The Weekend Word
Matthew 22:34-45
The Great Commandment
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.
So the Pharisees seeing that the Sadducees had failed, regroup.
- I wonder in the sense of competition and jealousy if the Pharisees snickered at the Sadducees as theological lightweights?
35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.
- So they send out a lawyer to ask a law question – they send out a specialist, bringing in the closer in the 9th
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
- Again with the teacher title – although they are unwilling to learn from him.
- This question is quite similar to the question asked by the Rich Young Man.
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.
- OK, softball question, I will give you a softball answer – Love God.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
- OK, this seems simple enough.
- I like the way he divides great and first.
39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
- You asked for one, but I will give you two.
- Love man
- Hey, the Rich Young Man asking a similar question got this one; Sell all that you have, give it to the poor and come follow me.
40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
- Hey guys, it’s all here.
- Note that he takes the lawyer back to the scriptures.
- Now this is a summary of the law – not the elimination of the individual laws.
- We do not have the freedom to do whatever we want in the name of love.
- A deeper Look; what does God want from us / you with each command?
- Loving God is a summary of the first 3 commandments.
- 1st – God wants your heart. He wants you to trust him.
- 2nd – God wants your mouth – to call upon his name properly in prayer and thanksgiving.
- 3rd – God wants your ears by which he comes to you in his words so he can ‘holy you’ (make you holy). How do we keep holy? By letting God holy us — through his word.
- Loving Man / your neighbor is a summary of the remaining 4-10 – as you interact with your neighbor.
Whose Son Is the Christ?
41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,
- Jesus wants to take an opportunity to talk to the Pharisees while they are still gathered together. This would be like “let’s try this one more time.”
42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.”
- So far so good – good answer – 2 Sam 7 stuff.
43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,
44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’?
- Psalm 110
45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” 46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
- Jesus is saying “don’t you even know your own scriptures?”
- But I think they had never seen that passage in that light before.
- This is the state that the unbeliever reads scripture – without the illumination.
- I don’t know that you can understand the scriptures in a saving way without preaching. I don’t think someone can say, “I was just reading the Bible on my own and I became a Christian.”
- God says through Paul, faith comes by hearing and then goes on to talk about how can you have a preacher if one is not sent etc.
- Just like the Ethiopian Eunuch could not figure out the mysteries of the scripture until Philip was sent, preached God’s word and immediately baptized him.
- Although I don’t think it helped the Pharisees, I doubt they looked at that passage in the same way going forward.
- And that is probably what happened to every one of us who thought “we knew the Bible” – even if it was just enough to reject it, when we hear God’s word preached the blindness left us.
“On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.
….
Now this is a summary of the law – not the elimination of the individual laws.
We do not have the freedom to do whatever we want in the name of love.”
This is a great insight, which will come in handy.
“I don’t know that you can understand the scriptures in a saving way without preaching. I don’t think someone can say, “I was just reading the Bible on my own and I became a Christian.””
This is an interesting observation. I wonder why anyone not drawn by the Holy Spirit would want to crack open a Bible other than to try to disprove it?
MLD what about books? For instance “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis? Would this fall under the categories of “preaching”? God has used this book to draw people to Christ.
Joel, I don’t think anyone goes from a cold stop, picks up the bible or a CS Lewis book and gets saved. From a cold start at best it will be like the Ethiopian in acts to ask ‘what does this mean’ or the person has heard the preaching in the past and now this is just resparking what they already knew.
As I said in my comments above, faith comes through preaching and God will send the preacher.
I think those who make the claim are trying to say “my salvation is more pure than yours, because mine was not filtered through a man.”
“I was just reading the Bible on my own and I became a Christian.”
That is precisely what happened in my case. Now, of course that Holy Spirit was at work interpreting what I was reading, but I sat at a break table in a motor shop and read through the Gospels for a few days, realized that I was lost and needed a Savior. Went to the bathroom and cried out to Jesus for Salvation. Didn’t go to church until a few months after that.
Very cool Josh. Sounds like God goes “outside of the box”sometimes. 😉
Josh, are you saying before you picked up the Bible you had never heard the gospel preached or spoken that you had never heard of Jesus and who he was?
That’s what I mean when talk about a cold stop. To me that denies what the Bible claims. Even Cornielius needed Peter to come to him.
I’m sure I had heard a sermon in my life. Not within years of this experience though.
See, that’s what good preaching does – and God preserves his word in you until you come around.
“I don’t know that you can understand the scriptures in a saving way without preaching.”
There was certainly no sermon in my head the day that I was saved, interpreting what I was reading. Those words were coming alive on the page. Maybe Luke was preaching to me.
“I don’t know that you can understand the scriptures in a saving way without preaching.”
Babies?!?
Josh,
I am using my phone while setting up my home and office from my move to another state So I cannot look up the verses – but what do you do with the Paul passages that faith comes by hearing God’s word preached and the how will they hear without a preacher and how beautiful are the feet of that preacher who traveled to preach.
Why was Peter sent to Cornielius and Philipp to the Ethiopian and the disciples into all of the world.
Does modern day “Just me and my bible supersede all of that?
1. Obviously I believe in preaching.
2. I guess God can do whatever He wants to do. I had not even gotten to the passage in Romans 10 when God saved me. I didn’t know I needed a preacher, only that I needed a Savior. Weird, huh?