Matthew 22:44-40
‘But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 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.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”’
The pharisees and sadducees teamed up to trip up Jesus. Each group sent their representatives attempting to make Jesus look bad in front of the people. Each time He took their tough question and easily got Himself out of “no win” situations. Here these are supposed to be God’s representatives and they are working against their Messiah. We learn that they are not speaking for God. They are often the enemies in the parables Jesus tells.
The religious leaders have been oppositional to Jesus from the start of His ministry. His answer to the question, “Which is the greatest commandment?” is very insightful. He basically says, it’s to love God and people and upon this the whole Law and Prophets hang. This helps us understand why Jesus was so frustrated with them all throughout His ministry.
He would heal someone and instead of rejoicing they would question Him, “Why do this on the sabbath?” They missed that love was greater than rules. At one occasion Jesus challenged them with a question about whether it’s lawful to heal on the sabbath. ‘And He said to them, “Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?”’, (Luke 14:5).
We may have some problems with our beliefs. That is that we have interpreted something incorrectly. That may be so. I can recall watching The Jesus Revolution and how some of the early members of Calvary Chapel didn’t like that the hippies would come to church barefooted. They wore suits to church and the hippies didn’t. They saw it as such a great offense that they left the church.
We all may have some blindspots. We should be open to that. We do have to let the bible be our guide. It’s His rule book to us. He does define what love is. The parable of The Good Samaritan tells us. We also learn about the evil of partiality in James. We learn much about humility by Jesus. It all falls under the category of love. To show partiality is not loving. To be prideful and enjoying being higher than others isn’t being humble. Therefore not loving.
We are to follow the Jesus way. That of love. At the same time following His lead and that of the bible as to what love is. He will guide us.
Thank You, Lord, for Jesus and how He clarifies that love is the greatest commandment. If we have blindspots that cause harm, please inform us and help us to learn of You.