First thing first...

Day Four  Matthew 22:34-40      From Jesus Last Days, A Model For Our Days

³⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. ³⁵ One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ 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.’ 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.”

With all of the powerful, life changing teaching delivered to us by Jesus my reflections on His last days could not be complete without a look at today’s text. If I were to select only a few verses from the entire Bible to capture the essence of the entire content of it's text, certainly Matthew 22:37-40 would be among them. It is truly a foundational portion of scripture and a critical truth for our lives. Verse 40 in the Amplified version says: These two commandments sum up and upon them depends all the law and the prophets.    What are the law and the prophets? Realistically you could say that it is the Old Testament or the scripture that existed in Jesus day. That’s what He is saying is summed up in these few verses. The purpose of the law was to bring awareness of the sinful state of man and to guide man into a right relationship with God and each other.  Levitical law contains 613 commandments. God gave us 10 through Moses. Jesus says it all comes down to these two.  The prophets were given by God to declare His word and His will, for the purpose of direction, correction and edification, in building and restoring man’s relationship to God.

From the very beginning, in Genesis, we see the evidence that man would not be able to live up to these two basic commandments Jesus states in this passage.  In Genesis 3, the story of the fall of Adam and Eve, we see man’s inability to truly love God with all his heart, soul and mind and so failing the first commandment.  In Genesis 4, we see  the next generation and the account of Cain’s murder of his brother Abel, showing man’s inability to fulfill the second commandment and love others.  The rest of the Bible, all of scripture from Genesis to Revelation is God’s plan to restore these two broken relationships. When we read the Old Testament we should read it in light of these two commandments. Jesus says they are the sum of it.  The New Testament is the story of Jesus, God’s Son, His perfect solution to man’s inability to live up to these two basic commandments. Had man been able, through willful obedience, to accomplish these two simple things, loving God and loving others, Jesus would not have had to come and pay the price for our sin. Jesus purpose for coming to earth as a man is to fulfill these two commandments, which He says are the greatest. His life and His death on the cross were for the purpose of redemption and restoration of the broken relationships between man and God and between man and other men. Romans 8:3 says: what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin…   

In Marks account of this teaching (Mark 12:28-34) the one who posed the question confirms Jesus answer, saying to accomplish these two things is greater than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. The simple truth is unless we have gotten to the point of walking in these two commandments, the rest of what we do is little more than vain religious striving. If we come to the place, through Jesus,  that  we do walk in these two commandments, everything else will fall into place.

The history of man is filled with man’s attempts to do things his way instead of God’s way. When we attempt to add to the simplicity of God’s commandments, we become like the Pharisees Jesus often spoke against.   We create extra rules and requirements leading to religious legalism and religious pride, which are forms of self- exaltation, putting ourselves above God, violating the first commandment. We don't really love God with all our heart, soul and mind if we have higher standards than God. If you have any question regarding Jesus opinion of proud religious legalists read Matthew 23, Jesus rebuke of the Pharisees. Jesus follows these two simple commandments regarding what is right with 39 verses of rebuke of the religious hypocrites.

God is a God of order, we can look at all of creation to see that. In following these two commandments order is critical. We must do the first, love God, before we can do the second, love others. If we try to love others in our own strength we will fail. We can not though truly do the first if we do not also do the second. 1 John 4:19-21 says: …19We love, because He first loved us. 20If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.  By first loving God, He will enable us to love others with His perfect love. If we truly love God the evidence will be that we love others. 

Do first things first,  love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.    That's why Jesus went on, to the cross. He went on and so must we.