Encouragement

Love Life Of A Believing One – Chapter 2

by Larry Panarello
11/16/18
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Love Life Of A Believing One – Chapter  2

Lawrence A. Panarello

Let’s go to Matthew Chapter 22.  We are working on the Love Life of A Believing One and this is part 2 in this exposé of true Christian living.  Remembering from John 13:34 that Jesus had given his disciples a new commandment which was “to love one another as I have loved you.” The love he is speaking about is this agape kind of love, the love of God. This “new” commandment is not something that is “brand new” but new in kind, coming in place of and not yet used. So let’s look at it in relationship to an already existing commandment in a record of a confrontation Jesus had with a lawyer.

Matthew 22:34:

But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.

It was a rough day for Jesus. He had several confrontations.  The Sadducees came and tried to upset His day and now the Pharisees come along to try discredit him.

The two sects of Jews, the Sadducees and the Pharisees were always in a struggle for domination over the Jews religion. They shared very little in common with their doctrines but one thing they could agree was to stop this Jesus. So, we’ve got a little conspiracy going here.  The Pharisees gathered together to try and tempt Jesus.

Verse 35 and 36:

Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,

Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

I think that’s a pretty interesting situation.  Here you have a lawyer.  His whole life revolved around his study of the Scriptures, his study of the Word as it relates to the legal provisions under the commandments. He takes part in trials and so forth regarding legal disputes.  So he comes against Jesus tying to trip Jesus up. As I taught in Part 1 the law can convict but it cannot convert, condemn but it cannot redeem and punish but it cannot heal. Remember, this lawyer is not asking this question to gain greater understanding or to inspire the people to more worthy endeavors. He want’s a conviction.

It said he did it for one reason - to tempt Jesus. The word “tempt” in verse 35 means to “put to a test” or try “to put to a trial or put on trial.”  However, this lawyer doesn’t really want to go to court but rather, he’s looking to put Him on trial as in the court of world opinion so to speak.

Leading up to this Jesus’ answer to the Sadducees left the people “astonished at his doctrine.” His answer had the crowd hanging on his words and enthralled. It was so easy to receive and the Pharisees couldn’t stand that!

So they planned an interview to pose a question that would set Jesus up to be embarrassed. This lawyer was hoping to illicit some kind of sound bite from him that they can use against Jesus and go around everywhere and say, “Well this is what Jesus is all about.”

Verse 37:

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

Well, you can’t get greater “conviction” than what Jesus spoke.

First, it’s to love God with all your heart. The heart, the Word of God tells us, is where the issues of life are answered. We know believing comes from the heart.  [ Proverbs 4:23]

So, we are to love God with all of our heart.  In other words, the love of God is to be in all that we believe. With all of our believing heart, in every issue of life, the love of God is to be expressed.  [Romans 10:10]

“And all thy soul.”  The word “soul” is all of your being.  In our every breath we live for God. Every aspect of your life has the love of God in it. Love is not the end goal of Christianity it is the beginning of all Christian endeavors. 

“And all thy mind.” This word translated “mind” is not just your perception, but, your whole method of thinking. Love is to be in the forefront of your complete powers of reasoning. Look at the vantage point God takes for “reasoning together”…

Isaiah 1:18:

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool.

The day I was ordained there was a reception for the new clergy and their guests. While sitting at a table with my family the administrative assistant for my department informed me there was an important call for me at our office. At that time I was coordinating a missionary service for that ministry.

The call was from the police department in a city in Florida that we had recently commissioned a group to serve in. The police told me that one of the young men of this missionary service had drowned. He and another person from the group had gone to the beach together to swim in the ocean. The person he was with got caught in the undertow and when he went out to help she was able to get back in but he drowned. 

The police asked me if I would like to notify the family?  Here I am, a young minister, just ordained thinking about my responsibilities for the ministry and its participants.  I told the officer that I would notify the family.

His mother answered the phone when I called. Knowing she was not part of our fellowship I wanted to make sure I represented our ministry and that I represented my self as a newly ordained clergyman.  I called her up and told her that her son had drowned.  Despite my hurried preparations it was a difficult, awkward phone call. 

About three days later, I got a call from the family attorney that told me I was probably the cruelest person on the face of the earth. The woman was a widow and no one was at home with her when I called. The fact she was widowed was unknown to me but I could have recognized she was alone to receive this terrible message. I neglected to think it completely through to make sure somebody would be there with her. 

My thoughts were on representing the ministry that I belonged to.  Consideration was given to representing myself as a clergyman, but you know I never thought it through to the end of the recipient. I thought I covered every base but I forgot love.

It was a terrible mistake. And without the perspective of love, without the reasoning of love I was definitely wrong.  Not intentionally. It was not my intention to hurt her in any way, but my inexperience, and the things that were important to me had priority but not God’s.

When it came to somebody outside of our ministry, I hadn’t fully thought that through at least not from love by taking care of her situation to make sure she was prepared to receive the message.  I had prepared the message.  I thought I knew exactly what I needed to say and I did, but I never thought through enough to prepare her heart to receive the message. I was definitely in the wrong. 

Love for God is not what brought these Pharisees to Jesus.  The love of God is not what brought this lawyer to him to deliver his question.  They sought to tempt Jesus.  They sought to discredit and defame Jesus.  They were laying in wait and using the Scriptures to try and convict, not convert, to condemn but not redeem.  It certainly did not heal anyone.

We live in a culture where people try to tear others down so they can get ahead. In that type of environment no one ever really advances. All they ever do is sink deeper and in fact, lose moral ground. If we walk in the love of God we will raise the moral elevation and everyone prospers. Jesus Christ did it and brought the world to a higher plain.

Even in this situation with this lawyer and the Pharisees he provided a path upwards. Look at verse Matthew 22:38:

This is the first and great commandment.

The word “first” means foremost in order, in place, in time, and in dignity.  The very first thing, the top, the most precious part is to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind; to love Him with all our believing heart in every issues of life.  We are to love God with our whole being and to love deliberately and consciously from our reasoned considerations. The love of God motivates us to think things through to the greatest degree. From the vantage point we reason together.

It is the “first” and the next part “great” means highest in value and estimation.  You can’t get any higher. You can’t get any more valuable than that.  It’s the top commandment. 

A “commandment” is the judicial order to do or to refrain from doing.  This “commandment” is to do, to love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, and all our mind.  Sure.  And if you do this, you will refrain from doing what thou shalt not.  That’s why it’s the first.  It’s in order.  It’s the first in place.  It’s the first in time and it’s the first in dignity because if you do that, you don’t have to really worry about the ‘thou shalt nots.” You will be living and carrying out something so far greater.

There is a wonderful truth we must see in light of 1 Timothy chapter 1 why it’s the first and great commandment.  Every time we get away from this love we wind up in legalism.  Starting in verse 3,Paul is speaking to Timothy:

As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,

Timothy is overseeing the leadership training at Ephesus and he is to “charge” or command some of these leaders. It’s not something he has to charge everyone it’s just some, that they teach no other doctrine. 

So, who were the “some”?  Has to be some of the teachers. “Some” of the people that have the responsibility for teaching other teachers.  That’s whom he’s supposed to charge: some.  It’s not all of them. It’s certain ones.  Who are these certain ones? Master teachers who have the responsibility to teach and set the doctrine. 

Now he’s going to charge them. He’s going to give them a command.  The word “other doctrine” is the Greek word heterosdidoskaleo.  In our culture, if you went to college to take a course on teaching, there’s a course offered called didactics: the art or science of teaching. You can become degreed in didactics, a teacher of teachers. What Paul is really referring to here are those who are in a great leadership responsibility who have the responsibility of teaching other teachers.

How does the doctrine get set forth?  One person teaches it to someone else who goes out and teaches it to other people and they carry it out.  That’s really the crux of it. He’s really approaching people who are in very responsible leadership positions, certain ones.  That’s the sum: that they teach no other doctrine because if they are teaching other doctrine, then these teachers are going to teach something that’s not correct. This is how

right believing becomes corrupted.

1 Timothy 1:4:

Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.

Enless genealogies are like… “I was here before so and so who was before so and so who was before so and so and I spoke directly to ... so on and so forth.” Rather than continuing to work the Word you quote “famous” names to give credence to what you say and teach.

If at the end of your teaching or sermon there are more questions than answers you are not delivering much doctrine. Doctrine should answer questions and affirm beliefs.

Verse 5:

 Now the end of the commandment is charity [the love of God] out ofa pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:

The word “end” is kind of unique because its means is not the completion, but the arrival at the state at which you wish to attain.  In other words, he says, now the end of the commandment is not that you finished. It means you’ve just arrived to where you wanted to get to in the first place.  The whole purpose if this commandment is to get you to where you were striving to get to in the first place - proper doctrine.

1 Timothy is telling us the end, the starting point of the doctrine is love!  When you’ve gotten to the love of God you are ready to start the doctrine.

Now the scripture tells us “out of a pure heart.” Now how do you get to a pure heart without the love of God in it? A pure heart is one that has pure thoughts.  There’s a complete thinking through, love is to be in the forefront of your complete powers of reasoning. Do you see why love must be the beginning of all Christian endeavors? 

The next requirement of this command is of a good conscious.  A good conscious is equal to your whole soul: the whole of your being. 

And for good measure God adds--faith unfeigned.  Faith unfeigned is to believe without a false pretense. You’re not trying to trick anybody.  That’s what he’s after.  So, you are to have a pure heart; which involves all your mind. A good conscious is equal to all your soul, and of believing unfeigned or all your heart.  See how it fits?  We love God with thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Now you are ready to teach doctrine.

Verse 6 and 7:

From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling:  Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.

Again, we have some not all. However, the “some” are important because they teach other teachers and the doctrines of legalism, outside the love of God gets spread quickly. “Remember the leaven of the Pharisees?” It permeates the whole loaf.

These teachers “having swerved have turned aside”, they got out of control and missed the mark. They sort of tripped coming up the steps and are laying on the porch. I’m using it figuratively but I am not implying they are not getting into heaven or lost their salvation. I mean they don’t get to live the beauty of the love of God in this life. The Kingdom of God spans all time. They just failed to enter into the glory of it in this life. What is worse is their students are lost in legalism and never see the glory of what is available today.

Their teaching is all “vain jangling.” That is shouting your lungs out and you don’t even know what you are talking about.” Where people teach and teach and even they don’t understand what they are talking about.

Their great desire is to be teachers of the law. Their intense passion is to be recognized for their intellectual prowess. They love to have all these designations before their name or after. It is this zeal to be confirmed as an authority. But it is the love of God that can accomplish more in us what no law can do for us.

Verses 8 and 9:

But we know that the law is good, if a man use it [How?] lawfully;

Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

The law is not made for the righteous and there is not another group mentioned in this verse I would not care to join. It is made for lawless of which I am not. I am under the law of love in Christ. Love is the fulfilling of the law.

Rom 13:10

Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

The word “disobedient” simply means undisciplined.  What they haven’t disciplined themselves to is to love God with all their heart, to love God with all their soul and to love God with all their mind.  They have lacked the personal discipline.  Great at disciplining everybody else, but you just haven't got to the place where you have the personal discipline of love in yourself.  And that is for who the law is made. Even if they teach it they still can’t live it.

Well, let’s go back to Matthew Chapter 22.  That’s why if we walk with the love of God, with all of our heart, with all of our soul, and with all of our mind, we don’t have to be concerned with the thou “shalt nots” because the “thou shalt nots” are what the lawless need to get them to become lawful which they are unable to do.  Here we go.  Matthew Chapter 22: Verse 38 and 39:

This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

 The words “like unto” means resembles; it is equally united or together the same. In other words, to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your mind is equally united or together the same as loving your neighbor as yourself. Or to put it in the order as it is written, to love your neighbor as yourself is equally united to the first and great commandment of loving God with all our heart, soul and mind. It is together the same.

The second command resembles the first. That is to love my neighbor as myself gives it an external form or appearance that I love God with all my heart, soul and mind.  It is the outward display of your inward affection toward God.   

How do I know you love God with all your heart, soul, and mind? Is it because you pray a certain way? Is it because you say certain things? The way to know, Jesus told the lawyer is it’s equally united.  It’s together the same.  It is how you love your neighbor as yourself. 

If I love not my neighbor as myself, it is impossible that I would be loving God with all of my heart, soul, and mind. God is the one who gave the second commandment as well as the first. I find it interesting that the lawyer asked, “which is the great commandment in the law?” He asked which one? Jesus answered with two because the second completes the first.

I remember being taught at one time it’s the love for God, not the love for people.  Well, without the love for people, you’ll never be able to display your love for God.  Can it be counterfeited?  Sure.  Everything in life can be counterfeited. Look, we say believing is expressed by action.  Right?  Have you ever heard that?  Believing is action? To take action is to believe or it’s indicated by your action?  But not all actions taken are necessarily issuing from a heart that is believing. Otherwise, all we would ever have to have is five senses solutions. 

I could know all about you and I could make judgements of you just by looking, hearing, smelling, tasting, or touching; one of my five senses, or a combination of them, just by your actions.  But we know that’s not true because believing emanates from where? the heart and God looks on the heart.  It’s the same thing with love. I can go through all the motions. I can be really sweet to everybody and all this stuff and go home and hate.  That’s not the proof.

God looks on the heart, but if I am not loving people, loving my neighbor as myself, then I can’t be loving God with all my heart, all my soul, and all my mind.  Remember 1 Timothy?  The charge was that they were to do it with a pure heart.  The end of the commandment was charity out of a pure heart, one that’s open before God.  Sure.  No false pretenses.  Remember,  a pure heart, a good conscious, and faith unfeigned without any false pretenses? So can there be false pretenses?  Absolutely.  Can I deceive people by my actions?  Certainly, but I cannot deceive God. 

If you’re in it for deception, you’ve already missed the mark. You’ve already tripped over the threshold and you’re laying on the porch some place instead of entering in to the greatness of the glory of God. 

We can live the Word.  Sure.  Look at Romans 12.  We’ll come back to Matthew again, but in Romans 12 is another tremendous Scripture. 

Romans 12:9:

Let love be without dissimulation.  Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.

The word “dissimulation” is the word that’s translated hypocrisy.  Now, hypocrisy in the Greek means to play a part on the stage.  If we are going to love, let it be real, emanating from a heart that’s full of believing.  Something that inspires believing in others, not fear in others. 

Shakespeare said,  “All the world’s a stage.”  But it isn’t really.  All the world is the place for us to live life, to enjoy life, to love one another in Christ Jesus and to love the one true God.  We are not fulfilling just a role in life where you’re just going to play your part.  If you really think that, then you’ve really set in to fatalism  “Here’s my part.  I’ve got to play it out.  This is the hand I was dealt therefore I’ve got to play it out.”  No.  It’s the place for us to live more abundantly. It’s the place for us to be fruitful. It’s the place for us to enjoy.  The greatest enjoyment we’ll get and the greatest fruitfulness we will get is if we love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, and all of our mind.  And the second is like unto it.  It is displayed, it is shown forth as we love our neighbors as ourselves.

Let’s go back to Matthew 22:40:

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Jesus sets that they are two commandments but they are equally united. Both are required to fulfill all the “law and the prophets.”

Hang doesn’t mean put to death.  That wouldn’t make any sense.  It might from the perspective of looking at the law, but when you add all the prophets, it makes no sense.  What does the word “hang” mean?  Well, it means to suspend or to support from above.  When I hang my coat, in the closet, I put it on a hanger.  It’s there for storage until such time as I would need it.  Right?  The whole time my coat is hanging it’s at rest, so to speak, and it’s ready for when I need it and it’s being supported from above. Otherwise, you’d be laying your coat on the floor.  You’re hanging it.  It’s being supported from above.  That’s the point. 

If we walk by these two great commandments, the law is at rest. It’s not needed at the time because the law is for those who do not love or refuse to live in love because the law has consequences.  The law can convict but it can’t convert.  It can condemn but it cannot redeem.  One other thing it can do is it can punish but it cannot heal.  We can devise all kinds of punishment but it doesn’t heal. 

That’s why we should walk with love.  We are to love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, and all of our mind. That is why the foremost and most valuable command is to love God then conversion, redemption, and healing becomes yours. 

Ephesians 5:1 and 2:

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;

And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

It goes back to the standard of love that Jesus set in John 13:34:

A new commandment I give unto to you, That ye love one another; as I have loves you, that ye also love one another.

 Outside of love remains the law and it’s consequences.  People may say no one is above the law.  I believe we can walk far above the law if we walk in love.  If we love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, and all of our mind; we love our neighbor as ourselves, we’ll be far above the law.

 Look at 1 John 4.  I want to just take a minute to show you this. 

1 John 4:20:

If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

Do you see why we can’t do the first and great commandment if we fail to do the second?  Do you see why it is equally united and together the same? 

As a minister for God, an ambassador for Christ, an elder in the Church and, really, as a son of the living God, we have to walk in love because we represent our Father.  Even more especially for an elder in the church, for a leader in the church, but really for any son of God. 

This word “hateth” is a great point to understanding the depth of the truth in this verse. The word translated “hateth” as was used in classical Greek literature carries the idea of being “hated by the gods.” One writer used the word in this sentence,  “I believed he was in love with me, but he hates me as though he had divine commandment.”  Just the opposite of what Jesus taught his disciples.

When an elder or a leader is unloving to a fellow believer, it’s to that neighbor as if he were hated by God.  That’s what this Scripture is telling us.  That is what it’s talking about when it says if a man says I love God and hates his brother. An elder, pastor or minister represents God to that brother or neighbor to a certain degree, and he’s suppose to be loving to him as to himself. If the leader shows to that brother disdain then, to the heart of that individual, it is God’s command for the elder to disdain him. As if God told the minister to hate him. When the Scripture clearly tells us we are to love one another as Christ loved us and nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

When we demonstrate our love for God by loving our neighbor as ourselves we also indicate God’s love for our neighbor. Again, you can easily see why the two are equally united and together the same? The outward evidence of our inward affection toward God is clearly shown as is God’s love for man.

John 3:16:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

How far can this love of God go? Well, it is awesome that we can love our neighbors but God takes it further. How about Jesus’ exhortation in the Gospel of Luke?

Luke 6:27 and 28:

But I say unto to which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,

Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you,

Now that has to be quite challenging. How can I love my enemy or any of the rest??? I would like to place before you a verse for your consideration and thought:

Romans 5:10:

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

How do we love our enemies? We love our enemies in the same way in which God loved us when we were His enemies—He reconciled us back to Him!

Colossians 1:21:

And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.

If when we were enemies of God, we were reconciled back to Him through Jesus Christ wouldn’t it be logical to reconcile our enemies in the same way? Reconcile them back to God.

2 Corinthians 5:18 and 19:

And all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given us the ministry of reconciliation;

To wit, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

We have been given the service of reconciliation and the word of reconciliation is committed to us. For God so loved the world he gave His only begotten son. By the love of God in the name of Jesus Christ you just might convert an enemy into a friend and brother.

May our love life of a believing one for God abundantly glorify our Lord Jesus Christ.