A Faith Built on Love not Law.

23rd Sunday after Pentecost
October 23, 2005
Matthew 22:34-40

^22:34Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

³⁷Jesus replied: "‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ ⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (NIV).

As we continue our readings from Matthew, the Pharisees are still out to get rid of Jesus, still trying to trap him. They hope to catch him saying something against God’s Law so that they can try him as a false prophet. So once again they approach him in public and ask the question, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Perhaps this bizarre and radical rabbi from Galilee who continually contradicts them will say something so strange that they can charge him with false teaching, with heresy.

As usual, their plan backfires. Jesus’ answer is so orthodox, so perfect, that all they can do is agree with him. In fact, they end up commending Jesus rather than discrediting him! More than that, they expose their own need to learn from him.

They have sent a lawyer to him, an expert in the Law of Moses. That and their question about the greatest commandment betray the fact that they view their relationship with God as a legal one. If they do the right things and avoid the wrong ones, God is more or less required to respond with favour. Therefore, it is important to know which commandments are more important than others, to know what carries more weight with God. We understand that because we naturally think like they do.

Jesus’ answer, however, shows us a different perspective that makes our Faith and our Religion a different matter. Jesus replied: "‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

The greatest commandment, if you can call it a commandment, is to love God. This is the behaviour with which God is concerned above all else. To love God above all things and your neighbour as yourself, that’s what the Christian Faith is all about. In fact, that’s what the Bible is all about. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

Unfortunately, like these Pharisees, most people today think of religion, any religion, including the Christian Faith, essentially as a legal relationship, matter of keeping certain rules and regulations. Behave in a certain way and you’ll win favour with your god whatever that may be. But Jesus says that true faith in the true God is a matter of love and that all ‘good’ behaviour springs out of that love. He says--and this is the point I wish to make this morning--that the basis of the Christian Faith is love not law.

Take an example from daily life. You all have some activity or possession that you love above all others. Perhaps it is something you want to be, the next Canadian Idol or a sports star, the next Great One. If someone who didn’t know you came and watched you for a few days, looked at your house, your room and how you spent you time and money, he would quickly discover what your love is. Because you love that activity or possession, you naturally do anything that will allow you to better enjoy it. You might exercise, not because you like to exercise, but because it makes you better at the sport you love. You might study and do research at the library, not because you love to study, but because you desire to know more about your hobby. You might limit your spending on movies and restaurants, not because you’re frugal, but because it leaves you enough to pay your motorcycle insurance.

In other words, the love of your favourite activity or possession determines your behaviour. That activity or possession necessitates a certain set of personal rules. If you want to join the Happy Dudes and surf at Lawrencetown Beach, you can’t be a couch potato nor can you waste all your money on things that have nothing to do with surfing. You must concentrate on surfing and everything that makes surfing possible. Everything you do hangs on the fact that you love to surf more than anything else.

All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. When Jesus said that, there was not yet a New Testament. The Law and the Prophets was the common title for the Bible, the Word of God. So he is saying that everything the Word of God says, all the laws and instructions, like the Ten Commandments, all the warnings and exhortations of the Prophets, all the stories of the heroes of faith and the great miracles of God, all these things hang on the love of God and of one’s neighbour. That means that the Scriptures exist because of and for the sake of the love of God and neighbour. There is a difference then between other Scripture and these two commandments.

We usually speak of these two commandments as the summary of the law. If you love God above all things and your neighbour as yourself, then you will fulfill the law and God will be happy with you. Isn’t that what the Apostle Paul says: Love is the fulfillment of the law? (Romans 13:10). But such language gives a legal aura both to the concept of love and to the Word of God. It gives the impression that the Christian faith is fundamentally about observing and fulfilling a certain law code, that the Scriptures are little more than a law code, and that love is just one more required behaviour.

That however, is a misunderstanding of both Paul and Jesus. Jesus does not say that love depends on the Law and Prophets, but that the Law and Prophets depend on love. "All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Love of God and neighbour are the basis for Christian behaviour. Our behaviour is determined by the fact that we love God. We don’t love God because we follow a set of rules. That is impossible!

This distinction, this cause and effect order is critically important. Over and over in the Law and Prophets, the Lord shows that the reason for the people’s holiness is his own holiness. Our Old Testament reading was from Leviticus. Leviticus is almost entirely a book of law. Yet as you read through the many laws, you begin to see a refrain.

19:2 Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.
20:7-8 Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God. Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the LORD, who makes you holy.
20:26 You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.

As Harry Wendt pointed out in his Crossways materials, the pattern is this: Because I, therefore you. We love God who is holy. So we want to be holy.

Of course, we must ask the question, "Do we love God?" Or maybe the question is "Why should we love God?" In the case of Israel, the reason to love the Lord is the statement that begins the Ten Commandments: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery (Exodus 20:2). The reason why Israel should have loved God was the great act of salvation when he sent Moses to bring them out of Egypt. God saved them from the misery of slavery and brought them to a good land of their own, a land flowing with milk and honey.

For us however, the reason why we do or ought to love God is Christ. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 Jn 4:9-10. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8).

You and I were slaves to sin, utterly unable to please God let alone love him. We feared and hated God because of his judgment. As Paul said, we were God’s enemies. Furthermore, we didn’t love each other. Maybe we loved family and a few very close friends, but certainly not strangers. But for us, his enemies, God gave his son. Christ loved the Father so much that he made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:7-8). This is why we love God, because he first loved us. And his love for us shows us what love is.

To love God and your neighbour doesn’t mean to have romantic or even buddy-buddy feelings toward them. Love in the Bible expresses the trust, fidelity and justice between two parties. Knowing that God gave his son for us, we learn to trust him unconditionally. We desire to be holy as he is holy. Love causes us to revere and obey God and produces a sense of peace and joy. With respect to our neighbour, knowing that he too is made in God’s image and a person for whom Christ lived and died, love causes us to seek his well-being in all things. "All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

When we begin with love for God and our neighbour we avoid the very common pitfall of legalism. Legalism is the result of a focus on law. It’s when you think that God will love you and do nice things for you if you keep his laws. You don’t really want to obey his laws, just like you don’t really want to obey the speed limit or pay your taxes. Such obedience is a necessary evil, a means to an end. And when you finally get tired of the game because you don’t think God is giving you what you deserve, you stop and forget about God. Actually you begin to hate God because there is still that pesky judgment after death thing.

John says that There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18). When we begin with love as a response to God’s love for us, we seek to obey God out of gratitude. We seek holiness. We might do exactly the same things as a legalist but for a completely different reason. He obeys to get something from God. We obey because we love God.

Many Pharisees were caught in the trap of legalism. Jesus desired to set them free by explaining the Law: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

Brothers and sisters, God wants you to love him. He wants you to love your neighbour as yourself. For if you love him and your neighbour, you will want do what is right just as you want to do what is right for the hobby or possession you love. God proved the power of his love when he raised Christ from the dead. So listen to the Word that you may love God and your neighbour. Let your faith be built on love not law. For every promise of God hangs on love!