What do these Two Commandments really mean?
34But when the
Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves
together. 35One of them, a
lawyer, asked Him a question, testing
Him ‘36“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37And 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.” Matthew 22:34-40
NAS
When Jesus was talking about the whole law, he was talking
about the Commandments of Moses. He knew that if we love God, we will not sin willingly
against him in our heart, soul or mind. For example: briefly; mentioning the
first of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 says:
4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in
heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the
sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love
me and keep my commandments.
In those days the people would purposefully fashion Idols of wood,
gold or whatever was convenient to mold and use to worship. Today in our modern
electronic society, anything that takes precedence over God and his will can be
subject to be called an Idol. The thought can be frightening. If we are honest
within our hearts, cannot some of our lives even be defined as having “Idol
(not to be confused with idle) Comforts?” In regards to Idols, I think we can
agree they can be an individual thing that has not yet been confronted because
we are not willing to give them up.
God told Moses that he was against Idolatry. He did not want any
other gods to come between him and his people. If we are loving our God with
all of our heart then, we are giving him first place in our lives.
Love him with all of your soul. Our soul is our decision making
center and a place filled with emotions. When we make our decisions are we
first thinking what God’s will would be in the matter? In other words, “I make
this decision because I love God.”
And, we are to love God with all of our mind, our place of
reasoning and thinking. Do we structure our thoughts to be centered upon God and
his ways more than anything? Do we give Jehovah God praise in our thoughts while
we drive to work? Are we aware of His presence as we pray and give him thanks
that we still have the ability to walk, see and drive?
God wants us to put him first in our lives and the only way we can
do this is to love him more than anything in our lives. Everything we do should
be founded on God’s love. This should be our motive for all our actions.
When you begin to love God first, you are activating what Jesus
said: Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man
shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of
God.'" Mt. 4:4NIV
We cannot live successfully without God. Left to ourselves,
we seem to succumb to sin and little by little, we become tools to destroy
instead of being life givers.
When we achieve the goodness of the first love commandment,
it will be easy to follow through onto the next love commandment. We will
choose not to steal from our neighbor, not to lie, not to commit adultery because
not only would we be sinning against our neighbors, ourselves and our families,
but in doing these things, we know that we would be breaking our love covenant
with God. We would be sinning against God! Therefore, breaking the 2nd
love commandment is also breaking the 1st love commandment.
When we love the way we are supposed to love, we desire to
please and love God and love others.
The 2nd love commandment talks about how we
should love our neighbor as we love ourselves. I believe this commandment has
been misinterpreted for a long time. When Jesus told us that we should love our
neighbors as ourselves it was because he knew that we already love ourselves
and in fact, take pretty good care of ourselves. We clothe ourselves and
eat pretty good. The popular quote for today that I have heard for years is: -“you
have to love yourself first, because if you do not love yourself first; you
cannot love another person -.” Like I
said, Jesus knew we already loved ourselves. He also knew that there are times
when we have a selfish streak inside of us a mile long. Much of us have always
looked out for number 1.
What Jesus meant is when we see our neighbor cold and we
have a coat or blanket to give him for warmth, give it to him! If they need firewood and we have it to give,
give it to them! When you see someone in trouble and in need, do not turn your
back from these people. If they do not have any bread and you have it to give;
give it to them! We eat bread, let them eat too! Put yourself in their place
and think what it would be like to go through some of their problems and help
them if you can. It is called empathy. I believe this is what Jesus was talking
about.
I ASK YOU, did Jesus love himself first? What would have
happened if he had loved himself first? If
he had loved himself first, he would have called those angels to rescue him
when he was on that cross and we would not have a Savior today. Instead, mercy
and obedience won that day. Greater love has no man than, he who lays his life
down for a friend. Jesus gave himself for the world! He was obedient in love for the Father God
right to the end.
An excellent example is the story about the Good Samaritan
in Luke 10:25-37….
After Jesus had told the man about the two love
commandments. The man asked “who is my neighbor?
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was
attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away,
leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road,
and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and
saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him,
he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring
on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn
and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said,
‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.
The Samaritian chose to put the wounded man
before his own needs and went out of his way to help the man, taking him to the
Inn and paying the Innkeeper to take care of him. Was the Samaritian thinking, “This
could have happened to me.” I believe he was filled with empathy. Was the
Samaritian, “loving himself first?” Hardly! But the other two men who passed by
the wounded man was “loving themselves first, most definitely!”
The incident can make us wonder how the Pharisee
and the Levite could justify their actions in their minds.
Remember the prayers of the Pharisee and the
Publican? Luke 18:9-14
9And He also told this parable to some people who
trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with
contempt: 10“Two men went up into the temple to pray , one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11“The Pharisee stood and was praying this to
himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust,
adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ 13“But the tax collector, standing some distance
away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his
breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ 14“I tell you, this man went to his house justified
rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he
who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Which man “loved himself first and even foremost?” Pride
will keep many people out of heaven!
To be fair, Is it possible that the phrase “you have to
love yourself first before you can love others” perhaps, they could mean; that
we need to take care of ourselves, eat good, drink good things, make sure you
have a good car that will get you back and forth. Because, if you do not love (care
for) yourself in a good way; how will you be well enough to help other people?
Could the phrase also mean that we care for ourselves
enough to not take that drug again or get drunk again? Not drink or drive? I will not take any more abuse again! I will
not abuse those around me! Could it mean, I will no longer do these things
because I have not been caring for myself and there are those who love and
depend upon me? Is it caring for yourself enough, so you can take care of your
family? Or, is it caring for your family
enough, that brings you to stop? Usually when a person has been caught up in
the web of sinful abuse, it brings shame and has become some kind of habit. I
believe that it is only through loving those who love us can a life be changed.
Think about it. God loved you so much, he sent his only
begotten son to be a sacrifice for your sins. If we cannot love ourselves
because of the things we have done to ourselves and others, cannot we think
about Jesus who loved us before we even knew him? Once we believe and accept
the saving grace of Jesus, we can receive forgiveness for our sins. Cannot we
think of that mother or father or child that loves you and do this not only for
God, but for your loved ones. When we deliberately seek God for deliverance, we
are literally laying our lives down for another.
Since the Bible says that God is Love, how can we really
love in the way he instructs us to love unless we have His Holy Spirit inside
of us? Without God, we cannot love His way. This is why we need the Holy Spirit,
to strengthen, teach and guide us throughout our journey. It is then, I believe
we can love our neighbor as we love ourselves because once we believe and
accept Jesus the Messiah as our Lord, we become a new creature in Christ. The
old way passes away, everything becomes new.
Mother Teresa is an excellent example of someone who
continued to put everyone before her own needs. She did everything “as unto the
Lord.” One of her quotes was:
Every single thing we do, will count for something in our
lives; let it count for God’s love!
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