The Greatest Commandment: Love in Action

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. He is Jeff and I'm his companion, Chris, my faithful companion. Yes, hey, y like a dog, Yes, so Chris. Today we are talking about the Greatest Commandment, which is this is one of my favorite passages. Yes, it really summarizes what God's expectations for us as humans are. The there's a lot of verses in the Bible. I don't know if you knew that. Yeah, didn't know that, So so it's hard to go, Hey, what exactly does he want? So Jesus goes ahead and solves that today. But before that, before we get into that, we're going to do with this or that, this or that? Yes, would you rather? It's the jingle for this or this or that? How about that? Yeah? The little sound, little sound? This is Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday? So which would you rather do? Okay? Okay, sorry, So we're gonna read a question and then you and I are going to pick this or that? Yes, you ready? Which one would you rather do? Yeah? I'll do the first one, would you rather kill a lion with your bare hands or be swallowed by a giant fish and be spit back out? Oh? So this is this is actually referring to two Old Testament stories. Okay, y, yeah, so we get Samson killing a lion with his bare hands and then Jonah who gets swallow by fish and gets spit back out. That's correct. So what would you rather do? Well, goods, gracious, kill a lion. I'd rather kill a lion. Yeah, yeah, but that that assumes that I'm Samson though, right, No, it's it's acting you specifically, chris Ball. Chris Ball. Would Chris Ball rather kill a lion with your bands or be swallowed by a giant fish bit back out? Well, I'd still pick the lion. Yeah yeah, And because it already says we killed it. So if it said, would you rather fight a lion with your bare hands and or try to kill a lion may or may not die, that's right. Whereas being swallowed by a fish and getting spit back out. So because it does the future, we know there's a victory in there, right, that's right, that's right. Yeah, So I guess I'd rather do that. Fight the lion, and honestly it makes way better story and only that, but like, yeah right, hey, hey, once upon a time I get small by fish and they can spit out with vomit on the shore. No, here's the reason why. I also because I am afraid of drowning. Really yeah, sort of. Yeah, I think most people are. Yeah, so I mean the idea of being in a fish's belly and the fish is underwater. Yeah, there's a thing called I saw that Pinocchio cartoon. He's just sitting in the little fire. It's fine, Yeah, he's fine. He builds it, builds a fire. Fine, of course, not to mention that. Not to mention it. He didn't need oxygen, Jeff, because he was Are you saying he wasn't a real boy at the time he was? Would? Okay? So okay, next one, would you rather have two bears as bodyguards or have the ability to control the weather? What? They don't even go together? That's a tough one. What would you rather have two bears guard bodyguards control the weather? No? These are just random you're trying to make sense of the unsensible. Well, I mean I was thinking Brother Bear and Storm from X Men. Okay, So which would you rather be or half? I would honestly, I'd rather control the weather. Me too, Yeah, why would you not want that? Ability? Control the weather? Two bears as bodyguards is cool though, I mean talking about an entrance. Yeah, married in a hurricane? You know I'm talking about Nope, are you telling this story or am I? Come on, we don't talk about brous Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, there you go. I've seen that like twice so well, you know we've we've only watched it a million time. And she controls the weather. Yeah, and that song is work a pizza or something, by the way it gets in your head. Yeah, okay. Would you rather heal someone who is blind or have the ability to multiply food? Oh? It says someone meaning only one time? I guess right. But having the ability to multiply food seems perpetual to me, right, because it says I think you're reading a lot into that. Hey, I'm literal. This is a question that I need to consider it. Yeah, okay, it's asking it's significant. Yes, it says heal someone meaning a one time miracle or perpetual miracles? What every person you run into this blind is someone? No? Yes, they are no they are someone. No, it says, would you rather heal the person who is? Heal someone? It doesn't say heal a person who is blind? Yes, it does. Every person is exactly every person you meet is someone. No, it would be someone's No. I think it's the other way, But go ahead. It's what would you choose? I would choose perpetual miracles? Would I would feed? I would solve the world hunger problem? Yeah, yeah, that's what I would do. I would heal somebody who's blind, and then every one I came up, Then you're done. Every summer, one time someone blind, then you're done. All right, Well, way to go, wait to settle for the one miracle. Jeff, that's not what I said. That's not what it is you're saying. You you are imposing a meaning on that note. It's not meant. It reads go ahead. Number four? Would you wraps? By the way, that's so funny. We're going to fight about this. You would you rather have the ability perpetual to walk on water or have the ability to teleport? See that's proof that the previous question is a one time miracle. It's not. Yeah, because she would have said she would have said the ability to heal somebody blind. So okay, let's let's let's move on. Would you rather have the ability to walk on water, which is cool, or the ability to teleport? I already know this answer. Teleport, of course, that's a no brainer. Yeah, teleport. I mean, can you imagine you've already you've already declared that like five times on this show. No, it was just last week, last week. Well, no, you've talked about teleportation before. Oh, in the past, not having a fly anywhere? Remember, Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right, all right. Would you rather experience a plug of frogs or a plug of flies? Oh? Now, this one's an interesting one because this is not fun at all. No, this is gross. The other the other ones were fun. Yeah, I would choose frogs. Yes, I would definitely choose frogs, although I wonder how frogs can get as irritating as flies, what walking and stepping on frogs. But you'd have to get like a shovel, a shovel. Sure, you can shovel frogs, just like you can't snow. We were driving through when I lived in Southeast Texas. We lived right on the border. You never even questioned that. I claimed that you can shovel frogs. Yeah you can. You can't. I was gonna I was gonna say you can. So so, uh. We lived in the swamp, that's where we lived. So we were right on the border Louisiana and Texas and right up on the Gulf of Mexico. So it's just all swamp and marsh and bayous and stuff. And in the spring, we were driving, we drove over the Sabine Pass area and into Louisiana and the road was just covered in frogs, just covered like the whole road was jumping and so you just leave the skid marks all the way down the road. It was. It was really gross, but it was it was bad enough you could have shoveled them. Wow. Yeah wow. But I would still choose frogs over flies. Yeah me too. Yeah. Flies can get really irritating. It make it impossible to sleep, It makes it impossible to live. Yes, it'd be terrible. So that's our time on that segment. We need to move on. I'm glad because that's a gross one. Matthew twenty two The Greatest Commandments. Yeah, this one only has just a few verses, so we could have talked for five or six more minutes about frogs and flies, it still be meaningful. Okay, So this is Jesus is questioned by the religiously about the greatest commandment. Here's what it says. In Matthew chapter twenty two, verse thirty four, it says, but when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question, teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses? And Jesus replied, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important, love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments. And then in Mark chapter twelve, it recounts the same story. Verse twenty eight. It says one of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate, and he realized that Jesus had answered well, So he asked, of all the commandments, which is the most important. Jesus replied the most important commandment is this. Listen, o Israel. The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The second is equally important, love your name as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these. The teacher of religious law replied, Well, said, teacher, you've spoken the truth by saying that there's only one God and no other. And I know it's important to love him with all my heart and with all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important to offer than to offer all the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law. Realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, you are not far from the Kingdom of God. And after that, no one dared ask him any more questions. There's the no one dared comment again. So the other one was none of the sadducees dared ask him any more questions, and now none of the Pharisees dared ask him any more questions. Right, that's what happened there. Yep. Yeah, So when it says one of the teachers of the religious law and Mark. And then at the beginning of Matthew twenty two, it says, but when the pharisees heard that he had silence the saducees with his reply, they met together the question and then it says one of them an expert in religious law. So this is this is both of them are pharisees. That's what they're referring to. That's correct, Yeah, yeah, yeah, so one of them is kind of a lawyer, pharisee guy. Yeah, and uh and by the way, uh, let me start off with this. There's a lot of things to talk about. But the first one is is that I would say the majority of people. I'm making this assumption, but I think this is a safe assumption. I would say the majority of people, based on my life experience, seem to think that these are these are two greatest commandments, and they're they're listed in order of importance. They would say, oh, the greatest commandment is love God, and then the second most important commandment is to love one another as yourself, love your neighbors yourself. But in both of these references, it says the second is equally important, equally congruent, meaning it is exactly the same. In other words, the second commandment isn't second in order of importance, it's secuit second sequentially. Right, So he's saying that these are these are two equal commandments, which, by the way, yeah, I think there's other trends. They only pushed on that one to lit but there's other translations that say is life unto it? Right, So so we might be over emphasizing the word equally here as as opposed to what he's implying is their flip sides of the same coin. You can't separate one from the other. Right, But but I can love people and that's not the same as loving God. Well I know that for sure, right, So so that's why he puts it in order. He does say the second, yeap, second comes after first? Well, second sequentially you can't. You can't blurt out two things at one time, right, But both times he says it that way, I'm going to give you the most important one, love God, and the second is this way. Yeah, I would, I would put him sequentially. I think I think the flip sides coin, you can't separate one, Yeah, I like I like that phrase, you can't separate one or the other. Yeah, which is what John tells us. Right, you can't claim to love God and hate your brother, right, right, exactly right, right, which is why I like that going together. And by the way, uh so, I was I gonna say, I lost my I'm sorry, no, no, I lost my thought. But I was gonna say, is oh, I'm talking about the Law of Moses. So the Law of Moses. When he says, which is the greatest commandment in the Law of Moses. A lot of other misconceptions is that people think, perhaps that he's trying to summarize the ten Commandments, but he's not. Right, he's summarizing all the law. Yeah. So there's six hundred and thirteen precepts that were given in the Book of Exodus, and so six hundred and thirteen laws. So when he talks about the Law of Moses, that's what they're talking about. Did you know that two hundred and forty eight of them were thou shouts and three hundred and sixty five of them were Thou shout knots, which makes up six hundred and thirteen precepts. And so by the way, that means there's more Thou shalt knots than there, thou shouts, So yeah, so that really what he's doing is is he's saying, these two commandments, summarize all six hundred and thirteen precepts. And he says later on right here, he says, all the law and the prophets hang on these two things. So think about every single piece of scripture that they memorized. Think about how much scripture they have memorized right now, So the people asking him those questions, you know, it was customary back then for Jewish boys by the age of twelve to memorize the entire Book of Moses, so you know, the Pentituk or the first five books of Moses, right, the first five books of the Bible. Can you imagine being twelve years old and being a good Jewish boy, being raised that way and having memorized the Book of Leviticus, Yeah, all of Genesis, all of Exodus, all of Numbers, all of Leviticus, all of Deuteronomy. Can you imagine memorizing the Book of Numbers. Yeah, yeah, Holy Christmas, that's a lot. That's amazing. And so what he's saying is he's saying, everything you have memorized, it all hangs on these two statements. That's amazing. So he quotes here Deuteronomy six ' five love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And then he quotes Leviticus nineteen eighteen, love your neighbor like you love yourself. Right, so he's quoting script. Sure to answer, but this was a common thing. You know, those of you that are a little bit of history students, you know that the Romans had the forum, and the forum was a place where all the smart people would sit around and just debate things. They'd talk and they would explore things. Or the Greeks had the Areopagus near the Parthenon there in Athens, and you know Socrates and Plato and Aristotle all dear in their different ages. They would sit around and they would talk with the other smart people, and they would challenge big ideas and they would think big thoughts. Right, they didn't have television, they weren't playing around, they weren't trying to smash fruit on their phones, right, all this dumb stuff. So instead they use their brains, the smart ones, and they would sit and just challenge thought, not in an angry way, but in an open, fair debate. Right, that's what they would do. And so the Pharisees. A big part of what the Pharisees did was they would take the six hundred and thirteen laws and they would go, Okay, which one's more important? And then they would just sit down and debate. You know, when a donkey falls in a ditch and you see your neighbor, you should help your neighbor pull out the donkey, right, versus the sacrifices on this festival day, you should bring two doves in a goat, right, and which one's more important? And they would they would weigh those things, and it was literally the would you rather that we just did a minute ago? Only they would do it over real heavy things, big things, which is a bigger deal to God. And so this is a customary thing. And by the way, it's interesting because he's a lawyer. Among the Pharisees, he would have been extremely skilled at this. And so to come rolling in on Jesus with the thing that he has spent his entire life doing and has never heard Jesus do. Right, there's a moment where he's thinking he's going to get the upper hand on Jesus, and Jesus comes and blows everybody away. And this guy's delighted by his answer, right, and I love that that Jesus. Jesus answer wins this guy over and none of that. But he's so delighted that he says, uh, I know it is important, and he gives spoken the truth. He's spoken the truth, and then he adds to it, he has his own thought. He said, this is more important than to offer all the burn offerings and sacrifices required. But in the law, So think about how important that is. Right, So he's he's referring to something similar to what where is it written where David said, you don't desire my sacrifice, you don't desire my burn offerings? But in Psalm fifty one right where he's and he says, uh, it's more important. Uh. What does he say is more important than sacrifice? What is it the verse? Something is more important than sacrifice. I don't know. I'm not trying to quote it. Dagma, give me a second, I'll get it. Remember, Yeah, yeah, But that's that's the direction he's going here. There's other places in the minor prophets where God says I would rather obedience give me. Obedience is better than sacience, better sacrifice, meaning he wants your heart. Yeah, so that's in Uh, that would be in the stories of David and Saul. Yeah, right, when Samuel is fronting Saul king Saul and obedience is better than sacrifice. That would be probably first, first or second Samuel. So the this phrase comes up often where God goes, I would rather have your broken in contrite heart than all the sacrifices, or Malachi talks about it. Different places talk about this, this idea and so this this young leader, this this ruler. It doesn't say he's young, but is amazed that Jesus explanation, love God with all of you are all your mind, soul, body, and strength. Is that what it says? It says, well, actually, with with your heart, soul, mind and strength. So Matthew doesn't say strength, and Mark adds the word strength, which, by the way, I've always thought that because uh, you know, different versions they love Lord your God with all your heart's soul in mind, and I never know whether I should add the word strength. But I'm like, I know it's in there somewhere, right, it's Mark, and this is actually but I know I've read it right, And it's because Matthew for some reason doesn't include the word strength. So it turns out that the Bible doesn't include every word Jesus said. As a matter of fact, John ends with by saying, the world could not contain the books if we tried to write everything that Jesus said and did. Right, So you know, uh, what's not happening here is they're not disagreeing. Mark just adds strength, which is appropriate. It makes sense. So the the idea here, love God with all your heart. You know. There there, that's the emotional side. That's that's where are you are? Your heart right? Really, your your intelligence, your intellect, all that stuff, all your soul. That that's the living portion of you. We got a spirit. We have to worship him in spirit. Your mind, that's your your intellect, your ability to reason working through those things. And then your strength is is your body, how you live your life, what you do, your abilities right, your accomplishments, your ability to to the love your neighbor as yourself is a pretty easy one. Yeah, well it's not easy. It's simple. It's simple. It's not easy, which, by the way, I've always loved I had a good friend Jack, who was a psychologist, and one of his famous sayings is he would say, is he said, simple is not a synonym for easy, right, So it may be simple, but it's not easy to do so, and I think that overall, you know, this actually speaks into God's will for our lives. So you know, for instance, we've mentioned this before. But like sometimes God's will can be lateral. It could be like, oh, does God want me to, you know, choose this city to live in or this city to live in, and you pray and pray and pray, and it's possible for God to say to you directly, I give you a direct answer. You know, in your spirit, it's definitely clear that this is choice a you know, but then sometimes you pray, pray, pray, pray, and it's like it just seems like you don't have a clear answer to where I would just say, God is giving you choice. God's given you the green line of both things. And so therefore God's will isn't determined by your city. God's will is determined by whether or not you live. You're loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and so you're in God's will in the city doing that, or you're in God's will in this city doing that because this is God's will for you. The greatest commandment is you know, is that way? Right? So it's not terribly complex, right, right, but yeah, you're right, it's not easy. So then making God your priority and then making God's priority your priority. Right, so you make him your priority. And then what is his priority his priority as people. So then we make people our priority. When we do those two things, it fulfills the law. This is you know, back when we were in school, they had Cliff's Notes, Like if you had to write a book report, you go out by cliff Notes. And I'm very familiar with cliffs Yeah, and it would be an abbreviated version of the book. You can blow through it in a few minutes and get the whole idea of the book right at book report. You know, we use those before the internet. So now on the internet, coulds just look up, hey, what's a good book report? Now it's chat GPT that will write the book report for right. Right. I was going to say, there are still Cliff's Notes on the internet. Yeah, yeah, I discovered that in college. That was a while ago, right, But so it's funny the basically that's what Jesus saying, you want to summary, so loving God with all your soul, mind and strength. That covers the first four or five commandments in the Ten Commandments, right right, and then love people like you, love yourself, don't steal, don't lie, don't kill, don't write, don't covet all those things that that's the other side of that, and so really there are flip sides of the same thing. So if you take the Ten Commandments, as you know, cliff notes for the law, and then these two verses that Jesus quotes out of dude, round me and livity, because really are Cliff's notes for the ten Commandments, which are cliff notes for the whole law. Right God, First, people are important to God, so they should be important to you. You got to live right with them, right, And that's the really what Jesus is trying to say. It really does simplify our decision making. Is this decision honoring God? Is this decision going to benefit others or hurt others? Right? That's it. That's awesome. Well, that's a great place to end, and that is our time. So we will see you next time on the Bible. Guys,