Title: Love of God, Love of Neighbor
Contents
Yes) I thought you would come!
body description
* Scenes of continuous debate (Mark 11:27b, Mark 12:13b, Mark 12:18b)
There is a saying.
“A person with hope can do many things.
A person of faith can do more than that.
But he who learns to love can do much more than that.”
So the Bible says.
“Faith, hope, love, these three will always exist, but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13)
The text tells us to love God and to love our neighbor.
Let's take a look at the meaning of the text.
1. It is to love God with all your heart (verses 29-30).
Verses 29-30 “Jesus answered, “The first is this: Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is the only Lord. love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”
“Listen” in verse 29 is the word of ‘Shema’ in Deuteronomy 6:4-9.
Jesus urges us to love God with all our heart, mind, and strength.
This means to love God with all your heart and with all your heart.
Ex) Meaning of Worship - Giving Worth.
1 John 4:10 “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent his Son as the propitiation for our sins.”
Example) Uchimura Kanzo's words
ex) blood
2. It is to love your neighbor as yourself (verse 31).
Verse 31, “The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than this.”
Who are your neighbors?
These are the people right next to me.
It could be a co-worker, it could be a school friend, or it could be a classmate in the church.
But the irony is that sometimes you love the person closest to you, sometimes you hate your neighbor, and you live like an enemy.
Why do you hate your neighbor?
Before we start to hate others, we first get suspicious.
When you become suspicious of others, you begin to think that the other person also hates you.
I have that kind of heart, so I pay attention to my eyes and think of my feelings as important.
Even though it has nothing to do with you, you associate it with your own work.
I think he said that because he hated me.
I think it's because they hate me that they act like that.
And when the other person says something different from yours, you get angry.
Because I usually have doubts about the other person, when I say an opinion that is contrary to my own, I get angry because I have the thought that I have to say that because I hate the other person.
If you don't throw away your doubts and negative beliefs, you will end up hating the other person because of it.
ex) the ax story
Example) A story about a mother who makes hotcakes
3. Consider the meaning of the words addressed to the scribe (verse 34).
“You are not far from the kingdom of God”
The text is written as a scribe, but Matthew is written as a “lawyer” and Luke as a “magistrate”.
The intention of asking Jesus was “to test”
After hearing the scribe's words, Jesus said, "Seeing that he spoke wisely."
Is this a compliment?
Or is it a rebuke?
At first glance, it sounds like a compliment, but it's actually a rebuke.
*Compare Mark 10:15 / Matthew 12:28 / Luke 23:43
As you can see from the above verse, the kingdom of God is clearly divided between the inside and the outside.
There is no middle gray zone.
The scribe in the text was knowledgeable, but he had a problem in applying it in his life, loving God with all his heart and not truly loving his neighbor.
The phrase “you are not far from the kingdom of God” refers to wandering around outside the door, not in the kingdom of God.
What should we do?
Instead of being a religious person who ends only with knowledge, we must practice life application, confess our passionate love for God, and become a saint who can embrace our neighbors thanks to that love.
where I stand!
Where are you?
Are you in the gates of the kingdom of God?
Or is it out the door?
Today we have to decide.