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The Double Commandment of Love
 

 

 

The right understanding of the Double Commandment of Love is one of the key foundations of the Biblical faith. Believers many problems and experiences that in the life of the faith are not Biblical balance and peace are resulting very often from lack of right understanding of the Double Commandment of Love. Understanding of this issue is very significant and important, because through it, we can grow to healthy and mature faith and to the real knowing of God. The right understanding of the Double Commandment of Love leads us to know and love God and love also our neighbours The right understanding of the Double Commandment of Love open to us also understanding of the Scriptures (The Bible) and lead us to deep connection with God.

Obstructions to understanding the Double Commandment of love

In the gospel of Matthew chapter 22 the Lord Jesus raises up issues, which prevent us understanding the Double Commandment of Love. These issues are lacking of inward knowing of God, wrong interpret of God's word, understanding where the law of God is like choking chain, understanding where the law or our deeds keep alive the needs of our old man, lacking of the forgiveness of the sins. Now we are going to examine preceding obstructions.

 Pharisees

Pharisees were the Jews religious party. They try to obey every little detail of the tradition of the elders. Pharisees were also a lot of connections with rabbis who examined the law. Pharisees competed between one another that who were more righteous than other and who could obey the law most of all. Elders and rabbis interpreted the law wrongly in many places and also Pharisees, who followed their teachings.

 Pharisees came to Jesus for a motive that they wanted to entangle Jesus in His talk. And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men. Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?

 The Lord Jesus knew their wickedness and said that why do you test Me, hypocrites? Jesus also ask them to show tribute money and told that money should give to him whose image and superscription is in the money (to Caesar). Jesus also said then give to Caesar the things of Caesar, and to God the things of God. And hearing, they marveled. And leaving Him, they went away.

 Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy is one of the matters, which prevent right understanding of the Double Commandment of Love. In Hebrew New Testament Matthew 22:18 is word tzevuim (plural from word tzevua), tzevua means hypocrite and pretender. Moreover, Greek word hupokrites means hypocrite and pretender. Hypocrite is not genuine, but pretend, in other words, he plays some other than he is. Hypocrites Pharisees lived according to the tradition of men, which they supposed being teaching of God's word. Jesus said that hypocrites' honor God with the lips, but their hearts were far away from God, because they have rejected commands of God and obeyed the tradition of men, Mark 7:6-8.

Believer who lives in hypocrisy is under wrong teaching and cannot understand in a right way the Double Commandment of Love. For this reason in his life spiritual balance and peace are not working. All the blessings of God are also far away from him.

God gave the name Israel to the Jews. Israel comes words El (God) and sarah (have power, contend). Israelites should have to represent God and His power and releasing from the sins and rebellion against God. However, the Lord Jesus was forced to say Pharisees that they were hypocrites who served God in vain and God was far away from them. God was far away from them, because they have canceled the word of God by the tradition of men and besides of this, they pretended that they are righteous. If we are pretenders, so we can't live near God, but we are far away from Him. Pretending is like having a form of godliness, but by pretending we deny the power of God. 

Men who have a form of godliness, which heart is empty from the love and truth of God cannot live near God. Hypocrite by pretending to have leashed his life with power of the flesh. Hypocrite lives through his own power and through himself. The life of the faith cannot live through the power of the flesh, because the Holy Spirit is only power, which can affect spiritual life according to will of the God. The Holy Spirit effect in the heart of believers' death of the flesh and righteous wandering. Hypocrite believer who tries to obey the word of God in his flesh sooner or later tires and gives up or continues pretending. Very often hypocrite's heart is distressed, and he is in his heart unsure of issues of faith and "assurance" which he is playing is the pretence. Very often he feels great guilt in his heart. In some cases pride has blinded that he really supposes that he is a real "orthodox" believer, and for this reason he guards other and cavils other who don't obey same traditions as he obeys. Moreover, very often hypocrite is zealous and prop up for the sake of his own "orthodoxy". Hypocrite also competes with issues of faith against other people. Hypocrite doesn't listen to those who wander according to the love and truth of God. Hypocrite listens to such people as Scribes, unholy and religious people who don't live according to the love and truth of God.

In the life of a hypocrite can be many knots and through these "knots" his heart is broken and wounded. Hypocrite is blind to his faults and sins, but very eager to analyze deeds of other, in which he can find sins, which are not existing. Hypocrite wants to always change other people, but don't want to change himself. Hypocrite thinks that his doctrines are right, but his doctrines are the tradition of men and work of the flesh, and he is keeping the old man alive through those deeds. The Bible teaches that the old man must die. The tradition of men and work of the flesh are the driving force and power source of the old man.

Sadducees

Sadducees were a so called priest party, who controlled stations and commanding official positions. Sadducees didn't want to obey the law of God literally because they thought that was repulsive submit whole life to serving of the law. They think that keeping of the law was exaggerated. Sadducees wanted to feed their flesh, and they raised natural needs of the flesh and earthly values above the law of God. For these reason Sadducees twisted meaning of God's law and gave to it a new meaning, in which it supports and upkeep their own flesh, in other words, carnal man, the old man.

Sadducees came to Jesus and expressed to Him questions. They asked about a wife, who had been seven husbands. Sadducees' question was: Whose wife shall she be of the seven? For they all had her. Answer of Jesus was: Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.

 Cherishing of the old man. The Lord Jesus Christ knew the hearts of Sadducees, which was pleased to satisfy needs of the flesh and which also detested the law of God. For this reason Jesus first said to them that they don't know the Scriptures and the power of God. Sadducees are such who cherish their flesh and its desires. Because Sadducees were under lusts and desires of their flesh, they were distorted and changed the word of God according to their own ear itch teaching. He who cherishes his flesh and is under his ear itch will change the word of God for pleasant to his flesh, because in that way he can support in his life lusts and desires of the old man. He who cherishes lusts and desires of his flesh is very often in "guidance" of his own emotion life and desires of his own flesh. Because he is very religious, he changes the word of God for suitable to his own flesh and in many cases he assumes that he believes according to the word of God. Because his lusts and desires rules in his heart, he selects for itself religious people (who distorts the word of God) as teachers. By this way, he twists the truth and gets "justification" for cherishing of his lusts and desires. This kind of person is a very often also quite emotional person and as a consequence of this, he keeps mental issues and demons deeds as the works of the Holy Spirit. He is very angry about real disciples of Jesus and persecutes them in the same way as Sadducees persecuted Jesus Christ. He pretends to himself and to other people that he has the right gospel, and at the same time he resists and persecutes those who believe to Jesus Christ, such as there has been written in the Bible.

Pharisees and Sadducees

They describe two different extremist about it how people can be shipwrecked in his "faith". Pharisaism is a picture from believers who are under the law and are stuck in the tradition of men. Being under the law and tradition of men they have gone over the Scriptures, in which they have tied up themselves as prisoners of heavy religious chains. Pharisaical under the law and tradition of men is like in high jumping where a bar has set so high that is impossible to jump over it. Furthermore, when you try jump over the bar you will get tired and depress. Sadducees are a picture how the man wants to believe below to it that what has been written to the Bible. In high jumping competition Sadducee's don't want jump over height, which can be possible to jump. A sadducee set up the bar so low that he can crawl under the bar. A sadducee undresses the word of God from the truth and dresses up new "clothes", which support sinful nature of the old man. However, Sadducee thinks that he represents the real faith.

Forgiveness of sins

If we haven't understood and experienced forgiveness of the sins, or we have a wrong picture from God, we can't understand the Double Commandment of Love. Understanding and experiencing of forgiveness of sins is absolutely demanded that we can understand the Double Commandment of Love. If someone sees God as angry and as demanding God, he can never understand the Double Commandment of Love. That we can understand teaching of Double Commandment of Love, we must understand nature of God. We must also repent and believe to Jesus Christ that we can have forgiveness of sins and experience love of God.

Salvation is never earned through works, and we are saved from the damnation by God's grace. We receive salvation on the day when we repent and believe the gospel (about Jesus). Works of faith are consequences from salvation, but works of faith don't save us from the damnation. Works of faith save us from the sins, which are in the world. Faith without works is dead, but through righteous works we can't be saved from the damnation. Works of faith, which we have done are not saviour and through our works of faith has not poured out the blood of forgiveness, which is acceptable to God. Jesus is the Saviour and through His death, blood and resurrection; we are saved. Water baptism belongs to salvation, but not as saving work, but as work of obedience in righteousness. Once saved always saved doctrine is heretic deception. Jesus don't throw us out of God's kingdom, but we can jump out from the salvation by rejecting and departing from the faith:

1Ti 4:
1 ¶ Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

Sanctification life is life long process, but salvation we receive immediately on the day we have been reborn. We are saved, but not yet arrived at New Jerusalem, but we will if we stay in Him. I make one symbolical example, which enlighten what I mean. God buys a train ticket for you and give you from His grace a train ticket to New Jerusalem. Immediately, when you have a ticket you are saved, but not yet arrived at New Jerusalem. When you travel in that train, you must obey the rules, which are in the train. Obeying the rules don't save you, but a ticket, which you have. However, there are rules to obey in the rain, and we should live according to them. You have also one alternative to jump out of the train. By jumping out you will never arrive at the destination place, but staying in the train the ticket is redemption random of your salvation.
 

Love your God

 Love Lord your God. According to Jesus Christ the greatest command of the law is: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind". And "your neighbor as yourself". It is good to study a bit a Hebrew law word before we go forward. In Hebrew old testament the law word is Torah, which means in the first place teaching and advice and a least meaning of it is the law. Word Torah comes from word yarah, which means teach, a point at, shoot with an arrow. In Judaism Yarah also meant to hit the goal. Word Torah the deepest meaning is teaching and advice that we hit the goal, and don't shoot over the goal. This means that we wander according to word of God and reject all sin makings.

Jesus said that greatest command of the law is: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind. And your neighbor as yourself. The most important teaching to children of God is loving of God with all of your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind. Heart, strength, soul and mind describe whole man, inner and outward, thoughts and deeds. Actually whole life of that should begin by loving of God, and then it should continue and grow in the heart that we can grow towards deep knowing of God. What means loving God and how it happens in practice?

 Loving God. The Bible says that we love God, because He first loved us. The first thing is to understand that God loves us. What would be greater love as offering of the Lord Jesus for the sake of our sins. Holy, pure, innocent the Lord Jesus died for sinners and get us forgiveness of sins and eternal life through His death and blood. We should also remember that God has donated us the life, who has made a child alive in the womb by His breathe. When we understand preceding issues, we are guided to health growth in loving God. Isaiah taught: Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young; Isa 40:10,11.

 Aim of the Lord who rules is Jesus Christ. His work is before Him means His redemption work, which is His earning before the Father God. Trust Jesus's earning and don't your "earnings". This means also that God first loved you, and if you don't understand this, you can't love God. When you understand that God loves you and redemption of Jesus is an evidence for this love, so you also learn love Him. How you can love God? Isaiah describes God as a shepherd, who shall gather the lambs with His arm and carry them in His bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young. The best way you love God that you allow Him to take you with His arms, where He can care for you. Being in His arms means that you allow Him to love you, and that He can carry you in His arms. This means in practice that you agree to believe and act in the way as is the will of God. By that way, you don't walk after your own flesh (power of the flesh), nut you are in His "arms" where you in His presence learn to think and act according to will of God, on other words you learn to grow in love and truth in Christ through the Holy Spirit. By this way, you learn to walk according to your growth phase in Christ. Being in the arms of the Shepherd describes that you don't walk and live by your own power, but through the power of God (the Holy Spirit). When you learn more from God you will grow to walk like sheep in the flock. And when you grow more mature, so you can also walk in your own feet, but not in your own power, but by and in the Holy Spirit.

 Shepherd held to lamb a lot of time in his arms, when the new lamb was born to flock. Shepherd also carried a lamb in his arms, when he led the flock onward. Shepherd did this because in this way lamb learnt to know him, learnt to separate shepherd on the basis of his voice and smell. New lamb must also trust on shepherd, that shepherd will guide through rough and sharp stones and through hot and exhausting wilderness to water sources and green pastures. Lamb must learn to follow the shepherd because when the lamb grows to full age sheep it had to follow the shepherd with flock, that it would not bounce as fearful here and there. Same is with you as the disciple of Jesus. You must also learn to understand and experience that God loves you, you must learn to trust on Him. Shepherd had many tasks, one of them was to pour out oil to heads of sheep from a horn of oil, when sheep were exhausted from the effect of heat. The oil cooled sheep. Shepherds must carry with him this horn of oil. Many rough and sharp stones and prickly branches torn wounds to sheep. When the shepherd noticed those wounds, he poured out oil from the horn to wounds of sheep, by this way wound healed faster and protected wounds. God is this kind of Shepherd, who in the Holy Spirit refreshes and nurse His children. God will nurse our wounds of sins and heals those wounds. God's love and grace are amazing, it will refresh and nurse our heart and affect our heart to rejoice and praise God.

 Heart of the faith is there that you understand how God loves you and after that you can love Him. Jesus said: He that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. John 14:12. He who loves God according to the truth and love of God is such a kind of believer who loves God. If you hold on to religious tradition of men, you don't love God, but a man, and you are honoring more man than God.

 When your life stretches out according to the will of God from the grace of God, so you are in a process which leads you learn to know and love God. This process leads you into balanced and healthy faith, in which you can experience deep connection with God.

 Love your neigbour as yourself

You can't love in a right way your neighbour before you love God. Jesus said that greatest command in the law is loving God from all of your heart, soul, mind and power. Jesus said that second is: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said that on these two commandments, all the Law and the Prophets hang. Jesus Christ gave the right orders of love, which is first God and after that you can love your neighbour as yourself. You cannot love first your neighbour or yourself, but God.

Jesus said that all the law and prophets hang with these two commandments (love your God and your neighbour as yourself). This very interesting because when you read order of the Ten Commandments you will notice that first four Commandments processes relationship between a man and God and rest of Commandments our relationship to our neighbour. Like this way, these two Commandments include all God's Ten Commandment. In other words, also old covenant prophets preached loving God and neighbours as yourself.

Order of the Ten Commandments being connected to loving our neighbour is that first come honoring and loving towards father and mother. This is noble commandment, because you are fruit of their love. After it God commands: You shall not murder your neighbour (kill), you shall not commit adultery with your neighbour ( or live in fornication), you shall not steal from your neighbour, you shall not testify, a witness of falsehood against your neighbour, you shall not covet your neighbour's house; you shall not covet your neighbour's wife, or his male slave, or his slave-girl, or his ox, or his ass, or anything, which belongs to your neighbour. You can obey preceding things only by loving first God. God gave us who believe to Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit affects us in many ways, and one is that God's love has been poured into our hearts in the Holy Spirit. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, you can first love God and after it your neighbours as yourself.

 Believer of the New Covenant is not under the law, but he is freed by the new creation in the Holy Spirit live and grow according to the word of God in the foundation of the New Covenant. The New Covenant doesn't lead a believer to reject the word of God, but live according to order of New Covenant. The New Covenant doesn't give permission to live in sins, but live and grow in righteousness. The New Covenant doesn't lead us to reject the Ten Commandments, but teaches to live according to it. We are not under the law in the New Covenant and in the New Covenant, we don't make works of the law, but from the grace of God works of faith in the Holy Spirit. In the New Covenant living according to the Ten Commandments is works of faith from the grace of God, not works of the law.

 Loving itself

What Jesus meant about loving itself, because in other places He has said:

Luke 14:26  If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

Mark 8:34  And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Luke 14:26 is metaphor from this Bible place:

Matthew 10:
37  He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
38  And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

Jesus didn't tell that we must hate our father, mother, son and daughter. It would be in a conflict (example) with Ten Commandments. Jesus Christ meant that we can't love people more than Him, because only through loving God, we learn to love our neighbours in right ways.

By loving itself Jesus didn't mean to love our sinful nature (the old man and sins), but it that we love ourselves as a creation (according to His will) of God, whom He had created and whom He loves. The old man loves sin, which causes to us all evil and bad problems and issues. Disciple of Jesus must reject all sins and sinful lusts and desires of the old man. We must understand that loving and supporting of the old man bring our life many kinds of distress and troubles. The Biblical loving itself doesn't love sinful nature of the old man, but us as creations of God according to His will. The Biblical denying mean accepting of the death of the old man (sinful nature) and accepting to live according to the new creation, who lives in the truth and the love of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Today's fashion-phenomenon also among believers is loving itself, but if we understand it in a wrong way, it will cause us problems and sin making. Today I hear more often teaching, which teaches believers first accept themselves and then love itself. This is not right teaching, because if we first seek loving itself, so then naturally he accepts lusts and desires (sins) of the old man and the tradition of men. The first love of Jesus's disciples is always God. Through His love, He first loves us, and we love Him, because He first loved us. Through it that we love God, we can also in a right way accept and love ourselves in a way where the old man doesn't get any support. Loving itself in the life of Jesus's disciples should be according to the truth and love of God. Loving itself without the truth and the love of in the Holy Spirit is deception and a permission to the old man live by works of the flesh (sins). The Bible teaches like this:

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

As disciples of Jesus we must live that I live; yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith toward the Son of God, the One loving me and giving Himself over on my behalf. When this happens, so we can live by faith toward the Son of God, in other words same way as He lived and believed to His Father, when He wandered on the earth. We must remember one of the highest importance issues, that we don't come for perfect, but from the grace of God in the Holy Spirit, we can grow towards it. This doesn't mean that we can accept a sin, but on the contrary, we must still keener strive after righteous life and growing towards the image of God. Word holy is in Hebrew qodesh, which means holy, sanctify and separate. The love of God in the Holy Spirit separates us from spirit of this sinner world and grows us by sanctification work of the Holy Spirit to love God and our neighbours as ourselves. Blessed growth of love for you, dear Jesus's disciple!