Topic: LOVE WITHOUT DISCRIMINATION
Text: Matthew 22:34-40
22:34 When the Pharisees heard that He silenced the Sadducees, they came together.
22:35 One of them, who was a lawyer, tested Him by asking Him,
22:36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?”
22:37 Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’[a].
22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
22:39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
22:40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
STUDY:
The Pharisees approached Jesus with the intention to test, trap and defeat Him (vv. 34, 35; cf v. 15). Jesus’ response to the question: “Which is the great commandment in the law?” (v. 36), was an opportunity for Him to teach how someone can show his love for God and his fellow men – a love that involves the entire person, and from which comes the ability and desire to love God and those who are created in God’s image (Gen. 1:26-27). To love for fellow men is to love your neighbour as yourself, including a ‘fellow Israelite’ (Lev. 19:18), anyone in need (Luke 10:29-37) and even one’s enemies (Matt. 5:44).
We must learn from Jesus here. Note that the Pharisees came as enemies to test Jesus, to spite Him and to prove Him wrong. But Jesus loved them without discrimination. He practised what He had preached to His disciples: “Love your enemies” (Matt. 5:43). Do we practise what we preach? Have we love for ou enemies? Like the Pharisees, we can become so busy with every day concerns, perhaps chasing what we believe is the right thing, and miss out on the first and great thing that God demands from us.
Prayer:
Father, may the fruit of your love flow into every life that I encounter.
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