Friday, July 3, 2009
Matthew 22:34-40
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in 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 first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (ESV)
by John H. Camenga
The familiarity of this passage may blind us to its drama. Jesus ignored the Pharisee’s preoccupation with picky details. He explained that the Ten Commandments and all other God-given law rest on two principles: absolute love of God and love of others that equals love of self. Love of self is wrong only when it exceeds our love of others. Is it possible that mean actions toward others reflect self-loathing? These twin principles help us see all other laws as ways to put these universal principles into action. How am I doing implementing these two basic commandments?
Copyright Information
Daily Bible Meditations are taken from The Helping Hand,a Sabbath School student quarterly for youth and adults. Copyright © 2010, Seventh Day Baptist Board of Christian Education, Inc.
Scripture quotations marked "ESV" are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Text provided by the Crossway Bibles Web Service.
