^{Matthew 22:34-40}

³⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. ³⁵ And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test 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 first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” ^[i]

Mark 12:28-34

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” ²⁹ Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with your entire mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” ³² And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. ³³ And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴ And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Representatives of various groups came to the Lord Jesus during His last week on earth as He taught in the temple, and they tested him with their questions. Jesus’ answers have enriched the church ever since. It was God in his providence that caused this particular teacher of the law to come and hear the Lord dealing with the other three groups. We are told that as he listened, he thought, “What good answers Jesus gives!” (v.28).  He was selected by his fellow Pharisees to approach Jesus with a question that teachers of the Law had struggled with for centuries.

One of the reasons that these questions and answer sessions were decreed by God was for our sake today. There was going to be a congregation in San Antonio, Texas who would need to listen to Jesus’ answers and really think about them.

This one man was impressed with Jesus’ wisdom and seemed truly interested in having Jesus answer a question. He is a seminary professor (Matt. 22:24-25), a scribe of the Pharisees, a teacher devoted to the intense study and teaching of the Law, in some English translations he would be called a “lawyer”.

These lawyers, devoted to hairsplitting Jewish legalism, carried on lengthy debates about the commandments, arguing whether a particular one was great or small, heavy or light. It was natural, therefore, that they debated the question, “Which of the 613 commandments, 248 of them positive, 365 negative is foremost of all?”^[ii] Is there one kind or category of command that is the key to understanding all the others?

Jesus answers by telling us this morning that it is most important for us to (1) know God, (2) to love God, and (3) to trust God.^[iii]

KNOWING GOD (12:29)

Jesus begins his answer by reciting the opening of the Sh^ema’, Deut. 6:4-5 (long form: 4-9). Sh^ema’ is the first Hebrew word of this creed and it means, “hear” or “listen”. This creed was recited twice daily by devout Jews and to this day it still opens the traditional synagogue service. Devout Jews also carried a small scroll containing this creed, along with two other portions of the Law, in one of two pouches tied around their foreheads and their left arms while they prayed.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Jesus is saying that Israel’s God is the One and Only God. There is no other (Mk. 12:32). There is nothing more important to all humanity than knowing the One, True God. The Sh^ema’ was part of Moses’ final instructions to the people of Israel as they prepared to enter the land God had given them. The Lord had redeemed them from slavery in Egypt – a land full of idols. The Lord was about to bring them into Palestine – another land full of wicked, idol-worshipping pagans who were to be driven out of the land. The one true God had redeemed them, was giving them a land, and demanding their loyalty to Him alone as their King.

God is Unique

In a world surrounded by people who prayed to many different idols – a god for agriculture, a god for rivers, a god for the sun and another for the moon, a god for fertility, a god for war – Israel stood completely alone as a people especially claimed by the one, REAL God of EVERYTHING.

The Westminster Confession of Faith states the issue like this: “In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost: the Father is of none, neither begotten, nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son.”^[iv]

Jesus is stating that what we believe about God is of supreme importance; God’s nature and attributes are NOT a matter of personal preference. He is not subject to man’s ideas; rather, MAN is subject to God’s revelation.

If God is unique, if He alone is the maker and sustainer of all things, then what HE says matters far above any of our thoughts, demands, ideas, or preferences. The God who reveals Himself in Scripture is radically different from the gods invented by man’s religions.

Jesus declared this to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:22-24, when he said:  “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The one true God makes himself known to the people he redeems. First to Jews, then to the whole world. There is hardly any error in belief or any failure in living that cannot be traced to imperfect thoughts about God. Low views of God destroy the faith. Once we give the wrong answer to the question, “What is God like?” then we are like a man driving a car very correctly but on the wrong side of a highway. It doesn’t matter how carefully the man keeps the speed limit and how smoothly he changes gears or operates the brakes and lights and windshield wipers, he is going the wrong way; he is facing all the oncoming traffic and death is before him.^[v]

God Reveals Himself

God is not silent; He has spoken to man. He has revealed Himself to us in many ways and at many times (Heb. 1:1). He had spoken of His glory through creation. Psalm 19:1 says: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.” Psalm 50:6 tells us that “The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge.”

He reveals Himself in his acts of providence, in the workings of the affairs of men and nations throughout history. He reveals Himself in a special sense in His Word spoken through His prophets and the writers of Scripture who are carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Pt. 1:21).

Finally, He reveals Himself perfectly and completely in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature (Heb. 1:3).

In Col. 1:15-20 we are told: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶ For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷ And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. ¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

All mankind is obligated to know this God. The supreme proof for the existence of God is the Lord Jesus Christ. God is because Jesus is. If ever you begin to think you are losing touch with God, that he seems to be getting rather remote, then focus upon Christ. Remember the one who said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn. 14:9). We know God supremely because of what we know of Jesus, and my heaviest obligation is never to stop crying to you, “Behold your God!”

Scripture does NOT command us to do certain things and abstain from doing other things because of who WE are. We have commands from God because of who GOD IS! Some Christians have a tiny view of God: he cannot take care of them, he does not intervene on their behalf, and he leaves them to solve their own problems and to worry over their affairs.

But some Christians have a great God; He speaks, and it is done; He commands, and it stands fast; He knows how to show Himself strong on behalf of those that seek Him. Is your God small or is He great? Is He large enough for you to rest in no matter the circumstances? Do you long for Him? Are you restless unless you are resting in Him? There is only one God. He has spoken. He is mighty to save. And He alone is worthy of our love.

LOVING GOD (12:30-31)

Some More Sh^ema’

Jesus goes on to quote more of the Sh^ema’, saying: “‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’” It is not sufficient for us to merely know that He exists as one Supreme Being. James writes: You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! (Jas. 2:19).

God is a Being and He wants His people to relate to Him personally by loving Him. But Jesus tells us both the degree of love and the direction of love required by our Maker.

Degree (12:30)

The extent of our love is to be with everything in our being. That poor seminary professor asking about the greatest kind of command, seeking to justify himself through the burdens of the Law of God, has received a far more burdensome command than he yet understands.

Jesus is discouraging any man from attempting to measure himself against the Law for his assurance of eternal life. God demands every part of us; all of our affections are to be centered upon Him. The Sh^ema’ says: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might (Deut. 6:5). Jesus adds with all your mind to emphasize that there is NO part of man that does not owe God its affections. Every area of your life is to express your love to Him.

He wants ALL our emotions and passions, ALL our thoughts and intellect, ALL our conduct, and ALL our physical being to be given over to Him. A more literal translation of what Jesus says would be: and you shall love the Lord your God out of the source of your whole heart, and out of the source of your whole soul, and out of the source of your whole strength. ^[vi]

We are to love God entirely because of who He is: the One who loves us entirely. God has made a commitment to save not a little remnant but an innumerable multitude, and he loves them; he knows their names, and he cares about them. They all matter to him so much. He won’t rest until they are all with him. I may be a very ordinary Christian, a very immature believer, a very untalented person but God loves me. He says to me, “I shall use my God-ness for you. All my God-ness is yours. All my wealth is yours – the wealth of my attributes and functions and prerogatives – all of it is yours – it’s at your disposal. All I Am is yours because I love you.”

That is the commitment of God. Each of us has God’s undivided attention. No mere human love can compare. He cares for me with a perfect love as though I were the only person on the planet, loving me purely and fervently.

The Bible tells me that Jesus loves me. He loved me like this before I was born. He loved me like this before He formed the universe. When Jesus was hanging in darkness on the cross, I was there too on his heart and mind. He was determined to give me eternal blessedness. That is what he was thinking on Golgotha – the cross was all about me; the cross was all about you.^[vii]

God’s love arises out of the very source of His nature, and He is transforming MY nature so that my love will be totally focused upon Him. Paul puts it like this: For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; ¹⁵ and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised (2 Cor. 5:14-15).

Direction (13:31)

If all of my attention and energy and affection are to be entirely focused upon God, then God is the DIRECTION of my affections. But Jesus says MORE than the Sh^ema’ when he continues in verse 31 – “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

We live in a very self-centered culture; so much so that some have looked at Jesus’ statement and used it as a justification for self-love. Have you ever heard someone say, “You really can’t love others until you learn to love yourself”? If you press them for a Bible reference, they invariably take you here.

But is that remotely close to what Jesus is saying? Or is it rather that Scripture assumes that man’s fallen nature forces men to think primarily about themselves. The one thing all of us do very well is focus upon ourselves; it comes naturally. In the context of this passage, Jesus is saying that if you love God wholly and completely, then that vertical love to God will also spill out horizontally to God’s image bearers.

The direction of our love is to be comprehensive: flowing up to God and out to our neighbor, like the shape of the cross. Luke’s account of this exchange adds that the seminary professor is still trying to justify himself at this point. He is still seeking a “doable” work to earn his reward, so he asks Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Lk. 10:29).

That was a very good question because Jews were certain that their “neighbors” were other Jews. Pharisees were certain that their “neighbors” were only other Pharisees. To the Sadducees and to the priestly class, only they were one another’s neighbors. In other words they thought, “If we owe anyone besides God any love at all then it must be to people like us.”  But Jesus answers the question with the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Of course you know the setting for the parable was that the Jews despised the Samaritans; they were the mongrel nation born from poor Jews not important enough to be taken captive by Assyria and those pagan tribes whom Assyria relocated into the northern kingdom.

Jesus’ point in the parable was love of neighbor can’t stop with the people just like us; we are also obligated to love everyone upon whom God has set His image – people who look, walk, talk, and think differently than us. This kind of love – love directed away from self and toward others, even enemies – manifests the nature of God’s love for His people.

If you claim Christ, it is not because God found something good in you that made you worthy of His love. God’s love is poured out upon His enemies! For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸ but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:6-7). But just prior to that great sentence of Paul’s he said this: God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom. 5:5).

Nature

Love of God and love of neighbor are not primarily feelings. They are primarily Holy-Spirit-driven ACTIONS. We all have a choice this morning: we can choose to live our lives according to our feelings, or we can choose to live according to Jesus’ command. Satan tempts us to believe we simply cannot do what God commands because we do not “feel” like doing it.

Christians must reject this Hollywood notion of love. Biblical love is not getting but rather is giving: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16); “He loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20); “Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.” (Eph. 5:25).

John puts it this way: In this is the love, not that we have been loving God but that he himself loved us and sent out his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to be loving one another. …If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. ²¹ And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother (1 Jn. 4:10-11, 20-21).

“When God’s grace is working on us and in us, it will also work itself out through us. The internal renewal of our minds and hearts creates an external propulsion that moves us out in love and service to others. …God’s grace is the driving force of all change. …God’s grace has both an inward and an outward movement that mirror each other. Internally, the grace of God moves me to see my sin, respond in repentance and faith, and then experience the joy of transformation. Externally, the grace of God moves me to see opportunities for love and service, respond in repentance and faith, and experience joy as I see God work through me.”[viii]

We are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; that love must show itself in our comprehensive love of all men as image-bearers of their Creator. Jesus said, “There is no other commandment greater than these.” So when you find yourself not loving your neighbor, repent and trust into Christ for his power to love others through you. Repentance is a celebration, not a bargaining session in which we work up enough resolve against sin to con God into putting up with us. It’s not a turning from sin but a return to faith—a reawakening of our trust that all our deeds, bad as well as good, have been done in God (see John 3:21). We don’t have to feel guilty about them. We don’t even have to overcome them (which, in any case, is more than we could realistically promise). We have only to admit them—to own them as they are in the truth of our condition, and to celebrate them as the death in which grace gives us life.

TRUSTING GOD (12:32-34)

The Professor’s Response (12:32-33)

The seminary professor replies to Jesus: “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. ³³ And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

Almost all of the respectable churchmen who have come to Jesus have come with antagonism and utter hatred. But this one scribe, this one Law professor, is not antagonistic toward Jesus. He was sent to Jesus by his antagonistic colleagues to draw Jesus into a controversy. But now, he actually agrees with Jesus.

Now look closely at the end of verse 33. The professor states that knowing and loving God completely and that loving one’s neighbor fully is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. That is a RADICAL statement for a Law professor from the Second Temple Period of Judaism to make. Their entire system of religion was bound up in the rites and sacraments of the temple, so much so that none of their commentators dealt with the passages of the Psalms or the prophets that spoke of how God hated hypocritical ritual.

Here is a seminary professor standing in the great Second Temple diminishing the importance of the temple – the temple that Jesus had prophetically shut down the day before. It is obvious that one of the things that the Lord is doing in giving this response is to further undermine the significance of the temple. Do you see that? It is not in men being meticulous in bookkeeping and performing sacrifices that obedience to the greatest commandments of God is displayed.

These words of Jesus continue to give impact to the new covenant movement heading away from Jerusalem and Judea and even Samaria. A stream was beginning to flow from Jerusalem that day which will still be flowing in San Antonio, Texas 2000 years later. Don’t you see how this teacher of the law immediately picks this up. He cries, “Well said, teacher. To love God and man like that is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices” (v.33).^[ix]

Not Far From the Kingdom (12:34)

Verse 34 says, And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions. One the one hand, Jesus’ statement is encouraging: not far from the kingdom of God. But on the other hand, not far means NOT IN the kingdom of God.

This earnest Law professor, this seminary professor and scribe of the Pharisees, saw Jesus as a great teacher of the Law. But he didn’t see Jesus as THE SACRIFICE to end sacrifices. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. ⁵ Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; ⁶ in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. ⁷ Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book’” (Heb. 10:4-7).

The earnest Law professor had gotten to the heart of the Law. He had found its essence – it’s most important kind of commands. But he had still not measured himself against them and seen how hopeless a burden was bearing down upon him.

Jesus perfectly loved and perfectly knew and perfectly trusted his Father; Jesus perfectly loved his enemies; he perfectly loves YOU who cling to him. And YOU are IN the kingdom of God when you rest in him who offered Himself ENTIRELY and PERFECTLY for you.

You cannot know God, you cannot love God, and you cannot trust God apart from His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew is winding down his record of the coming of the kingdom of God. It is time to stop and ask yourself, “Am I NEAR the kingdom of God, or am I actually IN it?”

You may enter into the eternal Sabbath rest of the kingdom of God right now, this very morning.  See Mark 1:15 – “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

^[i] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 22:34–40.

^[ii]Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953-2001). Vol. 10: New Testament Commentary: Exposition of the Gospel According to Mark. Accompanying biblical text is author’s translation. New Testament Commentary (492). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

[iii] Campbell, M. The Greatest Commandment.

^[iv]Smith, M. H. (1996, c1990). Westminster Confession of Faith.  Christian Classics Foundation, 1996. (electronic ed.) (2). Greenville SC: Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary Press.

[v] Thomas, G. The Most Important Commandments (1).

^[vi]Wuest, K. S. (1997, c1984). Wuest’s word studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English reader (Mk 12:29). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

[vii] Thomas, op cit.

[viii] Thune, Robert H.; Walker, Will. The Gospel-Centered Life: Study Guide with Leader’s Notes (p. 60). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition.

[ix] Thomas, op cit.