During the many years I spent presiding over court proceedings as judge, I was given the opportunity to hear attorneys question litigants during trial. I was often amazed by the absurdity of the questioning! Watching court proceedings on television you likely understand, and have yourself been amazed by questioning that seemed so unnecessary because the answers appeared to be so obvious. Now, reading through the New Testament Gospels I realize that Jesus was often confronted by apparently ridiculous questioning, too.

 

The Scribes and Pharisees, much like attorneys today, were men who were trained in the Law of Moses during the time of Jesus’ life on earth. They were committed to classifying their ‘Law’ in order to know how to impose judgment and penalty on offenders. And they came to Jesus with a question. Little did they know how they revealed their hearts through this one question, for the answer should have been obvious to those who understood the heart of God. Nevertheless, they tested Him by asking, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?”

 

“And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ this is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matt.22:37-39).

 

Jesus was able to distill the many ‘rules’ into a single commandment, one so obvious that many were unable to perceive it. The answer is love. Love for God first, and then love for one another.

 

What does this mean for us today? We hear so much about ‘love’. What is Jesus speaking to us when He tells us that this is the greatest commandment?

 

Like a good attorney preparing to deliver this message I went to the internet and started with a Google search. It was not surprising to me that there were 3.8 MILLION responses for the single word, “love”. Perusing several web pages I couldn’t help but notice that God’s name was seldom mentioned, if at all! It seems as though to many in this world, love is an entirely human endeavor and concept.

 

I was also struck by the ambiguity surrounding this concept of love. We can love french fries, pets, the weather, or, in my case, surfing. We can love people, things, and concepts we don’t even see! How are we to understand Jesus’ commandment that we love God and love people when we are surrounded by such ambiguity? The first thing we must do is…

 

 

1. UNDERSTAND THE VARYING DEGREES OF LOVE.

 

Ask yourself this question: “Do I love my spouse to the same degree that I love my pet?” Hopefully not! Do I love my hobbies or weather to the same degree I love my friends? Hopefully not! You can see that when we DON”T understand the varying degrees of love we can place relationships into similar categories as objects. And once people are placed in categories it’s often difficult for them to move into other categories. Consider racism and bigotry. And once love and people are placed in categories then love becomes conditional. We love people who fall into specific categories, like we can love sunshine and not rain.

 

Q1: Have fun here :) Can you name a few things you’ve told people that you ‘love’ over the past week? Can you see how love has ‘degrees’ and using a single word to describe a broad emotion can become misleading?

 

Q2: Think about the things you just mentioned. Are they things that give you pleasure? What happens when they cease to be enjoyable to you? Do you cease to love them? How might this be applied to relationships?

 

Jesus knew that we would be faced with this problem. So, He made things simple for us. He erased the ambiguity that we often confront. He clearly identified the love He was referring to when He said,

 

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples...”(John 13:34-35).

 

Jesus gives Himself as the example of the love God asks from us. And Jesus’ love is unconditional. He tells us, “I have loved you, regardless of what you do or don’t do... I still love you.” He doesn’t place us into categories. He sees us as unique creations and loves us all the same, no matter what! You see, love, according to God, has no ‘degrees’. God loves us for who we are and not for what we do. It is who we are that gives Him pleasure, and in God’s eyes that never changes.

 

Q3: Is it difficult for you to accept that God loves you unconditionally? For who you are? If so, go into the quiet place where Jesus meets you in your heart. Ask Him to speak to you, to help you to receive His love.

 

And, according to the greatest commandment, we need to first and foremost, extend this quality of love back to Him. Why does Jesus place such importance on this? It’s because, as most of us can attest to,

 

·        WE BECOME LIKE THAT WHICH WE LOVE.

 

Have you ever seen dogs dressed to match their owners? Did you wonder how the owner felt about their dog? Here in Hawaii it’s not difficult to tell who LOVES surfing!! My son began to smell like, even look like the ocean and a surfboard! Do you know people who love money?  It isn’t difficult to discern what people love, is it? Scripture calls anything that we love more than we love Jesus an idol. Even in the Old Testament times the Psalmist understood this when he wrote,

 

 “Their idols are merely things of silver and gold...They cannot talk, though they have mouths, or see, though they have eyes!...And those who make them are just like them, as are all who trust in them. O Israel, trust in the LORD! ...” (Ps.115:4-5, 8-9).

 

Q4: When God asks us to love Him first it’s for our good. It’s not because He’s demanding worship. How does this touch your heart?

 

Jesus gives us this commandment so that we stay focused on Him. He loves us and knows that when we love Him FIRST that we will become who He created us to be. We will be like Him!

It was obvious that Jesus loved His Father first and foremost. He often said He always did the things His Father asked of Him. Jesus also shows us that we are not designed to be receptacles of God’s love; we are to be conduits of this unconditional love. You might be thinking, “You don’t know about the horrible person you’re asking me to love at work, at home, or in my family! That’s impossible!”  To which I say, “You’re right! It is impossible to love them with that ambiguous love!” But God tells you that you are to…

 

·        LOVE ONE ANOTHER WITH GOD’S LOVE NOT YOURS.

 

Consider Paul’s admonition to men, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church...” (Eph.5:25). How did Christ love the church? He laid down His life for it. To love with God’s love is to look out for God’s best interests in others because our love will fail!

 

Even the prophet Jeremiah knew this when he wrote, “The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” (Jer.17:9 NLT). We need to hold onto God’s standard of unconditional love because we aren’t even aware of the hidden agendas in our own hearts.

 

Q5: Is it ‘easier’ or ‘more difficult’ to love with God’s love? What makes us prefer to love with our own love?

 

Once we understand the varying degrees of love, that we become like whomever or whatever we love, and that love means loving others with God’s love and not our own; we must ask ourselves how do we know what God’s love is all about?”

 

Did you know that it’s possible, even as Christians to present an incomplete or corrupted expression of God’s love? That’s why it’s important to know that God’s love is incorruptible, meaning that it NEVER CHANGES. So, how do we grow this incorruptible love in our hearts and lives? We must…

 

 

2. BASE YOUR LOVE ON GOD’S CHARACTER NOT ON ANYTHING ELSE.

 

And where do we go to discover God’s character? We go to His Word. God’s character is revealed through His commandments. And our love for God is demonstrated through our obedience to them. Our obedience shows that we trust Him to know what is best.

 

“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him:(John 14:21).

 

We can rejoice in knowing that when we love Jesus He delights in opening His heart to us. And when we do this…

 

·        HE REVEALS HIS LOVE TO YOU AND THROUGH YOU.

 

We often read 1 Corinthians 13 at weddings and refer to this Scripture as God’s design for the relationship between husband and wife. But this Scripture means so much more. This Scripture reveals God’s heart of love towards you! Patient, kind, humble, not self-seeking, not easily angered, not keeping an account of wrongs... And when we know this quality of love from God then we are enabled to give this love to others.

 

There were times as judge that I was challenged to provide sentences for offenders in my courtroom where my heart was burning with anger. At those times the Holy Spirit convicted my heart and challenged me to apply 1 Corinthians 13 towards those who offended me. He challenged me to see individuals with God’s eyes and love them with God’s heart. This has happened so often that I consider this scripture my ‘spiritual diagnostic tool’! I am constantly challenged to love as Jesus loves.

 

Q6: Open your Bible to 1 Corinthians 13 and read it aloud. Now, ask yourself, according to the greatest commandment, regarding loving God FIRST and my brother SECOND, “How well do I love God? Am I patient with Him? Kind to Him? Do I keep an account of His wrongs, or things I think He has done wrong?” Take time this week to evaluate your love for Him according to His standard. Then, as you open your heart honestly before Him, receive His love for you ~

 

This is not an easy thing to do, but God tells me that His “Love never fails...” (1 Cor.13:8). We can know that when we love others as He loves that He will touch their hearts through us. And He assures us that,

 

 

3. THIS KIND OF LOVE WILL TRANSFORM YOU AS IT WILL THE WORLD.

 

God’s love transforms our hearts and lives. God’s love CHANGES us from the inside out. Amazing, isn’t it? And to think that how we love actually has influence? Mother Teresa once said, “You might be the only Jesus that people see...” And the single quality that set Jesus apart from the Scribes and Pharisees of His time was His ability the love as His Father loves. The apostle John understood God’s love and he tells us, “No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in union with us, and His love is made perfect in us” (1John 4:12 TEV). God’s love perfects us, and reveals who God really is to the world.