SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/1/2023 9:11 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Intro to Matthew 22:34-40 (The Great
Commandment)
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
22:34-40
Message of the verses: “34 But when the
Pharisees heard that He had put the Sadducees to silence, they gathered
themselves together. 35 And 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.’”
I like this beginning statement that is found in
John MacArthur’s commentary on these verses:
“Someone has said that love may not make the world go around but it
makes the trip worthwhile.” I suppose
that when one thinks about this and understands what love is really about then
they will have to agree with that statement.
In John’s letters there are at least 30 times that he uses the word
love. Here are a few from this list of
30. “1Jo 3:18 Little children, let us
not love with word or
with tongue, but in deed and truth.” “1Jo
3:23 This is His commandment, that we
believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.” “1Jo 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who
loves is born of God and knows God.” “1Jo
4:9 By this the love of
God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world
so that we might live through Him.” “1Jo
4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but
that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” “1Jo 4:11
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” “1Jo
4:12 No one has seen God at any time; if
we love one another, God
abides in us, and His love
is perfected in us.”
MacArthur then goes on to talk about that first
statement: “Those words perhaps gather
up the sentiment of the world that the sweetest and most exhilarating of all
emotions and experiences is love. In
whatever age or with whatever group of people, it has been the almost universal
belief that love is the greatest thing in live, the summum bonum, the virtue
par excellence. Consequently, volumes
upon volumes of poems, songs, plays, novels, and films have been produced about
love.”
Now
with the very small sample of the times that love is used in the Word of God,
and this came from just one of the New Testament letters it can be seen that
God’s Word concurs that love is the greatest virtue, but the love which it
elevates as supreme is of a much deeper and more substantive kind than that
which the world understands and admires.
I think that one can see this deeper kind of love that John uses in his
letters that are found in the NT.
Now
we are looking at the last of the three questions that Jesus was asked to trap
Him in this section of Matthew chapter 22:34-40. These questions are purposed by His enemies,
and they can give us great insight into the deity of our Lord. In this section Jesus declared that agape love is the supreme divine
requirement of men, both in regard to Himself and in regard to other men. This is the end of the introduction to this
section of verses from Matthew 22:34-40, and Lord willing we will look at the
first main section in our next SD “The Approach of the Pharisees.”
9/1/2023 9:40 AM
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