34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 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. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,
44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet”’?
45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” 46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
(ESV)
STOP! Think a little 🤔 What is God saying to you?
- What is the writer saying?
- How do I apply this to my life?
When the Pharisees heard that the Sadducees had been silenced by Jesus, they get together and then send a lawyer with a question to test Jesus. He asks Jesus which is the greatest commandment of the Law. The Pharisees had counted 613 commandments in the Mosaic law divided into 248 positive and 365 negative and they debated which ones were necessary for salvation. Jesus answers, “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 then He offers the second greatest, “you shall love your neighbour as yourself.” He points out that all the other laws are derived from these two. We can see this in the Ten Commandments where the first four deal with our relationship with God and the second six deal with our relationship with others. If you focus on your relationship with God, putting Him first, and then from that focus on your relationship with others, putting them all next (and yourself last) then everything else falls into place. Note that that is the complete opposite of how we naturally order our lives.
Now Jesus turns things around and questions the Pharisees. He first asks them whose son the Messiah will be. They answer that Messiah will be the son of David. The Old Testament prophesied that Messiah would be a descendent of David. Then Jesus quotes Psalm 110:1 and asks how it is that if Messiah is David’s son, then how is it that David addresses his son (his descendent) as Lord? How can He be Lord if He is his son? The Pharisees should acknowledge at this point that Messiah is divine and they have failed to recognise how great He, as Messiah, really is. As the ultimate son of David, Jesus is fully human, and as David’s Lord, Jesus is fully God.
We know in our heads that Jesus is Lord and that God is almighty. But in our attitudes and actions we sometimes let that slip and don’t put God first. Perhaps today you need to refocus on putting God first, others next, and yourself last?
I was reminded and encouraged to do everything out of love no matter what!
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” this stood out to me because sometimes we put things and people above God, this was just a reminder to love God above everything else.