“Our Daily Bread” http://odb.org
The Daily Devotions of Greg Laurie http://www.harvest.org/devotional
Written
https://truthinpalmyra.wordpress.com/2016/09/08/lets-talk-about-love-it-all-hangs-on-love/
Matthew 22: 37-40
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Yesterday we discussed the same passage as we will briefly discuss today. Today our focus will be on the last sentence of the passage. What does it mean that all the law and the prophets hang on those two greatest commandments?
It’s a pretty visual and simple illustration Jesus used, really. Just picture a rack entitled, “love.” On the rack there are two pegs, “The Law” and “The Prophets.” Now picture what happens if there is not a rack entitled “love.” Got that? The pegs fall to the ground if they are not attached to a rack. Jesus was just illustrating that all of God’s expectations concerning His moral law can be met if we just do two things: Love God and love each other.
We can take a look at the Ten Commandments to illustrate how loving God and loving one another roll everything up within them. These are paraphrased in a short form, incidentally.
- You shall have no other gods before me.
- You shall not make idols.
- You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
- Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy
- Honor your Father and Mother.
- You shall not murder.
- You shall not commit adultery.
- You shall not steal.
- You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
- You shall not covet.
If we love God with everything we have, then the first four Commandments will be the natural result. If we love our neighbor, then the last six will be the natural result. If you carry this to it’s ultimate conclusion, there is really nothing God expects of us which could not be found in one of the Ten Commandments; we could say they have many unspecified subcategories. And The Commandments can be further reduced to two: Love God and love each other. Love.
All of God’s moral law does hang on Love. If we really do love God with our all, and each other with our all, then the natural outflow of keeping those two commandments will be doing the things God wants us to do. If we fail in either of those two areas, then we will be unable to meet any expectations God might have of us.
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Thanks for the link Bruce!
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When is the Sabbath day bruce and do you honor it the way the ot law commands?
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Mike, honoring the Sabbath is the only commandment that in my belief, was not carried over to the New Testament… Just as working on Sunday is not a sin these days…
The Sabbath used to be Saturday… But we as Christians worship Sunday, because this was the day Jesus rose from the grave.
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So when Jesus said ‘I came not to destroy the law’ and that not one jot or tittle will pass away till all be fulfilled” was there a special exemption that he said for the sabbath?
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And what of the command to stone adulterers to death? What about Jesus pronouncing those who simply looks at a woman with lust to be adulterers as well, shouldn’t we stone them to death as the commandment tells us to?
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Mike, Jesus came to fulfill the law that could never be kept by man…
Matthew 5:17… “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. (NKJV)
We also see in Galatians 5:23-25, that the Law pointed us to Jesus Christ… 23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
Jesus taught us a better way to live, as we see in…
Matthew 5:43-44… “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, (NKJV)
Mike, when we as Christians are filled with the Holy Spirit (Christ in us), we have gone from trying to fulfill the law to living by grace through faith in Christ… John 1:17… For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Check out this link for a much better explanation… https://www.gci.org/bible/matthew517
Blessings in Christ, bruce
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