34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[c] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[d] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. - Matthew 22:34-40
Good morning. In life there are various types of laws to which we are beholden. By their definition, laws themselves represent a body of conduct or actions recognized as binding or enforced by a controlling authority. Some laws govern the social, economic, political interactions of everyday life in a society. Laws of this kind are open to being amended or abolished, and even outright disobeyed or ignored.
Other laws oversee the physical and chemical connections which allow this planet sustain life and hold the universe together. Unlike the fragile laws of governments, the laws of physics prove themselves over and over to be unbreakable and unchanging. And as a controlling authority, the laws of gravity remain undefeated.
And yet when I read the scriptures, I am reminded there exists another kind of law that presides over the words and actions of God’s people. Laws whose statutes supersede the edicts of kings and decrees of legislatures. Laws whose directives transcend the rules of astrophysics and quantum mechanics.
The laws to which I am referring is the laws Jesus hands down in Matt 22, and they are the laws of love. For me there is no better picture of what it means to administer the laws of love than that of mother’s love for her son or daughter? Is there a greater image of what it means to obey the laws of the love that of a son’s love or daughter's love for their mother?
Now before any law can be enforced or obeyed, the burden rests on the controlling authority to give legitimacy and justification for the law it seeks to impose. Whether it be from the halls of a local city council or the US Capitol, it is up to the controlling authority to provide an understanding of what the law says and how it is to be applied.
And that’s precisely what Jesus does in Matt 22. As the controlling authority over our lives, Jesus not only provides that justification for the laws of love, but goes on to supply their meaning and how we should apply them. The first law of love Jesus lays down reads as follows, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
Consequently, the law to love God is the greatest law on the books. Being designated the greatest, Jesus clearly expects this law to be obeyed before all others. Before we observed red lights and honor speed limits, we first love the Lord our God. Before we fulfill our obligation to pay taxes, we first love the Lord our God. Before we submit to our parents, our spouses, or any other earthly authority; we first love the Lord our God.
The law to love God is also comprehensive. Despite our fondness for percentages, Jesus plainly anticipates this law to be conformed to in every recess our being. In spite of the part of us that has a liking for being superior, we love the Lord our God with ALL our heart. Despite the part of us has a fondness for being right, we love the Lord our God with ALL our soul. Regardless of the part of us that has affection for being in control, we love the Lord our God with ALL our mind.
Now the second law of love Jesus lays down reads as follows, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This law of love traces itself all the way back to Lev 19. While Matt 22 is noticeably vague in terms of explanation and execution, Lev 19 provides incredible specifics as to what it means to love one’s self and amazing details as how to apply such love to one’s neighbor. As I see it, this law to love our neighbors as we love ourselves is observed through a series of protections.
First, the law to love to others as we love ourselves protects our decisions from all forms of injustice. For it is love of others at guards our thoughts against those bias that promote some and demote others. It is love of others that defends our feelings against those partialities that advance some and restrict others. It is love of others that shields our opinions against prejudices that acquit some and convict others.
Second, the law to love others as we love ourselves protects our words from all kinds of hate. It is love for others that shelters our ears against any slander advanced by jealousy and animosity. It is love for others that guards our lips against any disparagement promoted by bitterness and contempt. It is love for others that defends our mouths against any defamation supported by malice and spite.
Third, the law to love others as we love ourselves protects our actions from all types of violence. It is love for others that shields our pain against those urges for ferocious revenge. It is love for others that defends our suffering against those cravings for fierce retaliation. It is love for others that guards our misery against those impulses for vicious retribution.
I know what you’re thinking. Chris, if what are you saying is true, then why is the world filled with so much injustice, hate and violence? Of course, the easy answer rests in acknowledging that Satan have been given dominion over this world. However, a more troubling possibility exists that perhaps that Christian brothers and sisters are not adhering to the laws of love as well he or she could.
Like speed limits, maybe we as Christians are allowing ourselves 10 over on the number of sexist or racist remarks we allow to go unchallenged. Like stop signs, perhaps we as Christians are letting ourselves roll through opportunities to see that others are being treated fairly. Like seat belts, maybe we as Christians are deciding at times not to retrain our words or our fists.
Of all the things we have to fear in the world, the most freighting to me are moments when the Christian decides the laws of love no longer to apply to him or her. How do we as believers avoid experiencing such moments as these? Moments when our love for God becomes discretionary, moments when our love for our neighbors and ourselves becomes optional.
First, we need to discover a delight for the laws of love. In Ps 1, the psalmist concludes that happiness is not found from taking the advice of the wicked or following the path that sinners tread, nor does one see the laws of love as a burden. Rather, he or she finds their delight in them. And when we consider the law of the Lord are the laws of love brought together in Matt 22, then Ps 1 declares that our days and nights are best spent meditating on our love for God and our love for each other.
Second, we need to understand that love’s jurisdiction is always bigger than we think. I love the cinematic depiction of Deut 34 as the Lord takes Moses up Mount Nebo to show him the boundaries of the Promise Land. Prior to seeing it, Moses wasn’t sure if it would be so small that people would have to live on top of another or big enough for the people to spread out. So when God takes Moses up the mountain, God shows him the vast territory where God's law would have jurisdiction.
In the same way, all of us need to take time to venture up any of the seven hills of Cincinnati so that the Lord might show us just how far the laws of love and its authority extends. For it extends from Westwood as far as Oakley, all Cheviot, the land of Walnut Hills and Price Hill, all the land of Over The Rhine as far as the Little Miami, the Ohio, and beyond. In other words, there is no part of our city, or our world for that matter, that is exempt from the laws of love.
Third, we should recognize that adhering to the laws of love will require a great deal of courage. I don’t think I’ll ever understand why one’s effort to love another is sometimes met with hostility and rancor. But those are the moments we must summon the courage to persist in our submission to the laws of love. Knowing full well they would kill him anyway, Jesus mustered the courage to proclaim his love for his enemies.
In 1 Thessalonians 2, Paul too faced great opposition to the Gospel and its laws of love. Yet having found courage in his God, Paul continued to preach the gospel of God despite the shameful treatment he suffered. According to 1 Thess 2, Paul acted not out of greed or for the praise of mortals, but out of a deep love for those to whom he was writing.
As for ourselves, we should expect times when our efforts to love others are met with resistance and aggression. In such moments, I find comfort in the truth uttered by the most famous scaredy cat of the early 20th century when he said, “…What makes a King out of a slave? Courage. What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage. What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage.
I also believe it is important to point out some of the glaring differences between the laws drafted by man and the laws of love established by God. First, unlike the laws of man, the laws of love God are not new. Consider that the US Constitution has been amended 27 times to address laws and protections not included in the original document, which is not bad when you consider the number of other governments that have risen and fallen in that time. However, it cannot obscure the embarrassing need for the 13th and 19th amendments to fix the glaring oversight of the privileged men framing the Constitution that seemingly forgot to consider the possibility of slaves want their freedom and women desire to vote.
Not so with the laws of love that Jesus handed down. Earlier I mentioned that the law to love our neighbor as ourselves traced back to Lev 19. Well some 1,400 years before the first law of love in Matt 22 there was Deut 6:4-5 where Moses imposed the law of love for God upon the people of Israel saying, “4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
Can you imagine it was like for Jesus’ audience as they heard him lay down these laws of love? I have to believe many in the crowd said themselves, “Where have I had heard that before? This sounds strangely familiar.” Far from amending that which been overlooked, Jesus merely reiterates the laws of love that dated back to ancient Israel. Far from adding to that which was missing, Jesus simply restates the laws of love already present in the first days of Creation. Far from improving that which was lacking, Jesus only reaffirms the laws of love whose existence founded in the Trinity precedes time itself.
In Ps 90, the psalmist confesses that before the mountains were brought forth, or the forming of the earth and the world; God and the laws of love were everlasting. In this way, it is difficult to determine how long God and the laws of love have been around. You see it is difficult to determine the beginning of something that has always been.
Another obvious distinction between the laws of man and the laws of love resides in the purposes each aim to achieve. Unlike the laws of love, the laws of man have no interest in making a people better. Whether you are talking about laws on murder, divorce, or drugs; the laws of man aim only to keep a people from becoming worse. The laws of man concern themselves more with averting chaos than pursuing any kind of social harmony or economic symmetry.
Not so with the laws of love that Jesus established. Directed at not merely prohibiting acts of murder, the laws of love desire to make us better by giving to us the permissions we need to forgive each other, and more importantly, forgive ourselves. Aimed at not just discouraging instances of divorce, the laws of love wish to make us restored by granting to husbands and wives the allowances they need to continually renew their commitments to submission and sacrifice. Designed at not simply banning incidents of drug use, the laws of love want to make us healthier by bestowing to the sober the allotments they require to find relief in the company of others rather in fumes or other substances.
Finally, one last discrepancy between the laws of man and the laws of love exists in where each are written down. While man sees fit to put his laws down parchments of paper or like Moses write them on tablets of stone, God understood that the laws of love needed a more absorbent surface on which to be written down. Heb 8:9-10 expresses its regret when stone tablets proved a poor writing surface. Heb 8:9-10 describes how despite taking Israel by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, Israel did not remain faithful to the laws of love, and God was forced to turn away from them.
But after that time, where does Heb 8:9-10 say that the Lord would next write down the laws of love? Was it on their foreheads? Was it on their hands? Was it on their noses? No, God said I’m going to write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. And it is no mystery God chose the heart upon which to write the laws of love.
For the heart is most absorbent surface there is. When it comes to love or hate, a feeling that soaks itself into the heart is nearly impossible to get out. Moreover, the heart is the space where love begins and ends, it is the place where love rises and sets. So whether you realize it or not, to have heart means you take the laws of love with you everywhere you go.
So this week I would encourage all of us to do what we can to sustain our obedience to the laws of love that Jesus himself not only legislated, but lived out with passion and courage. Though Jesus probably had a sense that his laws would be written down for future generations, he most certainly did not intend them to just remain words on a page. And just because God writes the laws of love on our hearts does not mean God wishes them to stay there either.
For all who find themselves under their jurisdiction, the laws of love call people to action. For all who are set in their orbit, the laws of love that set things into motion. It will not be laws against greed and corruption that stamp out first-class injustice or eradicate third-world poverty, but rather will be achieved by courageous men and women of faith enforcing the laws of love. It will not be laws prohibiting immigration and naturalization that eliminate terrorism or abolish extremism, but instead will be accomplished by brave men and women of faith imposing the laws of love.
This morning there may be some in need of prayer and relief. If in the past the laws of guilt have kept you from seeking relief, then you will be happy to know that the laws of guilt have no jurisdiction over you. If in the past the laws of shame have prevented you from praying, then you will be relieved to know that the laws of shame have no authority to stop you. Do not be afraid. Thanks to the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ; we can choose to live under the laws of love.
CJE