The Second Great Commandment

So this morning we looked at the first and great commandment and just as a reminder, as a review, we looked at the first and greatest commandment, the fact that the Lord says in verse number 38, to love the Lord our God with all of our heart and soul and mind and then Mark adds strength, that is the first and great commandment and the fact that the Lord calls it the first and great commandment tells us that it is first in priority and it is great, that is greatest in importance and we saw this morning how that the commandment to love God exceeds even the commandments, the Ten Commandments which we get a lot of, we see a lot about in our world these days and the Ten Commandments are important, I’m not diminishing them at all, but this is greater, this is what the Lord says, these are greater and you’ll notice in the Lord’s answer, He was asked about one great commandment and He gives two great commandments just again by way of review, the first commandment deals with one’s relationship to God like the first four of the Ten Commandments and the second commandment which is what we’re going to look at tonight deals with one’s relationship to another and that is what, that matches the five commandments, five through ten in the Ten Commandments and so it is important though before we get started looking at the second great commandment that we make sure that we have the order and priority in its proper place.

The first commandment is indeed first and so the way that we treat others is not as important, is not as significant and does not carry the same weight as what our relationship to God is, our love for one another is not as significant as our relationship and our love toward God is. Now why do I say that? That seems obvious but we have to maintain that emphasis, here’s why, because in our world and you know it, I mean you look at these large international organizations and things like that, they if they were to read verse number 39, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself almost universally, almost universally the world over or whether it’s in Cambodia where they’re Buddhists or India where they’re Hindu or whether in a primarily Muslim nation, most people in the world would in some fashion or form agree with that and you see this idea of well we should treat each other with kindness and respect and you know you see this in our world, you see people talk like this all the time but note that all those same people who give a lot of you know give a lot of lip service or talk about that a lot never ever mention loving God. You notice that? It is wholly absent, it is wholly absent. In other words what they do is they rush to the second commandment and completely ignore the first. They completely ignore the first but you but the well the second has no meaning unless you have the first because the authority of the second is based upon the first right and what good is it? What profit is it if we learn somehow, although I don’t think it’s possible to be honest with you just like we saw this morning, what good is it? What profit is it if we learn to love our neighbor as ourself but we are we do not know nor love the God who created us? Who is our judge? Who is to be our savior? Who is whose heaven we hope to go to right? What profit is it? But see that’s exactly what this world desires. This world desires the morals of scripture without the God of scripture and so when we look at the Bible when we look at the text of scripture there’s a reason why God put love to him first. It is of primary importance. It eclipses every other kind of love or every other commandment that can be. We have to make sure we have it in that order and indeed you and I cannot rightly love another unless our love to God is in its proper place because remember the commandments that we have regarding others you know in the 10 commandments 5 to 10 the commandment to love our neighbor as ourself is really is built upon the truth that we first love God and because we love God we keep his commandments. That’s what we saw this morning right? Jesus said if you love me keep my commandments well one of those commandments indeed the second commandment that he gives is love your neighbor as yourself and so loving God will produce the obedience to the second commandment so that’s why it has to be in order first. That’s why it has to be in its proper place. We should not we should be very listen we should be very very careful not to detach our morals from the God who gave them right as if they stand alone as if morality is something exists that exists independent of God. No the reason why we should love our neighbor as ourselves is because of the Lord who gave that commandment so all of that it all comes back to him. You cannot detach morality which is essentially what we’re talking about we’re talking about morality in the sense of the way we treat others tonight you cannot detach it from God and do right by the Lord. Okay now notice in verse number 39 the second is like unto it so as I said this morning both commands deal with love it doesn’t deal with lists that you should follow and the Old Testament is the Old Testament law is full of lists of things you should do and things you should not do but really the Lord summarizes it all in two commandments that deal with both deal with love love it says this thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself notice thou shalt love now this morning we saw how the love how our love toward God which primarily is inward and this is also inward because love is something that is inward but it manifests itself outwardly in what we do in the case of the Lord our love to God is manifested by our keeping his commandments that’s one way that that our love to God is is seen outwardly and that’s also true when we talk about the second great commandment which is our commandment the Lord’s command to love our neighbor as ourselves listen to these few verses and then I want to look at John 13 if you want to go ahead and turn there you can but listen to these verses what I want you to pay it pay close attention to is the relationship between loving one another with something that we do again it’s not just a warm feeling toward another but it’s choosing to act upon that love and to therefore treat them in a way that is consistent with love with that affection that we should have for one another Romans 12 verse 10 says this be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love in honor preferring one another kindly affectioned affectioned one to another with brotherly love so if that’s if that’s the case we know that if we love one another one of the ways that’s going to manifest itself is in our kindness and our affection toward one another right so in other words you see how this love has feet you know it has legs it does things if it’s inwardly it shows itself outwardly Galatians 5 13 says this for brethren ye have been called unto liberty only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another husbands you know what you should do you should serve your wives why I thought hey I thought we believe we’re complementarians well because you love her and service is an act of love right if love is in the heart service is the result right and so if you love your wife and it’s true of the wife toward the husband as well if there’s love there of course we know there’s a there’s a scriptural order in the home but as far as love is concerned then the husband should serve his wife and the wife should serve their husband that’s why the bible says serve one another there’s supposed to be love going both ways right but notice service is the product of love in the heart loving one another right Ephesians 4 verse 2 says this with all lowliness and meekness with long suffering forbearing one another in love here love is in the heart in this case things aren’t going so well right so forbearance is necessary patience you know having a long fuse with with with the with the one that you love which tells us that the people we love oftentimes in our relationships there are going to be times when those things are strained and love is what produces that long suffering and that patience with the other that allows you to to get past that but again it all comes out of love in the heart so when god says thou shalt love there and there are actually many many ways as we’ll see in a minute there’s many many ways that love toward one another will manifest itself it is it will not be found just in the heart or on the lips it will also be found in the life and just like we said this morning if a man says that he loves god but doesn’t keep god’s commandments he’s not he doesn’t understand love what love toward god is he does he lacks love toward god well so if a if a man says that he loves his neighbor but doesn’t do the things that is that are consistent with love toward his neighbor then that’s just words there’s no real love there and so love it love looks like something in practice toward another john 13 if you look at that verse number 34 john 13 this is one of the one of the most significant parts of john because of of this theme of love this is something the lord brought up especially in the book of john it’s also in the book of first john over and over john 13 verse number 34 says this a new commandment our lord says this a new commandment i give unto you that ye love one another as i have loved you that ye also love one another by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another now you notice it says a new command now we know the commandment to love our neighbor as ourself is not new it goes back to levitt levitticus chapter 19 right we already saw that this morning so what does the lord mean by a new command well i’ll put it to you like this this new command of the lord jesus is a little bit different than the command in the old testament in in levitticus that we saw this morning but i would say that this new command is built on top of the foundation of the old testament truth they both deal with love and they both deal with another another person so what the lord does is he takes that truth although we know in matthew he actually teaches what the law says on it directly and that’s what we’re looking at tonight but then he adds to it just tweaks it a little bit and he calls it a new commandment and this new commandment verse 34 is this that ye love one another now i know that can be all-inclusive like our neighbor which we’ll see in a minute but this one another in this context deals with the disciples verse number 35 by this shall all men all men those are non-disciples know that ye love that you’re my disciples if ye have love one to another this is not specifically talking about the love toward that we might have toward all men although the lord commends that too this is specifically the love that believers are supposed to have toward toward one another it is a special love it is a unique love in the holy spirit that we have because we are believers and this is again built upon the loving our neighbor as ourself the other thing that’s a little bit different verse 34 is this that you love one another as i have loved you the standard is a little bit different you see in our text in matthew 22 the standard is that we love our neighbor as ourself and this is love as christ has loved us which do you think is is higher which you think is a higher standard as christ has loved us because christ’s love to us was sacrificial that doesn’t know that doesn’t however negate that doesn’t negate what we’re studying in matthew 22 at all in fact it’s built upon it but matthew 22 deals with our neighbor this specifically deals with our love among among the saints so i’ll say i’ll say it to our church i’ll say it to you as a as a believer there should be a special kind of love between people in our church there should be a special kind of love that you have with another saint in christ there should be a special kind of love it’s not we have we have love to one another and we hate everyone else no to the contrary but the love that we have should be in a category on all it’s all on its own right a special love one toward another and that’s repeated over and over and over in scripture over and over in scripture and it should go both ways it should be reciprocal notice going going back to matthew 22 matthew 22 notice what it says in verse 39 again and that and the second the second commandment is like unto it thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself notice thy neighbor now the question that has come up this is a scriptural question in luke chapter 10 we’ll look at it in a second the question is who does this include because i think this is pretty important question don’t you don’t you think it don’t you think this is an important question if i’m supposed to love a person as myself i probably should know to whom this command applies right who are the neighbors that i have to love because i mean i gotta know who they are so i know how to treat them right look at luke chapter 10 if you would luke chapter 10 this is the very question that a man posed to the lord jesus on this same subject luke 10 verse number verse 27 this man asked about how do we inherit eternal life jesus says what does the bible say in verse 26 27 and he answering said thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy neighbor as thyself so he’s right verse 28 and he said unto him thou hast answered right this do and thou shalt live but he here’s the kicker willing to justify himself said unto jesus and who is my neighbor okay and who is my you see what he’s trying to do what he’s trying to do is kind of cull down pair down exactly who this neighbor group is so that you he could exclude certain people and therefore exclude that obeying that command in certain circumstances and you know what the lord essentially said i’m not going to go into it this is the parable of the good samaritan essentially what he says is your neighbor is the person that you despise the most in essence you know the samaritan and so when we look at matthew 22 and it says thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself just like with this our neighbor is in some degree or another every person because in the broadest sense every single one of us is a neighbor to another another person on this globe they might we might be a distant neighbor but the moment that they listen the moment that any person no matter where they’re from or how far they live from us the moment that they come within our orbit such that we have to apply this verse and love them right at that moment they are they are our neighbor that is someone nigh to us that’s what the word neighbor means someone near us so the moment they they cross our path whether what they cross our path on the road where we’re driving or the moment they cross our path in any in any way fashion or form that commandment applies now of course there’s a priority in that your nearest neighbors are the one that have the greatest priority as far as love in other words you and i should concentrate on loving those who are closest to us that should be your your wife your husband your children as we saw this morning your mother your father right and and it kind of goes out from there but it but everyone to some degree or another is a neighbor to us by degrees okay but think about another way we love our neighbor who is our neighbor think about we’re about to have a mission conference in about in a little over a month did you know that one way that we love our neighbor is by sending the gospel to them first of all recognizing those people on the other side of the world or in those foreign countries that are different than us though their though their their their nation is different than ours though their language is different than ours than ours that in some measure they are they are our neighbor and therefore we must love them and there is no greater way to love some someone than to give them the the the very the the solution right the cure to their greatest problem which is the problem of sin and judgment and uh and so when we send missionaries we’re actually that is actually kind of a a response in love remember love has feet it’s a response in love toward our neighbor kind of in the furthest degree and the remotest degree and so that’s part of what it means to love our neighbor all right now go back to Matthew 22 look at look at verse 39 once again it says this thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself now i know the command that we looked at in john 13 has a different standard but since we’re studying this we’re going to study this standard because this is the standard found in the law and this is also the standard that the lord now applies in in his teaching as well so in in verse 37 the lord tells us to love the lord our god with all our heart and soul and mind and strength that’s with every fiber of our being now let me just take a take a pause here just that verse alone right should should exclude any idea of this well i’m a christian in some circumstances and not a christian in other circumstances this kind of dual life that is totally foreign to the bible if you love god with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength that means you love him no matter who you’re around that means you love him if you’re at work that means you love him if you’re at school that means you love him when you’re around your peers that means you love him in every circumstance how can we say that we love him with every fiber of our being if there’s certain times when we really we don’t act like we love him we don’t you know that so this is a very high standard there’s no higher standard than this but this standard for love is reserved for god himself alone this is not the standard applied to one’s neighbor the standard applied in verse number 39 to one’s neighbor is as thyself god tells us to love our neighbor and we’ve already seen who that is as ourselves okay so that that tells us what does it then mean to love ourselves if we’re to match at least match our love for ourselves when we love our neighbor we have to look at exactly what it means to love ourselves now the good thing is that the lord has made it very simple for us in this because nothing in the world that we do comes easier and more natural to us than loving ourselves can i get an amen there’s a wow that sounds that sounds a little bit i don’t know that doesn’t sound very spiritual well i’m okay i’ll be the only one then i’ll be the only one the easiest thing in the world i do in my life is love myself and i’m sure it’s true of you too if you’re born in a in a in a fleshy a fleshy robe you the easiest thing you do is you love yourself and i’m not trying to be insulting to you it’s just reality we pamper ourselves we prioritize ourselves do we not we go to great lengths to avoid pain and suffering to ourselves right what do we we give ourselves great grace and patience when we err when we make mistakes do we not we give ourselves a pass even though we might not give another a pass we’ll give ourselves a pass we assume the best of our own motivations right we we even sometimes we even think highly of ourselves we think highly of our abilities we think highly of our motivations we think highly of our ideas and we sometimes even entertain thoughts of praise of ourself if you’re honest you have to say you don’t have to you don’t have to nod obviously but it’s just true this is the way we view ourselves the easiest and that most natural thing that we do is love ourselves the lord doesn’t tell us how to do it because even thomas thomas rausch loves himself even little thomas and susanna too she loves herself too she just doesn’t quite know it yet exactly exactly see she said amen so what the lord does is he takes this thing that is extremely natural to us the natural affection we have for ourselves and he turns it into a standard by which we’re to treat others and we say and he says the way that you love yourself that’s the way that i want you to love another matthew 712 you know these verses but but i want to read them to you not because you don’t know them but because i want to read them to you in this context because they’re built upon this this standard of love matthew 712 says this therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the law and the prophets this is the golden rule right doing to others as you would have them do into you not is not directly quoted in scripture but this is the gist of it luke 631 says this and as you would that men should do to you do ye also to them likewise which is basically what we’re describing here it is love it is love toward others in this case we’re not talking about love but talking about doing which is supposed to come out of love in these two verses that i just quoted it’s love unto them based upon what we do we would do would wish to have done to ourselves so again that’s the same standard as thyself as thyself you know sometimes when we mistreat people we do it because we say well they deserve it they did x y and z therefore they deserve what what i did to them and you know what maybe they did maybe they had it coming i’m not going to argue that point but what the lord wants us to do is he wants us to flip it around he wants you and me to ask ourselves if you were the offender how would you want to be responded to if you were guilty and you deserved it right that’s what the lord wants us to do because all of us have done that from time to time as much as we might not like to admit it we are sometimes the offender and when that happens what kind of response do you want from another whatever that answer is is the answer it is the answer to the question of how do i love another when they deserve it and in fact we can uh we can take this and i think this is exactly what the lord wants us to do in any kind of interaction with another person whether they’re a believer or an unbeliever whether they’re in our church or in another church or don’t go to church whether they’re near whether they’re far whether they’re whatever the case might be our neighbor is all-inclusive the lord wants us to set it in our mind as a rule and as a law and as a principle how would i wish to be treated how would i want that person to speak to me if i cut them off how would i want to be how would i want to be uh replied to if i was the one who said something cross or out of the way or something i shouldn’t have said this the lord wants this thought to go through our mind before we interact with someone whether we no matter what kind of interaction we’re talking about he wants our mind he wants our mind to immediately think all right all right how would i feel and this is this is the this is the core of this commandment the law but here’s the problem what we often do is we think instead of thinking of what as verse 39 says as thyself instead of thinking of as thyself instead of thinking of me and how i would wish to be treated what we do is we think of what the we think of the way that others should treat us so instead of looking at the way we wish to be treated as a guide we look at what they should do our focus is on them rather than on me but this standard puts the focus on me me this standard puts the focus on me so the the the the emphasis the focus the light is shined not on what they should do but on what i should do because people aren’t always going to treat you right and you and i still are obligated to love them even when we’re mistreated right even when we’re mistreated we’re still obligated to love them and how do we do that well one of the ways is by remembering as thyself they mistreat me how do i treat how would i if i was the the the offender how would i want to be replied to how would i want to be dealt with well well they should they shouldn’t do that well maybe maybe not that’s not the point what is your and my responsibility toward them how would i want to be treated in this case one thing that helps that helps us a lot when we think about loving others is to stop thinking about what other people should do and start thinking about what we should do and this is exactly what the commandment tells us to love our neighbor as ourself now if you would look at romans 13 romans 13 i just want to look at it two passages to kind of um support this and we’ll be finished romans 13 verse number eight from this 13 verse number eight the bible says this this should be very familiar to us now oh no man anything but to love one another okay that sounds really familiar that’s what jesus said in john 13 we saw a minute ago for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law remember in matthew 22 we saw it just a minute ago it says on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets right in other words all the commands about toward god and toward man all of them are dependent upon the two great commandments and that’s exactly what we read here for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law now what does he mean hath fulfilled the law because he explains it in verse number nine now for this thou shalt not commit adultery part of the ten commandments thou shalt not kill part of the ten commandments thou shalt not steal part of the ten commandments thou shalt not bear false witness part of the ten commandments thou shalt not covet also part of the ten commandments and if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely thou shalt Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Now you notice, you notice you see both standards mentioned here. In verse 8 you have love one another, that’s the standard Jesus gave in John 13, and that is built upon verse number 10, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Both of them are playing together in this passage. Notice what it says, love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

So Paul gives this list which is most of, I think it accepts maybe one of the ten commandments that deals with other men, right? Five to ten. He gives almost all of them and he says, really, you don’t even really, I mean you need the commandments because the commandments teach us about right and wrong and sin and evil. But really, if you have this one command, which is not actually part of the ten, if you have this one command, love your neighbor as yourself, all of the others are covered.

He says, he says, for this, and he lists them, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. So in the law what you have is you have a whole, a list, a lot of lists of do’s and don’ts, things you’re supposed to do to your neighbor, things you’re not supposed to do to your neighbor.

What about those little gaps, right, where the law doesn’t exactly cover it? The Lord Jesus covered some of those, did he not, in Matthew chapter 5 in the Sermon on the Mount? You know, well, you didn’t commit adultery but you lusted. You know, you didn’t murder but you hate. Those are the gaps, right, between the commandments. But you see, if you have love, even the gaps are covered.

Not only the actions but also the motivations are all covered with love. In other words, you do that, you love your neighbor as yourself, you will then by default keep the rest. And so really, the one that you carry away, you don’t have to carry away the 600 and however many commands there are in the Old Testament, all you’ve got to carry away is this one. And you’ll do the rest because they’re all encapsulated in this one.

Not only that, but what about the things that aren’t forbidden but are not consistent with love, right? What about the gray areas when we deal with other people? Maybe we should, maybe we should. You know, all of those are covered under this kind of umbrella of love, the love umbrella, we can call it. By applying this single law, we’ll find ourselves keeping all the other laws that perhaps aren’t by the letter violations of the law.

Now notice what he says, verse number 10, love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Go back to chapter 2, chapter 2 verse 26 of Romans. Chapter 2 verse 26 says this, therefore if the uncircumcision, those are non-Jews, keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision does transgress the law?

Now I know I’m kind of pulling this out of thin air, but just hear me out a second. In this context, it’s talking about the Gentiles who believe. And here the Gentiles, it is clear in scripture, the Gentiles do not have the law. The law was not given to them, it was given to the Jews. That doesn’t mean it has no relevance to the Gentiles, that is to us, but it was addressed, the Ten Commandments, and all of the first five books of the Bible were addressed to the Jew.

So what does that do with us? Well what you have is by the work of the Spirit of God, people who had not the law do the law. The scriptural term is they fulfill the righteousness of the law even though they don’t have the law. How? Love. Love. I’m going to show you this again. Look at, on our way, I want to go to Galatians 5, but on our way I want to look at 1 Thessalonians 4.

If you can look at that real quick. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and then we’re going to be in Galatians 5 to finish up there. 1 Thessalonians 4 verse number 9. Verse Thessalonians 4 verse 9, But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you, for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. You know if you’re a child of God, I want to tell you something.

If you are a child of God and God’s Spirit is in you, God is teaching you to love other people. You might not even know the Bible. You might not even know the Old Testament, all the laws regarding thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal. You might not even know those. But nevertheless the Spirit of God is teaching you to love them because he knows that if he teaches you and me to love our neighbor, we don’t have to worry about the commandments.

They’re done. The righteousness will be fulfilled. Okay, lastly go to Galatians 5 and this will kind of tie it all together hopefully. Galatians 5 verse number 13. Verse number 13. It says this, For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty. As much as we might be inclined to think of like our country, liberty, freedom and that, this is not what this is talking about. Liberty in Galatians, freedom in Galatians is speaking directly about how that non-Jewish believers are not bound by the law of Moses.

They are free. That’s what Galatians, so he says in 5 verse 1, he says, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. In other words, a New Testament Christian who is not a Jew is not required to be circumcised or follow the law. Okay, and of course the natural question when you say something like that is, well if that’s true then you know I can just do whatever, right?

I can just steal, lie and cheat, do whatever I want. Look at verse 13. For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but, what’s it say? By love serve one another. By love. No, we’re not bound by the commandments. No, we’re not commanded. The commandments were given to the Jew, but the Lord tells us to love one another, to love our neighbor as ourself, right?

So even if we don’t have all the huge list of rules and regulations, if we love one another all of those things will be taken care of. And that, see this is exactly what Paul wanted to happen with the Gentile believers. Even though they weren’t Jews, the Jews were eyeing them, looking for a reason to reject Christ because of the lifestyle of the Gentiles. Oh, they believe in Jesus and look at him.

They claim that they believe the scriptures that we hold, how do they live, right? And Paul wanted to make sure that they loved one another. Because if that was taken care of, he wouldn’t have to worry about all the rest of the laws. He says in verse 14 this, for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

But if you divide and devour one another, these are contrary to love. Take heed that you be not consumed one of another. Now keep reading, because you might ask, I just, I don’t know how to love other people. I find this very, very hard to love other people. And not everybody is as easy to love as others. That’s just a fact, right? Look at what it says in verse 16.

This I say then, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. See the flesh doesn’t want to love anybody but itself. For the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary, the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the spirit, ye are not under the law.

And in verse 19, now the works of the flesh are these. And he lists a bunch in verse number 22. But the fruit of the spirit is, what is it? Love. Love. How do you love other people? Here’s how you do it. It is by the work of the Spirit of God in you. That’s why the first commandment is so important. The first great commandment. If you get closer and closer to the Lord Jesus, He will produce love in you.

And He will cause you to love others more and more and more. And He will cause you then to fulfill the law of love. It’s not something you can do by gritting your teeth and pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. You can’t. It’s useless. It’s vain. You’ll not do it. Get close to Jesus and the Spirit of God will produce it in you. And the effect will be unmistakable.

Let’s pray.