"Matthew 22:37
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God"
"With all thy heart,with all thou soul"
"And with all thy mind"
The Pharisees loved to ask Christ legal questions about the Old Testament Law. (The word "put to silence" in vs. 34 means "muzzled" showing how completely Christ has silenced His enemies!) The doctors of the law were forever debating over which of the commandments was the greatest. They placed the commandments into "heavy" and "light" and separated the "ritual laws" and the "moral laws." This sounds like some religious groups we have running around spreading their false doctrine today! It came to the place that the smallest detail of the ritual law was as binding as the moral laws of God! The Pharisees thought they could trap Jesus by forcing Him to take sides on this difficult theological issue.
Again, Jesus reminds them of the OT scriptures and quotes Dt. 6:5 and Lev.19:18. Love for God and love for one's neighbor sums up the entire OT law. Jesus is telling us to avoid these man-made distinctions between "venial sin" and "mortal sin" (or whatever names men might give them) and make sure we love God and love others. This is true heart religion. Of course, no man can love God apart from knowing Jesus Christ as Savior (John 8:42; and when a man knows and loves God, the love of God will be shed abroad from his heart by the spirit (Rom. 5:5). Christ is not speaking of that shallow, sentimental love for God and man that the modernistic preachers talk about. He is talking about a deep heart love for God because of the work of Christ on the cross. Let's live in peace, Love God and one another as Christ has said. AMEN!
May God Bless You
And Your Families
Minister: Robert A. Lail
The Cross Life Ministry
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