Introduction
Scripture
Turn in your Bible to Matthew 22.
I know we just started a series on John 11.
One week break, and we will be back next week.
The Most Important Question
Suppose you had the opportunity to ask Jesus ONE QUESTION.
Just one question...
And you knew that he would give you a direct, clear, and absolutely truthful answer.
What would you ask?
Would you ask him about the future?
Would you ask him about something you have never understood?
Would you ask him about a difficult experience in your life?
I think most of us would have a hard time deciding which question to ask.
But what if you could ask Jesus to identify the single most important thing God expects of you?
That would really be worth knowing!
In Matthew 22, someone essentially asks Jesus that very question.
Interestingly, he doesn't ask because he wants to learn.
He asks because he wants to trap Jesus.
But Jesus gives him a bold answer that every one of us desperately needs to understand.
Scripture
Matthew 22.34 | When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. (CSB)
Matthew 22.35 | And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test him: (CSB)
As we said, the religious leaders of Jesus's day were trying to trip him up by asking loaded questions.
But Jesus takes the opportunity to teach one of the most important lessons we find in Scripture.
Jesus is going to take all of Scripture and boil it down to twenty-eight words!
Let us begin by looking at the question...
Matthew 22.36 | “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?” (CSB)
How was this a loaded question?
No matter which commandment Jesus identified as the greatest, his critics could accuse him of diminishing the importance of all the others.
By elevating one commandment, they could claim he was minimizing the rest of God's Word.
How is it an important question?
The answer to this question provides the framework and motivation for every part of a God-honoring life.
They thought they had come up with a question that would trap Jesus...
Instead, they handed him the opportunity to explain the very heart of God's Law.
What were the Pharisees looking for?
They wanted to find something they could use to criticize Jesus.
What actually happened?
Jesus took the opportunity to give them something that could and should transform their lives.
Matthew 22.37 | He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. (CSB)
You are likely familiar with this verse, and the Jews of Jesus's day would have been familiar with these words.
It comes from the shema in Deuteronomy 6.5...
Deuteronomy 6.5 | Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. (CSB)
Faithful Jews recited these words regularly...
Traditionally every morning and evening.
These were among the most familiar and cherished words in Jewish religious life.
First, notice Jesus says love and not...
He does not say...
He does not merely say that life is about acknowledging God...
He does not merely say that life is about believing in God...
He does not merely say that life is about respecting God...
He does not merely even say that life is about obeying God...
Although, as we will see, genuine love necessarily expresses itself in obedience.
Love the Lord your God...
Now, what kind of LOVE is Jesus talking about?
It is a commitment, not merely an emotion.
You do not command mere emotions.
You command actions and choices.
It is all encompassing not partial.
All...
All your heart...
All your soul...
All your mind...
All your strength...
In Deuteronomy 6.5...
He is not asking for you to live a life balanced with a love for the Lord and a love for the world...
A devotion to God and devotion to ourselves.
He is not asking you to make the Lord one priority among many priorities.
He is demanding to be supreme over them all!
It is a responsive love...
He loved us first...
GOSPEL
Why is this important??
Let us read the next verse...
Matthew 22.38 | This is the greatest and most important command. (CSB)
Why is it the greatest and most important command?
Three of many reasons...
Because loving God is the very purpose for which we were created.
Scripture...
Isaiah 43.7 | Everyone who bears my name and is created for my glory. I have formed them; indeed, I have made them.” (CSB)
Revelation 4.11 | Our Lord and God, you are worthy to receive glory and honor and power, because you have created all things, and by your will they exist and were created. (CSB)
The difference between a person and every other part of creation is that you were made to love God.
Animals cannot choose to love God...
The mountains cannot choose to love God...
ChatGPT or Gemini cannot choose to love God...
Because loving God gives proper motivation to every other act of obedience.
Scripture
John 14.15 | If you love me, you will keep my commands. (CSB)
1 John 5.3 | For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden, (CSB)
Sometimes you will hear people teach that life will be better if you follow God's commands.
Well, maybe... Even probably or often...
But that is not our ultimate motivation...
If we merely kept God's commands because it worked out in a cost-benefit analysis...
That would not be love...
If I am faithful to my wife just because I do not want to miss out on her good cooking...
That is not love...
That is a restaurant deal...
The best kind of obedience is always fundamentally motivated by love!
Because failing to love God is at the root of every other sin.
Scripture
1 John 2.15 | Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (CSB)
When you and I sin, something has gone wrong with our love.
Consciously or not...
When you and I sin, what is happening is that we are making a decision to love something that sin is providing (or that we hope the sin is providing) more than we love the Lord.
Every sin is, in some way, a failure to love God as we should.
Romans 1.25 | They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen. (CSB)
You were made to love God.
You are supposed to obey God because you love him.
And whenever you sin against God, you are failing to love him as you should.
Is it any wonder that Jesus identifies loving God as the greatest of all commandments?
Matthew 22.39 | The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. (CSB)
The second...
Jesus clearly answered the critic's question in verse 37.
So, why does he now give a second answer?
Hold that question.
We will discover the answer in the next verse.
Love you neighbor as yourself...
This is an Old Testament quotation from Leviticus 19.18...
Leviticus 19.18 | Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord. (CSB)
For our purposes right now, let me point out two things this command does NOT mean.
A. It does not promote self-love, self-centeredness, or selfishness.
He is simply acknowledging that we naturally care about hour own needs and well-being.
And we should extend that same care to others.
B. It does not promote the kind of tolerance our culture sometimes demands.
You will hear people today say that we must approve and affirm their lifestyle choices or we are guilty of acts of hatred toward them.
If you really love me, you will accept my lifestyle and celebrate my choices.
If you really love me, you must affirm my understanding of my gender identity.
If you really care about women, you must support their right to end an unwanted pregnancy.
If you really love me, you won't tell me that my religion is wrong.
If you really love me, you won't judge my decisions or confront me about my sin.
In the Bible, love never requires us to abandon the truth!
The Bible commands us to love our neighbors.
It never commands us to agree with our neighbors.
And it certainly never commands us to disagree with God in order to agree with our neighbors.
1 Corinthians 13.6 | Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. (CSB)
Love cannot require us to celebrate what God calls unrighteousness.
Romans 12.9 | Let love be without hypocrisy. Detest evil; cling to what is good. (CSB)
Genuine love is not indifferent to the difference between good and evil.
Proverbs 27.6 | The wounds of a friend are trustworthy, but the kisses of an enemy are excessive. (CSB)
Sometimes the person who loves you most is the person willing to tell you something you do not want to hear.
Biblical love is governed by God's truth, not merely by what makes another person feel accepted.
Compassion does not require compromise...
Love does not require approval.
Matthew 22.40 | All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.” (CSB)
It is hard to see it in English, but Jesus paints a picture here.
All the Law and the Prophets depend...
The Greek word translated DEPEND is κρεμάννυμι.
It is ordinarily translated HANG.
It is the word the Bible uses to say Jesus was hung on a cross.
Acts 5.30 | The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had murdered by hanging him on a tree. (CSB)
It is the same word used of the criminals hanging beside him.
Luke 23.39 | Then one of the criminals hanging there began to yell insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” (CSB)
So Jesus says that all of the Bible (and the Christian faith) hangs on these two commandments.
Imagine two hooks securely fastened to a wall...
Hanging from those two hooks is an enormous sign...
This sign represents all of the commandments God has given in his word...
Remove either hook and the sign hangs crooked, and you have distorted what God requires.
Jesus is telling us something important!
As Adrian Rogers said, "Loving God and loving our neighbors are not two competing responsibilities."
"They belong together."
And everything God commands us to do must be understood in light of both.
So we cannot properly fulfill either commandment while disregarding the other.
If we claim to love our neighbors while disregarding what God commands, something is terribly wrong.
And if we claim to love God but do not love our neighbors, something is equally wrong.
1 John 4.20 | If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. (CSB)
1 John 4.21 | And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister. (CSB)
Applications of Love
There are literally a thousand ways to apply love-God, love-neighbor commands.
I want to talk about how to love and love as Christian citizens of a free country.
I. Love God.
Remember what Jesus told us in verse 37...
Matthew 22.37 | He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (CSB)
We are to love God thoroughly and completely.
Not merely on Sunday...
Not merely in our personal relationships...
Not merely in our private decisions...
But in every part of our lives.
Including our responsibilities as citizens of this nation.
What does it mean to love God thoroughly?
I want to give you two very simple answers...
A. Loving God means loving the things that God loves.
Think about it this way...
If you love someone, you naturally develop an affection for the things that matter to that person.
You care about what they care about.
You value what they value.
That is especially true of our relationship with the Lord.
We do not get to decide for ourselves what God should love.
We discover what God loves by reading his Word.
And then we learn to love those same things.
Psalm 97.10 | You who love the Lord, hate evil! (CSB)
Notice that the psalmist connects our love for God with our attitude toward evil.
Loving God is not merely a feeling of affection toward him.
It involves learning to see the world as he sees it.
To value what he values.
To approve what he approves.
B. Loving God also means hating the things that God hates.
We are commanded to love people.
Those who disagree with us...
Those who oppose us...
Even our enemies...
But loving people does not mean approving of everything they believe or do.
Proverbs 8.13 | To fear the Lord is to hate evil. (CSB)
If I genuinely love God, I cannot be indifferent toward the things that God calls evil.
Cannot celebrate what God condemns...
Cannot defend what God forbids...
Cannot treat as unimportant something God has declared important...
Remember what we learned earlier...
Every sin is, in some way, a failure to love God as we should.
That includes our refusal to take God's side on the matters he has made clear in his Word.
Three examples that are especially important in our culture today.
God loves the order he established in creation.
Scripture
Genesis 1.27 | So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female. (CSB)
God created mankind in his own image.
Created mankind male and female...
That distinction was not a human invention...
It was not an accident of history.
Not an idea dreamed up by an ancient civilization...
It WAS PART of God's good creation.
When Jesus spoke about marriage, he affirmed this very truth...
Matthew 19.4 | “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that he who created them in the beginning made them male and female,” (CSB)
Jesus did not treat the distinction between male and female as an outdated cultural convention.
He pointed back to creation.
To God's design...
If we love God, we should love the way God made us.
We should celebrate his wisdom in creating male and female.
Recognize the goodness of his design...
And we should resist efforts to dismiss or overturn what he has established.
God loves human life.
Scripture
Genesis 1.27 | So God created man in his own image... (CSB)
Every human being bears the image of God.
Not merely...
The strong...
The healthy...
Those who are wanted...
Those who can speak for themselves...
Psalm 139.13 | For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. (CSB)
The Bible teaches us to recognize God's work in the creation and development of human life.
Even before birth...
Even when that life is hidden from our sight...
Even when that life is entirely dependent upon someone else...
If we love God, we should love the human lives he has created.
The unborn child...
The elderly person...
The person with disabilities...
The poor...
The vulnerable...
The person whose life has been marked by suffering...
And that means we should oppose the unjust destruction of human life.
Including abortion.
Remember...
This is not merely about opposing something.
It is about loving someone.
Loving the unborn child...
Loving the mother facing a very difficult pregnancy...
Loving families who are struggling in a thousand ways...
We should be prepared not only to defend life but to help people care for life.
God loves marriage as he designed it.
Scripture
Genesis 2.24 | This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. (CSB)
Marriage was not invented by the government.
Not invented by the church...
It was established by God.
And Jesus affirmed God's original design...
Matthew 19.6 | So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate. (CSB)
God's design for marriage involves a covenant union between a man and a woman.
A relationship of faithfulness...
A relationship of permanence...
A relationship that reflects something of God's own faithfulness...
If we love God, we should love the institution of marriage that he established.
We should honor it in our own lives.
Encourage it in our families...
Defend its biblical meaning...
Resist efforts to redefine or corrupt it...
Why have I chosen these three issues?
There are many other things God loves and many other things God hates.
We could talk about honesty...
Justice...
Generosity...
Faithfulness...
Sexual purity...
Protection of the poor...
And a dozen of other subjects...
But these three matters have something important in common...
They are rooted in God's work as Creator.
They concern the nature and dignity of human beings.
And they are matters on which our culture has increasingly challenged the clear teaching of Scripture.
Christians do not have the authority to rewrite God's Word to accommodate the changing convictions of our culture.
We must love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind.
And that means learning to love what he loves.
And learning to hate what he hates.
But remember...
Jesus did not stop with the first commandment.
He gave us a second...
And that second commandment is especially important when we begin thinking about our responsibilities as citizens.
II. Love Your Neighbor.
Scripture
Matthew 22.39 | The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. (CSB)
Remember what we learned earlier...
These are not two competing commandments.
We are not supposed to love God OR love our neighbors.
Commanded to do both...
And we cannot fulfill the second commandment by disregarding the first.
If something is contrary to God's Word, it does not become loving simply because our culture approves of it.
At the same time, we cannot claim to love God while treating people with cruelty, contempt, or indifference.
We are to love people according to God's truth, not merely according to the expectations of our culture.
How does this apply to our responsibilities as citizens?
A. Recognize that everyone is your neighbor.
Sometimes we hear the word neighbor and think of people who live close to us.
The family next door...
The people across the street...
The people in our neighborhood...
But when Jesus taught about loving our neighbors, he made clear that our responsibility reaches much further.
Remember the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10.25–37...
The Samaritan loved a man who was different from him.
A man who belonged to a people with whom his own people had a long history of hostility.
A man who had no ability to repay what was being done for him.
You do not have to agree with someone to love that person.
You do not have to share his religion.
Share his political convictions...
Approve of his lifestyle...
You do not have to like him.
Not everyone in Nacogdoches County is your brother or sister in Christ.
But everyone in Nacogdoches County is your neighbor.
And Jesus commands you to love your neighbor.
That includes people who would never attend our church.
People who disagree with everything we believe.
People who might even oppose the work of our church.
Our responsibility to love our neighbors does not depend upon whether our neighbors agree with us.
B. Recognize that loving your neighbor includes seeking your neighbor's good.
Loving our neighbors means more than having kind feelings toward them.
Remember, biblical love is a commitment that expresses itself in action.
Galatians 6.10 | Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith. (CSB)
Notice those words...
As we have opportunity...
Work for the good of all...
We are to use the opportunities God gives us to do good for other people.
And what does that mean when we are thinking about our responsibilities as citizens?
It means we should want to live in a community in which people are treated justly.
A community in which the weak are protected.
Where the vulnerable are not exploited...
A community for which families can flourish.
A place people can live in peace and safety.
A culture in which truth and righteousness are honored.
Jeremiah 29.7 | Pursue the well-being of the city I have deported you to. Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it thrives, you will thrive. (CSB)
Think about that...
God gave this command to his people who had been taken into exile in Babylon.
They were living among people who did not worship the Lord.
They were living under a government that did not honor the Lord.
Yet God instructed them to seek the well-being of that city.
If God's people were supposed to seek the good of Babylon, surely God's people today should be concerned about the good of the communities in which we live.
We should want our community to be a better place because God's people live here.
C. Recognize that our citizenship gives us opportunities to love our neighbors.
I want us to think carefully about our particular circumstancos.
We live in the United States of America.
And that means we have opportunities and responsibilities that many Christians throughout history have never enjoyed.
Most Christians who lived during the first centuries of the church did not get to vote.
They did not get to choose their rulers.
They did not get to participate in the making of their laws.
They had very little opportunity to influence the policies of their government.
But we do!
In fact, our system of government is built upon the principle that ordinary citizens have a responsibility to participate in the government of their communities and nation.
We have the opportunity to speak.
The opportunity to assemble...
The opportunity to petition our government...
The opportunity to VOTE...
What should a Christian do with those opportunities?
Galatians 6.10 helps us answer that question...
Scripture
Galatians 6.10 | Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith. (CSB)
As we have opportunity, we are to work for the good of all.
If God has given you the opportunity to influence what happens in your community, why would you disregard that opportunity?
If God has given you a voice, why would you refuse to speak for what is right?
If God has given you a vote, why would you not use that vote thoughtfully and prayerfully?
Your vote is one of the opportunities you have been given to seek the good of your neighbors.
I am not suggesting that political involvement is the most important thing we do as Christians.
It is not.
The mission of the church is not to win elections.
The mission of the church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ.
But those two observations do not mean Christians should be indifferent to the political life of their communities.
We are called to be salt and light in the world.
And that calling does not end at the doors of a polling place.
D. Recognize that Christian citizenship must be governed by biblical convictions.
The kingdom of God is not the same thing as the United States of America.
Political parties come and go.
Presidents come and go.
Governments rise and fall.
But Jesus Christ is Lord forever!
However, that does not mean that the choices made by our government are morally unimportant.
There are matters of legitimate political disagreement.
Questions about tax policy...
Questions about spending...
Questions about the best way to administer government...
Christians who agree about biblical principles may sometimes disagree about the best policies for putting those principles into practice.
But not every moral question is simply a matter of personal preference.
God has revealed truths in his Word.
Truths about the dignity of human life.
About the nature of humanity...
About the institution of marriage...
About justice and righteousness...
And Christians should not disregard those truths merely because the culture has become uncomfortable with them.
We should approach public questions by asking...
What has God said?
What is true?
What is just?
What will genuinely serve the well-being of our neighbors?
How can I act in a way that honors the Lord?
It is not ultimately a matter of the Right or the Left.
It is a matter of right and wrong.
(Vance Havner)
And the standard for determining right and wrong cannot simply be the changing opinions of our culture.
Our ultimate authority must be the Word of God.
E. Recognize that loving your neighbor requires more than casting a vote.
I want to be careful that we do not miss something very important.
I would be terribly inconsistent...
For us to stand for the sanctity of human life while being indifferent to the needs of struggling mothers and children.
We should defend unborn children.
And we should care for children after they are born.
For us to defend biblical marriage while neglecting our own marriages.
Or failing to help families that are struggling.
For us to defend God's design for humanity while mistreating people whose beliefs or experiences differ from our own.
Our convictions must not become an excuse for cruelty.
Our biblical convictions should produce real biblical conduct.
So yes, take a stand.
But also serve.
Help...
Give...
Encourage...
Show kindness...
Speak the truth in love...
Think about what it would mean if every member of our church deliberately did something this week to make our community a better place.
What if we all helped a struggling family...
What if you encouraged a teacher...
Served someone in need...
Showed kindness to a neighbor...
Helped protect someone who is vulnerable...
We should not be known for the things we OPPOSE.
We should be known for the people we LOVE.
And for the good that we do.
Let me give you three practical challenges.
Be informed.
Do not simpler repeat what you hear on television.
Or what someone posts on social media.
Or what a political party tells you to believe.
Think carefully.
Examine the issues.
Learn what candidates actually believe.
Evaluate their positions and their conduct.
And measure your own convictions against Scripture.
Be prayerful.
Pray for our nation.
Pray for those who lead us...
Pray for wisdom...
Pray for justice...
Pray for peace...
1 Timothy 2.1 | First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, (CSB)
1 Timothy 2.2 | for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. (CSB)
Paul instructs Christians to pray for those in authority so that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in godliness and dignity.
Remember that we need the Lord's wisdom in all these matters.
Even when we are convinced that our biblical principles are correct, we still need wisdom in applying those principles to difficult decisions.
Be involved.
Be a good citizen.
Participate in the life of your community.
Serve where you have opportunity.
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.
And take seriously your responsibility to vote.
The scandal of our time is the bad citizenship of good people.
We sometimes complain about what is happening to our country...
While doing very little to make it better.
We complain about our leaders...
But fail to pray for them.
We complain about the direction of our culture...
But fail to engage our neighbors.
We complain about the choices our government makes...
But fail to take advantage of the opportunities we have to influence those choices.
So, as you consider your responsibilities as a Christian citizen, remember these two commandments.
Love God.
Love what he loves...
Honor what he has established...
Stand for what he has revealed in his Word...
Love your neighbor.
Seek your neighbor's good...
Defend the vulnerable...
Pursue justice...
Use your opportunities to do good for others...
We do not have to choose between loving God and loving our neighbors.
In fact, when we understand these commandments properly, our love for God should shape the way we love our neighbors.
And our love for our neighbors should motivate us to seek what is good, true, and just in the communities where God has placed us.
Conclusion
Guided prayer...