards we do; we are comfortable with them.

But that does not include most of the people we know; it does not even include most of the people in this church. Yet God calls us to love one another despite our differences.

The N.T. has much more to say about our loving other people than it does about our loving God.

In Luke 25, this command came up in a conversation between Jesus and an expert in the Jewish Law. He had no problem with the first part, loving God, but it was this second part that he struggled with. And trying to get out from under the full weight of loving his neighbor, he asks the question: But who is my neighbor?

Jesus then tells the story of the Good Samaritan, the one despised by the Jews but who is the hero of the story. He was the only one who stopped to help the man in need, the only one who was a neighbor. Who is my neighbor? Anyone in need that God brings across my path.

The English word "neighbor" comes from two Old English words: "near" and "dweller". The Greek word translated "neighbor" carries that same idea of a near one. But Jesus expanded the meaning of neighbor in the story of the Good Samaritan to anyone who crosses our path, even thought we may not know them.

I can’t love people I’m not aware of, but I’m aware of you, and so Jesus says I am to love you, and you are to love one another. If we don’t, the Bible has strong words for us.

Turn with me to the book of 1 John. This book was one of 3 letters written by John, who also wrote the Gospel of John and the book of Revelation. It has 35 references to love, and some of these are pretty straightforward in telling us how important loving other people is. As a matter of fact, God says to us through John that our love for one another is an evidence that we have really been saved.

Read 4:7-12.

This kind of love is more than a feeling that we either feel or don’t feel. If God commands us to love one another, that love is a choice we can make whether we feel any kind of emotion or not. The Greek word "eros" has to do with feeling and passion. But it’s not "eros" that is used here. It’s "agape"; it is choosing to do what is best for the one we love.

Occasionally one of our Elders or one of our pastors will sit down with someone and confront them about something in their life that we have become aware of. Why would we do that? It’s uncomfortable for both parties. So why would we do that? It’s because of love; love does what is best for the person we love, and sometimes there are things in our lives that need to be dealt with.

Listen to this passage about love in 1 Corinthians 13 (v.4-7).

There is what agape love looks like. This is what God wants of us in our life together: patience, kindness, rejoicing when others are blessed, humility, kindness, selflessness, patience, forgiveness.

Who is my neighbor whom I am to love as myself? Your wife is your neighbor. Your husband is your neighbor. Your parents are your neighbor. Your children are your neighbor. Your siblings are your neighbor. The ones nearest to us are in our own family. Don’t try to move this command outside the house and forget it needs to first apply inside the house.

The patience, the kindness, the rejoicing when another is blessed, the humility, the kindness, the selflessness, the patience, the forgiveness – we start in our own homes, in our own family. Some of you husbands need to hear this. Some of you wives need to hear this. Some of you young people need to hear this. Some of you parents need to hear this.

Don’t ignore you own family in applying these verses to your life. Start at home. Don’t stop there, but start there.

Jesus said that these two commands are the foundation for everything else. No matter how beautiful and magnificent the rest of the structure is, if the foundation is not solid, the rest of it doesn’t matter.

Do you love God with all your heart today? With all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength? If you don’t love God supremely first, then you will find it much harder to try to love your neighbor. Loving God and enjoying His love for us frees us to love others unselfishly.

Do you love your neighbor as yourself? Jesus raised the bar even higher: He said we are to love one another as He loves us: sacrificially, unconditionally, practically. You may not love yourself, but that does not exempt you from loving others around you. The choice is still there for you to make – to do what is best for the person God is calling you to love.

Evidence of your spiritual growth and maturity is found in your loving God and loving people. Are you growing in these two foundational areas of your spiritual life?

PRAY.