Matthew 22:34-40
Based on an idea by Pablo A. Jiménez
A pastor from Latin America named Pablo Jiménez tells how he first came face to face with this question. Early in his ministry he was asked to talk with the fiancée of a young man from the church where he served. She was sixteen, though she looked considerably older. Raped as a small child, she had been forced onto the streets and made to sell herself when she was barely thirteen. And now, at sixteen, she was already hopelessly embittered and wounded. Not knowing what to say to her, the inexperienced pastor fell back on an old cliché he had once heard. “Angie,” he said to the young girl, “do you know that God loves you?”
With anger in her voice she shot back: “Don’t try to sell me that story about love, pastor! I’m sick of people telling me they love me, when the only thing they really want is to use me. And so what, in the end, is love?”
The Blurred Picture of Love
“And so what, in the end, is love…?” Have you ever stopped to think about this question? Have you ever gone looking for its answer? It isn’t that we don’t know the answer. Perhaps, deep down, we all know what love is, but we find it hard to explain. Maybe one of the reasons for this is that the meaning of the word “love” has become completely blurred in our minds.
There are at least three different ways we use the word “love.” First, sometimes we use the verb “to love” in the sense of “to like” something. That is the way we say we “love” chocolate. It isn’t that we feel love toward chocolate; rather we like it, it tastes good to us, it gives us pleasure.
Second, we use the word “love” in cases that have to do with romance or falling in love. This is the way the word “love” is used in the movies and in popular pop-folk songs. But this is not real love. Because real love never fails. There is commitment in it. It is lasting. And you can hardly say the same about infatuation.
And third, in the church we use the word “love” in a rather mystical way. We say that we “love” God and our neighbor somehow “spiritually.” This love is supposed to consist in feeling a strong emotion toward someone or something. Sometimes people say, “There is no love in this church.” What does that mean? Is love some kind of religious feeling?
Now tell me whether any one of these three definitions of love is truly adequate and satisfying. Is this what we mean when we tell someone that God loves them? So the question still stands: “And so what, in the end, is love?”
The Two Sides of Love
We can look for the answer to this question in God’s Word. In Matthew 22:34-40 Jesus speaks about love. Let us take a close look at this passage and see whether in it we might find something that points us to the answer to our question.
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:34-40)
This encounter of Jesus with the Pharisees and Sadducees took place in the temple. It is one of the many confrontations between Jesus and the powerful of that day — the Jewish leaders. They try to corner him by putting all sorts of questions to him. One of them is this question about the greatest commandment. They ask him, “Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus answers, “There are two.” And he quotes Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. Perhaps, if they had asked him the same question again — “But, Jesus, we are speaking in the singular. Not which are the greatest commandments, but which is the single greatest commandment of the law” — I believe that if they had put the same question to him a second time, Jesus would have answered the very same way: “There are two.” Now, why does Jesus quote two commandments instead of one? Because they are the two sides of one and the same coin. These two commandments are in fact one and the same commandment. Love for God cannot be separated from love for our neighbor. For Christ, love for God and love for neighbor are one and the same thing. What is more, love for God is not something abstract. It is practical. It shows itself in our behavior — in the way we treat people and in the things we do.
Here, then, we have a key to what love is. We tend to stress love for God more, but that is not the gospel. The gospel stresses both!
Love — Care for Others
In the Bible, love for God always goes hand in hand with love for other people. From the very first pages of the Old Testament we learn that love for God is expressed in care for people. Exodus 22:21-27, for example, shows us how the covenant with God moves people to treat one another justly.
21 “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt. 22 “Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. 23 If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. 24 My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless. 25 “If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest. 26 If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, return it by sunset, 27 because that cloak is the only covering your neighbor has. What else can they sleep in? When they cry out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate. (Exodus 22:21-27)
In the New Testament we have Jesus himself as our example of love. He always had compassion on those in need. He showed his love in the most practical way possible — he met people’s needs, he fed them, he healed them, he cared for them. We cannot picture him going up to the leper and merely saying, “You know, I have strong spiritual feelings toward you!” while doing nothing about his disease. No. He simply went up to the leper and healed him (Mark 1:40-42).
Love — Obedience and Help
Biblical love is thoroughly practical. It is not only feelings, not only emotions. For example, in John 15:9-10 we find that to love Jesus actually means to obey him.
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. (John 15:9-10)
And in 1 John 3:16-18 we discover that to love our neighbor actually means to help him.
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. (1 John 3:16-18)
So then, in the light of all these examples, what does the word “love” mean?
- Love means action!
- Love means doing something good for someone else!
- Love means taking care of someone who is in need. How does your husband or wife know that you love them? By your caring for him or for her. How do your children know that you love them? Because you take care of them. In the same way, our love and fellowship with God are projected into our love, our concern, and our actions toward the people around us.
Love — the Question of the Future
So, as you can see, our question has changed. The question is no longer what love is; the question is: do we love the people around us? Are we doing anything for them? That is the truly important question. And from the Gospel of Matthew we learn that this will be the very question set before us on the day we meet God (Matthew 25:34-40).
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ’Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ’Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 “The King will reply, ’Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:34-40)
Look — from this passage too we see that whatever we do for those in need, we are in fact doing for God.
And so, let us receive the good news and the challenge that the Holy Spirit sets before us today. We are free to love God. We are free to show this love of ours through our attitude and our actions toward the people around us. So then, let us do it.