Love Through a Jewish Heart
Yeshua: The Jesus We Never Knew - Part 1
Sunday, January 9, 2022
Matthew 22:36-40, Deuteronomy 6:5, Leviticus 19:18, 1 John 4:20
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 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 greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Matthew 22:36-40
Listen to this week’s sermon here:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. - Deuteronomy 6:5
...You shall love your neighbor as yourself... - Leviticus 19:18b
Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. - 1 John 4:20
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What does it mean to be a Christian?
Such a simple question and yet the answer very much seems to depend on who you ask. For some, all that matters is that you believe in Jesus and pray the “sinners prayer” to confess your sins. For others, it’s about how you work toward justice and mercy in the world. Still for others it appears to require agreement with a particular set partisan political positions. If you don’t vote X, for example, you must not be a Christian.
We are very quick as Christians to determine who is “in” and who is “out.” We are quick to say we love God and just as quick to assume the person who disagrees with us must not love God.
There’s only one problem. Jesus doesn’t allow us to simply “say” we love God. By connecting Leviticus 19:18 to the greatest commandment of loving God, he has declared that the only way we can actually love God is by also loving our neighbor… even the neighbors we most despise. As John writes, how can we say we love a God who we cannot see when we cannot even love a person made in God’s image who we can see? It’s impossible, and anyone who says otherwise is a liar. There may be a lot of gray area in interpreting laws, but not on this one.
Love of God and love of neighbor cannot be separated.
Period.
So what does it mean to be a Christian… or better yet, a follower of Christ? As John Wesley writes, it is nothing less than “...having love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us!”
How is God calling you to love your neighbor this week?