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The Two Great Commandments

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The Two Great Commandments

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The Two Great Commandments

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This sermon was given during the 2013 Winter Family Weekend. The two great commandments reveal a great deal about God. They reveal His nature, His focus on things that are important to Him, His relationship to us, ours to Him, and to one another. They reveal His plan for mankind.

Transcript

[Victor Kubik] The subject of the two great commandments was given as the theme for this year's Winter Family Weekend. Then I was asked to be the speaker for this event. What should I say? How do you approach this topic? In some ways, the subject of the two great commandments is quite straightforward. You read about it, you find out where it is in the Bible, and you have three different accounts from Matthew, Mark, and Luke about the two great commandments. And you can read through them very quickly. And I started scratching my head saying, "How in the world can I present something that is a full sermon about the subject?"

Well, the more I've thought about it, the more has come to mind about all the ramifications about Christ's words in giving these two great commandments. They're looked upon as a cornerstone of Christian ethic and Christian New Covenant theology. But it's interesting in that in some ways, they were not new commandments. They were great commandments, but they were not new commandments.

They were commandments that actually tied together the Old Covenant with the New, the Old Testament with the New. They represent the mind and nature of God. They understand how God thinks. They do not change or do away with anything dealing with God's standards and values from the Old Testament. They amplify and they build in eternal value to what God teaches.

What is so significant about these commandments, and how are they relevant for this weekend's event? Again, we have people here of various ages and interests. And I do want to, as I was going to say at the very beginning, welcome everyone, welcome our ministry, we have a number of here, welcome our members, welcome our youth, welcome our friends, and any visitors who are here. We welcome you to enjoy these days and have the opportunity to learn a great deal in the meetings as seminars that will take place, not only sporting activities, but also through the excellent seminars, the A.B.C. seminars, and other meetings that we have.

The two great commandments reveal a great deal about God. They reveal His name… pardon me, His nature, I should say, His focus of things that are important to Him, His relationship to us, ours to Him, and to one another. They reveal His plan for mankind. Again, these could be glittering generalities that we speak of in just very, very superfluous ways, but they really do reveal a great deal about what God has in mind for you.

As I've said, I have been baptized now for close to 50 years, 48. But the feeling I had, the commitment I made to Jesus Christ today has been the same from the standpoint of how I value it. Has grown a great deal because I understand more and I know more. And in spite of trial, in spite of things not working as well as I had wanted to at different times in life, I look upon God's directing me and leading me through very, very difficult times and leading me through those difficult times. And I see Him leading me into the Kingdom of God to eternity, to eternal life. And, you know, I want to share that. I want to share that with the world.

I know that I was so excited when I came to understand the truth when I was 17 years old. I was not baptized yet but I came to understand these things. I spoke about them to everybody far more than I do now. When I went to University of Minnesota in a carpool, that's all I talked about. I was dropped from the carpool after a short period of time. I was so excited because one of the girls in my carpool was Jewish. I thought, "Oh, I could talk to her. She'll like it." She hated me.

I had a blind piano teacher who I dearly loved. He was a fantastic musician. You know, I told him that, "You can be healed." I was so excited. I was so sure that he could be healed from that. I was so excited about the things that God speaks of that came to me so clearly in the Bible. It was a very youthful exuberance. It was a very youthful enthusiasm. And yet, in many ways, I look upon the fact that God will make do. He will fulfill promises. He will heal. He will bring about restoration. He will make things happen in our lives.

The two great commandments are more than the summary of the Ten Commandments. Normally, they're explained that "Oh they are a summary of the Ten Commandments, love God and love fellow man.” End of statement. Oh, they're far more than that. They reveal far more about God. There's also a story about the Ten Commandments, about the two great commandments that shows us the way to eternal life because that's specifically, emphatically stated.

Let's take a look at the three passages in the Gospels that refer to the two great commandments. Now this event, and there may have been two events, I'm not sure about that, this came literally days before Jesus Christ ended His earthly ministry. He was dogged by Pharisees and Sadducees that wanted to trip him up, get him to say things that would box Him in, that would ensnare Him in His own words. And Jesus Christ had three or four different things, I better have you count them, where He answered difficult questions. And in the process of answering the difficult questions, was able to give us new teaching or to give us clarification of teaching those points.

Matthew 22, I'd like you to turn to Matthew 22, please. Do we see we're getting very, very close to the Olivet prophecy, which is Matthew 24? So it was very, very close to the end of Christ's earthly ministry. He answered these difficult questions that were intended to entangle Him in His own words.

He dealt with the relationship between religion and government where He was asked, "Are you going to pay taxes? Are you going to pay your taxes, Jesus?" Wanting to see if they'd stir people up against Him or to get Him in trouble with the Roman government, Jesus Christ slipped through that very smoothly, took a coin says, "Whose face is on here?" "Oh, it's Caesar." "Well, that belongs to him.” End of question.

He answered a question to the Sadducees. The first one was to the Pharisees. Second one was to the Sadducees, and the Sadducees and the Pharisees did not like each other. Now, just because they were against Christ doesn't mean they were with one another. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection, and they were, kind of, stalking Christ, sort of, side by side, asking Him questions. And they asked Him a silly question, in a way, about a woman who had a husband who died then his brother married her, he died, then his brother, he died, then his brother married her until all seven of them married her. The question, what I would have asked is, "What was she feeding them?" But that was not the question that was asked.

The question was, "Whose wife will she be, you know, in the resurrection?" kind of playing off on inheritance laws of the Old Testament. And Jesus Christ answered that very well too by saying that "There will be no marriage in the Kingdom in the resurrection. They will be like the angels," he answered that. But I'm not talking about that. I'm just saying that he had a number of questions who were asked.

Matthew 22:34, "But when the Pharisees had heard He had silenced the Pharisees [Sadducees],” that was after the question of the seven brothers who married this one woman, one after another. "they gathered together." Okay, they huddled. "Okay, let's give Christ another shot." They hated Christ. They were jealous of Him. They saw that He was popular with their people. They saw that He spoke with authority. And every time that Christ spoke, He wasn't quoting anyone. If He quoted anyone, He was quoting the Bible and the Scriptures very directly and very authoritatively.

"Then one of them, a lawyer," or a scribe “asked Him a question, testing Him…” it was not a question that was well spirited necessarily. It was a testing question. You know, I hate testing questions. I like it when people ask me questions. I'm sure that most of us who are teachers and ministers like when people ask us a question because they really want to know, and I have a strong desire to show them or to explain to them or to tell them where I can get the answer.

I don't like to be tested. I don't like to be brought into some kind of argument, “…saying, 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?'" Okay. Now, the Pharisees enjoyed the embarrassment that was heaped upon the Sadducees because Christ really put them down. And also if they asked a question of their own, “Now which is the great law… which is the great commandment in the law of God?”

Now, this was not a new question. This was a perennial question among the learned community. There were 613 laws in the Old Testament of which they considered 248 to be positive and 365 to be negative. And there was always discussion about which law is most important, the Ten Commandments being heaped into that, and which one in particular? Would it be the commandments regarding the sacrifices that some held up in great esteem as the greatest of commandments? Or perhaps it's the law of circumcision, which to some Jews was very, very important. Or was it the law of the Sabbath that was their identifying sign? That's their mark, that's how they would be known to the world.

And believe me, they have been known to the world by the Sabbath not always very positively. But the law of the Sabbath, could that be the most important law that Christ had? They wanted Christ to answer one of them. Then they could say, "Well, what about this one? What about that one?" Christ was absolutely brilliant in how He responded because He didn't point to any one Commandment. He responded in verse 37.

"Jesus said to them," Matthew 22:37, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment." Actually, this was not His words directly because He was quoting from Deuteronomy 6:4-5, which is the Shema, the most sacred scripture to Orthodox Jews even to this day, who repeat this, if you're a good Orthodox Jew, twice a day. And the way that that appears in Deuteronomy 6:4 is, "Hear, O Israel," the term “hear” in Hebrew is shema. That's why it's called the Shema.

There are songs written to it. You know, it's a very, very important statement, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." So Christ doesn't point to any one commandment. He points to the Shema which was holy and sacred to the Jews. That is the great commandment, loving the Lord your God.

He was only asked to comment about the great or the greatest commandment or the first commandment, but then He goes on to say the following, "And the second is like it." He wasn't even asked for a second commandment, but He says, "Here's the second commandment which is just as important, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." Now, to me, I read a statement like this, and I actually get goosebumps. How brilliant. I am very poor at answering questions on the spot. I usually have my wife to answer those questions.

I can’t… mean, I'm talking about, you know, if I had to return something, you know, on the telephone or go to the store, return… I just don't like a lot of questions where I have to argue. But Jesus Christ was absolutely amazing under stress, knowing that in a few days He would be going through the most trying period of His life that had been planned eons before He was able to come up with brilliant statements of this sort.

When asked, "What is the great law, what is the great commandment?" He said, "Love God with all your heart, and soul, and mind, and spirit, and being, and to love your neighbor as yourself." That too was not something that was original. He was quoting from Leviticus 19:18. Leviticus 19:18, "You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord."

So the basis of New Covenant theology is found in the words of Deuteronomy and Leviticus, the very foundation. Jesus Christ quoted this Shema. I'd like you to turn to Mark 12. This is the second place where this appears, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. We'll take a look at all three. And then we'll comment a little bit later about, "On this hang all the Law and the Prophets." We'll take a look at that a little bit later.

Mark 12:28, "Then one of the scribes” the lawyer, the Pharisee lawyer “came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceived He had answered them well." And he was perceiving here that Christ had answered the Sadducees very well. They saw that Christ really was able to neutralize any negativity in the question from the Sadducees about the woman and the seven husbands. And he said, "Christ, you know something, you did a good job, a good job there."

“They asked Him, ‘Which is the greatest commandment of all?’ Jesus answered him, ‘The first of all the commandments is: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength.”'" Here in the book of Mark, the entire Shema is quoted. In Luke and in Matthew, you only have a portion of it. But here in Mark, the entirety of Deuteronomy 6:4 is quoted. These words, again, the Orthodox Jews are to repeat twice a day. "This is the first commandment. And the second like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

"So the scribe," verse 32, this is Mark 12, "said to Him, 'Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there's no other but He. And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.'" He was either convinced or said this out of convenience. I don't know the motives there.

But Jesus Christ publicly made the statement in verse 34. "When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, 'You are not far from the kingdom of God.'" “Way to go, you get it.” You begin to understand the very essence of ethics, the very essence of behavior, of Christian behavior, of godly behavior. Now, there's so much in the New Testament that comments about the fact that love for man is really an important statement. That goes without saying. It's a sort of, a self-evidence statement.

But I'd like to read you a few just from the book of John, 1 John actually here. 1 John 3:10. John is the one who comments more on the subject of love because the word that's common here in the statement about the great commandment is love towards God, love towards your fellow man. Certainly obedience and so forth is all included there, and we could take an analysis, make an analysis of all the commandments. And we see that every single one of the commandments of God has a component of concern of outgoing feeling of heartfelt respect. In fact, the way you show respect and the way you show love is through obedience, but the operative word is love in both of these cases.

1 John 3:10, "Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is a message that you heard from the beginning, that you should love one another,” John is referred to as the love apostle and sometimes looked upon as, kind of, a softer more, just easier person. Now, believe me, he is not. He was not necessarily even a very soft person in his life. But he understood the mechanics of love and understood what Jesus Christ was saying about love and amplifies that point in the last words of Christ, amplifies that point in the very beginning chapters of the book of John, and brings out a very important aspect that Jesus Christ nails in giving the great commandments, the two great commandments.

1 John 4:7, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. And he who does not love God does not know God, for God is love." God is love. Now, it's easy to say that this, is kind of, a symbolic statement. Thinking of God represents love, you know, God speaks of love, God, you know, shows love, and so forth. But you know something, I believe this very literally. God is love. Everything about Him is love. That is His nature, to love.

I do believe that long before the universe was created and the universe was created. The universe as we know it right now had a beginning, it hasn't been from eternity, but God has. And John can say that God is love before there was a universe before there was anything that we see now, before there was mankind, before anything, there was God. And who was God? God was love. God had no beginning, has no end. I don't understand all the dynamics. I don't understand all these dimensions. I'm not asked to understand them. I just understand to read and believe.

I don't want to do a NOVA program, you know, about this. But nonetheless, before the 10, 15, 20 billion years that are ascribed to the origins of the universe, there was God. And long ago that was love, that was the embodiment of love. Isn't that important? And that now God is wanting that love to be transferred to His creation, to be transferred to humans, to be transferred from human back to God, to be transferred from human to human, to be transferred from parent to child, to be transferred from husband to wife, to wife to husband. This commodity, this spiritual gift, this fruit, however you want to place love, is something that pre-existed. It was part of God's nature that now He is giving to mankind to use. And it's for us to use and to understand its value.

Verse 9, 1 John 4:9, "In this the love of God was manifested towards us, that God had sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him." See, it wasn't just creating mankind that was a loving act. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation” the sacrifice “for our sins.” Awesome. Beloved.

Verse 11, "If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." These words are deep. And every time I read them from time to time, not every day obviously, and especially now before giving this sermon, I am touched and moved and motivated by these words of what Jesus Christ has done for us, what God the Father with Jesus Christ, and how well they designed it, and how they worked this process out, it was an act of love to give Jesus Christ to be the expiatory sacrifice for our eternity and for our future.

Take a look at Romans 13:8, the connection of commandments to love. John wasn't the only one who understood this. It was written quite generously by the apostle Paul as well. Romans 13:8, "Owe no one anything except to love one another…” if we’re to have a debt with anybody, always feel that I owe you my love. Owe no one anything, except to love one another. That's got to be a debt. That's got to be something that we feel obligated to do at all times, “…for he who loves another has fulfilled the law." If you do that, you are fulfilling the law.

And notice what law he's talking about, "For the commandments," verse 9, "'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not murder,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not bear false witness,' 'You shall not covet,' and if there be any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’" Are there any questions which law we're talking about and how love is a showing that you are keeping this law? "Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." Love would not do anything to harm a neighbor, a brother, a mate, a child, a parent.

I'd like to go to the third writing, is Matthew 20… is in Luke 10, Luke 10:25. And Jesus Christ ties in this love towards man in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Luke 10:25, "Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, 'Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’" This particular aspect of the question does not appear in the first two sayings, but neither does, "On this hang all the Law and Prophets," appear everywhere. You got to read all three of them to get the whole picture.

"What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Verse 6. Christ doesn't answer him the way He did the others. Which leads me to believe that either this is a slightly different event, because the way that this Pharisee comes back, the way this lawyer comes back, he has it nailed down. So he must have heard Christ say it and then repeats it back to Christ. I honestly don't know. I've looked at commentaries. I just don't know, but nonetheless, that's not that important. What's important is what was said.

Christ said to the lawyer, “'What is written in the law? What is your reading of it? I mean, what do you make of it?’ So he answered and said, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ And He said to him,” Christ said to him, "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live." In other words, this is the way to eternal life, these two great commandments. This is your ticket. This is the way. This is the road.

“But he, wanting to justify himself,” because he was still being a nasty little lawyer here, “said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’" They have a certain sassiness ascribed to the question. And Jesus answers with the parable of the Good Samaritan. "Certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.” Verse 31, "Now by a chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side." He saw somebody in trouble, but he was in a hurry, he had a meeting, you know, so he just zips around this person. Somebody else will take care of it.

"Likewise a Levite, when he arrives at the place, came and looked and passed by the other side. But a certain Samaritan," the Samaritans weren't held in highest esteem by the Jews, "as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, he departed… or when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come back, I will repay you.'" He gave him his Visa card.

"So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?" And He said, you know, "Who, the Levite, the priests, you know, who is the neighbor?" The answer from him was, "He who showed mercy on him." And Jesus said, "Go and do likewise.” That's what it means to love your neighbor. And He was critical, Jesus Christ was critical.

When he got with the Pharisees, believe me, there weren't too many good words said because of hypocrisy and this type of thing, testy attitude, hypocrisy, grandstanding, all these, kind of, things that came about from the Pharisees. And Jesus Christ set the record straight. What more can we learn from these commandments? There's a lot, and we could meditate about it for a long time, but I'd like to again, take a quick trip back to antiquity.

Turn to John 1:1. This is the oldest, going back in time that we have in the Bible. It goes back way before Genesis 1 because this goes back before any creation as I have already mentioned. John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The Word is Jesus Christ. God is God the Father, plain and simple. He was in the beginning with God, Jesus. Before time, before any of the dimensions that we have, before the creation of matter, “All things were made through Him,” through the Word. He was executive Creator, “and without Him nothing was made that was made.”

In Him was life, not only was there a creation of matter, there was a creation of life, and life can only come from life, and past life could only come from former life. If you take it all the way back it had to have a life that it came from. It didn't come from lightning striking lovesick amoeba. In Him was life, which is consciousness and self-awareness. And the life was the light of men.

The next oldest place is Hebrews 11:3, Hebrews 11:3. Now, the Bible mostly is a book about the story of man and God, from the creation of man to the new heavens and new earth, Revelation 21 and 22. But we have little glimpses of God, of His nature that appear here and there. In a fuzzy way, yes, but the Bible is not about God’s… you know, there’s a lot could be said about that the Bible is really a book that's a manual for us.

"By faith” Hebrews 11:3, “we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible." This is a remarkable scripture because “the things which are seen,” this building, the roads, everything that we see, this podium… but what was this made from? What is the original dynamo for this? They are made… “they're not made of things which are visible.” Matter was created by something that was beyond matter. It was from God. It was the Spirit of God. It was His power. It had to come someplace.

There are many theories of how we got the 20 billion-year-old universe. There was a big bang, and I don't know if that's true or not, but nonetheless it, kind of… there was nothing at one time then there was something. It had to somehow happen. And the revelation here is, is that everything that we see has come from something that was not seen, an amazing statement of physics by the apostle Paul. It created the massive universe that we have now. You know, I marvel at the universe. I could give sermons about that. I used to love astronomy and about the greatness of the universe. The greatness of the universe brings about faith in people. The greatness of the universe also brings about derision and atheists.

I have a copy of a debate given at Biola University in Southern California by an atheist and by a believer. A question was asked about the hugeness of the universe, doesn't this certainly show the greatness of God? The believer says that “You look at the unlimited greatness and possibilities that God is offering for mankind.” Sometimes, in my sermons, I talk about how we're going to populate the universe and God's family will grow. There'll be no end to it. The Atheist responded by saying, "Why would God waste so much space and resources just to bring about man's salvation?” Ooh, you know, he just made everything a whole lot smaller.

Here's what Roman says, Romans 8:19. Romans 8:19, "For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." The creation was made for man. The creation is going to be liberated. It was going to be given to mankind.

"For we know," verse 22, "that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who are the firstfruits of the Spirit, we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly awaiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body." Now, by the time we come to Genesis 1:1, you know, we kind of, come pass this point. Because Genesis 1:1 basically tells us about the creation of the earth, and, you know, from there on, quickly the story goes into the story of Adam and into our life. But the nature of God is this. John 4:24, John 4:24, "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." God is not seen. He is here. He is listening. He is in your life. He has the power to transform you. God is also love and He's working with you.

1 John 4:16, which we already had mentioned. "We know and believe that a love that God has for us. God is love…” and again, just like God is Spirit, God is love. That is His nature.There's certain aspects of God that are so solid and so powerful, so unchangeable, and so sure if we want to believe it. That's why I find the two great commandments to be so beautiful, all-encompassing and, kind of, summarizing more than just the first four and the last six commandments. They summarize the nature of God. And God is asking us to absorb that love, to give it back to Him, and to give it back to our fellow man. That's what it's about.

1 John 4:8, "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." And then one of the most beautiful passages, 1 John 3:1, "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” John tingles with anticipatory excitement, "What manner of love the Father has bestowed, that we should be called the children of God!” That we could be part of that, something big and great, expansive. The subject of love… I'm not going into all the Greek words in this for there's lots of studies that can be made about. I'm just giving an overall overview based upon the theme for this particular event.

The greatest spiritual gift, what is the greatest spiritual gift? Speaking in tongues? Is the greatest gift to be a prophet? No, if you take a look at 1 Corinthians 12 and 13, I think you'll know what I'm getting to very, very quickly. Talking about gifts, verse 27 of 1 Corinthians 12, the Body of Christ, "Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. And God has appointed these in the church:” He's put these offices and functionalities in the Church, “apostles, prophets, teachers, after that miracles, and gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the best gifts."

In other words, what this is opening up to is that some of these other gifts perhaps you may have and you may not have, but that's another subject. But He says, "Earnestly desire the very best gifts. And I'll show you a more excellent way, a preview of coming attractions.” Okay. Well, that's in chapter 13, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, to understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and not have love, it profits me nothing."

The final verse of the chapter, verse 13, "Now abide faith, hope, and love, these are the three big ones, but the greatest of these is love." The greatest gift from God is your being able to absorb that because of the power that it has. It reflects God, who He was, who He is, His nature. Not only that, love is not only a gift, love is the fruit of the Spirit and the very first one mentioned.

Galatians 5:22, Galatians 5:22, "But the fruit of the Spirit is..." And you would think that prioritization is based upon importance. It doesn't say that here, but it fits my sermon. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace longsuffering, kindness…” it talks about all the various fruits of the Spirit of how the Holy Spirit is manifested in our lives. Number one is it is shown in love. John 3:16-17, just to show you the importance of that love, which is the operative word in the two great commandments.

John 3:16. This is a well-known verse, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." I could not do that. I'm sorry. I could not be an Abraham nor could I be a God the Father, but it shows the highest expression of love, is that God the Father gave His only begotten son to save us, to grant us salvation, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."

So as we wrap up here, God is love. That love has permeated the entirety of the creation. God loves man. God teaches us to love God and man. And love by extension is friendship, love in marriage, and is the basis of marriage. Why did you marry who you did? Because it was a civil union? Because it was convenient? I don't mean it was, you know, but I'm just saying is that most of us married who we did because we love them. There was an expression, there was a component of that love of God that binds us together.

How does a family of God grow? How do children come into this world? By people making love, yes, it comes from an act of love between a husband and wife. So you see that love is a big, big subject. It's been something that permeates into every nook and cranny and aspect of our lives. What have we learned? The great commandments proclaim the Shema. They proclaim and explain who our fellow man is or who our neighbor is, I should say. And on it in Matthew 22:40, which we read but did not comment on, Christ said that “On these two commandments hang all the Prophets and the Law… or the Law and the Prophets.”

He said that love is the root of everything that we read in the Scriptures. He said Law and Prophets, probably just didn't mention writings, but He was referring to on this hang everything that's been written as Scripture. That love and the giving of these two commands that include love is the operative words that's common to both hangs all the Law and the Prophets. Everything good proceeds from this, and it's a summary of God's commandments to us.

Jesus Christ, after the foot washing and before He said more things, before being led away, said the following to all Christians, John 13:34, He says, “A new commandment I give to you,” this is now a few days later now then the two great commands given, "This is a new commandment I give you, and which is that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” Verse 35, "By this, by this love all will know that you are My disciples if you have love for another.” Not going to come by RGN barcode. It's not going to come by us saying we're Christians. It's going to come by the love that we show to one another. By this, all will know that we are Christ's disciples that we are truly Christians.

You know one reason why we assemble? And this is the greatest assembly of the year from the standpoint of size. I don't believe that we have any festival site that's bigger than the group that's here, probably 1,100 or so. I bet one reason why the apostle Paul said that people are to assemble, one reason why we're not to be just internet Christians in independence, off to ourselves, is because there is a certain power of magnifying love when people get together.

Hebrews 10:24, "Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,” how? Verse 25, "not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching." I'm hoping that we use the seminars, the socializing, the fellowship, the banter, the talking, the dinners, as an opportunity to really encourage, stirrup, and in the process have love become a bright product that really makes us, those people that will be identified by others as they are something special. They are God's people. They are Christians.

I used to always appreciate when we would go and have our festival sites at different places and the management would say, "You know, this is an amazing group, just the way they treated one another. They were considerate to one another. They didn't give us a lot of trouble. You know, there was something special about these people.” Well, what was it? It was their love and truly identified themselves as being Christians.

So, let's apply that to our socializing, to our friendship, to our marriages, to how we treat our parents, to how we treat our children, our sons and daughters, how we speak about the Church and how we value our church, how we pray and relate to our God. Then there's another course that I could give. It's called "Love 201, Love Your Enemies" but we'll save that for another time. Love is to be worshipful of God in everything we do. Well, I'm looking forward to meeting with you, seeing old friends and so forth. Let's all have a great time and love one another.