The more I read and study the Bible, the more I realize two things about the second greatest commandment: First, I have totally underestimated how important it is for me to have a life defined by serving others; and second, much of God’s judgments have been triggered not only when men broke the greatest commandment, but also when they broke the second greatest commandment.
You remember what Jesus said in response to the lawyer’s question about what was the greatest commandment, don’t you?
“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. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40 ESV).
The greatest commandment to love God is one that we have no problem understanding the importance of keeping. But if you are like me, it’s the second one that we often need to work even harder to remember and to keep. How important is this second greatest commandment? Consider these examples of the Spirit’s view on it:
“Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.” (Proverbs 14:31 ESV).
We often think that the great sin for which the people of Sodom were punished was their perverse sexual abominations. But listen to what the Holy Spirit reveals to Ezekiel about the true grave sin that brought down that city:
“Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.” (Ezekiel 16:49-50 ESV).
In the New Testament, we see just how much the second greatest commandment permeates the Kingdom of Jesus in His realm. Paul said,
“Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.” (Galatians 2:10 ESV).
And James:
“If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” (James 2:15-16 ESV).
We can tell people to go to the church if they are in need; we can tell them to look into local charities; we can tell them to check out government programs; but if we do that and send them on their way without also helping them when we have the ability ourselves to provide aid, then could we be guilty of doing exactly what James says is useless?
Earlier, James references the second greatest commandment by calling it the royal law:
“If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.” (James 2:8 ESV).
I encourage all of us, especially those of us who live in a land that flows with milk and honey, to sit down in prayer with the second greatest commandment to see how we are letting it mold us into the image of Jesus. We cannot expect to make it to heaven unless we not only understand this commandment but let it characterize who we are as citizens of the Kingdom of Jesus.
“Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.'
Then they also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?' Then he will answer them, saying, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:41-46 ESV).
In Numbers 25, the people were on the edge of the promised land. Moses was still alive, but nearing the end of his leadership among the people. Aaron had died and God elevated his son, Eleazar, as High Priest. Most of the people who did not believe God but heeded the word of the 12 spies some 40 years earlier had died.
Things were ripe for this new generation to do what their fathers didn’t do. But as they camped on the edge of the land that the Lord was about to give them, we read this:
“While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.” (Numbers 25:1-3 ESV).
Why did the people of God do this? For context, let’s see what happened just a bit earlier. It gives insight into what would cause the people to act this foolishly and that insight gives warning to us today.
“And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.” (Numbers 21:5-6 ESV).
The people were still complaining, still rebelling. God had provided and instead of being content and thankful with what God had given them, they cursed the blessings of God. And it angered the Lord.
Now we jump ahead to the camp in Shittim. Instead of keeping themselves pure and separated, they had started to yoke themselves together with people who were doing detestable things before the Lord.
Instead of keeping their eyes on the Lord, they bowed down to the false gods of their neighbors. And instead of eating the holy food provided from the hand of God, they indulged in the food of the people who didn't know God.
This is not simply a series of commands that the people had broken. It was a heart problem. These people were not wholly devoted to God. They refused to see God’s blessings and complained to Him about what they didn’t have.
It was a heart problem.
They traded their sanctification to wallow in the sinful pleasure with the evil followers of a false god and enjoyed their delicacies- giving up the Lord’s blessings to enjoy what their eyes were fixed upon.
It was a heart problem.
They went as far as to turn their nose up at the one true God who created everything and who is the source of all good blessings to bow down to an image of metal and wood to fit in with the people around them.
It was a heart problem.
Yes, the people of Israel violated the commands of God, but if we see God’s reaction to them as simply a God who is angry because they violated His laws, we are missing the greater problem. These people violated God’s laws because they had a heart problem. And this heart problem both angered and grieved God Almighty.
So, when things progressed to the point where a leader among God’s people committed open fornication with the daughter of a leader of the land, Eleazar’s son, Phinehas, had enough and drove a spear through both man and woman as they were in the act of fornication.
Here is what God said:
“Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy.” (Numbers 25:11 ESV).
When we turn our nose up at what God has said for us to do and whore after the world, it is not a simple violation of God’s commands. It is a heart problem. And when we give our heart over to sin and to idols; when we long to be like the world and to be part of the world; when we take pleasure in indulging in what the Lord has forbidden us from indulging in, then we provoke God to jealousy.
God not only wants our obedience, but He wants our heart in our obedience. Are we reluctant servants, obeying out of obligation but longing after what the world offers? If so, it is only a matter of time before we follow our heart and become unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And we too will provoke the Lord to jealousy.
If we have a heart problem, we need to fix it before it leads us to throw away the matchless gift of grace that the Lord bestows upon all who seek after him with a whole heart.
There is a verse that I read over and over which overwhelms me each time I read it. I used to read it in passing, but as I try to imagine the scene, I realize how utterly fantastic it is. And the verse is spoken by Jesus, who is a first-hand witness of what He shares:
“Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10 ESV).
Imagine the scene. I for one love imagery. I love to see the scenes from the pages of God’s word played out in my mind as one watches a movie scene. And I read this passage and play out suppositions…
My first question is, “Why do the angels rejoice over the repentance of a sinner?”
Perhaps it is because they fully understand what is at stake, maybe even more than we do at times. They are in heaven and stand before the face of God. They know what it is like to live in a paradise and in the Lord’s presence. I’m sure that they cannot fathom being banished from this place or before His face.
Perhaps when they know that one sinner repents, it is from acute realization that another soul will be granted the amazing blessing of being with the Father in bliss and will no longer face exile to eternal torment, away from His presence.
Another question I have is, “When do these angels rejoice?”
I wonder if the angels are given glimpses from heaven of my lot in life and do they watch, along with the great cloud of witnesses, my life as it unfolds? Is the tension of life and death bound in them so that when they see me repenting, they erupt in uncontrolled joy?
Or perhaps when angels perform their holy duty from the Lord and are sent to aid men, do they race back overjoyed to heaven to tell everyone when I repent, which then leads to this rejoicing in heaven? I don’t know exactly what angels do now, but I suspect that they are all around us, veiled from our perception as they reside in the spiritual dimension. Perhaps one is sitting on the couch next to me at this very moment. Perhaps they fill my city of Wylie, Texas, with chariots of fire, awaiting the command of the Lord to render aid. I really don’t know for sure, but the Bible lends this possibility for consideration.
Or perhaps they witness our High Priest and King Jesus walk into the temple in heaven to remove the Book of Life. Perhaps they watch Him in breathless anticipation as He opens the cover and moves to the next blank page. Does their excitement start to build in them as they see him take his pen and begin to write my name on the next line when I repent? Is that when the joy over one sinner who repents breaks out in heaven?
I really don’t know all the details about how it works, but this I do know. The angels are aware when the lost sheep are found, and when that happens, joy erupts from them. Thousands, perhaps millions of angels who know the value of the gift given to me when I repent.
If heaven is overcome with joy when I repent, what should my realization of this gift of forgiveness do in my heart? How much should I treasure the amazing grace and sacrifice of my King who gave it all that I might send joy ringing throughout the halls of heaven because I have come back home to my father?
Want to hear something amazing? Before the Word was written down, the apostles went all over the world to preach the Gospel.
They never had to convene to ensure they were all on the same page.
They never had to consult with commentaries to figure out the right take on a spiritual concept.
They never had to offer multiple plausible applications when preaching.
They just spoke what the Spirit inspired them to speak.
And people all over the world heard the same message, not because the apostles set up refresher courses to ensure they were all in line with each other, but because the Spirit was providing the same message to them all.
I love the Bible, not because it was delivered by wise men, but because faithful men taught only what was in God's mind.
It never ceases to amaze me how easy it is for us to look at the glass as half-empty. Though God were to bestow up to half His kingdom upon us, we often still see the negative way our lives are impacted.
Perhaps you know someone like that; perhaps you ARE someone like that. No matter how much God has piled blessings upon blessings, rather than recognize His good hand upon us, we complain about what we do not have; about how hard our life is; about how things are not just how we want them to be.
And we comfort ourselves as we lay back in a bed of luxury, and eat of the abundance of the food that are stored in our pantries, and we spend 30 minutes in a closet that has so many clothes that we have to overflow them into another room.
Yet, we somehow do not see these things when we cry out to God about how our lives are hard; about how we are not in the occupation we want to be in; about how the castle we live in is not the palace our heart is set on; about how the vacations we take are not the luxury stays we really want- dare I say, deserve- to take.
I believe most of us most of the time recognize the overflowing blessings that the Lord bestows upon us. Yet, too often, we are tempted to give into the needling that Satan brings upon us to forget God’s goodness and complain, as the Israelites did in the wilderness, about how God’s current blessings are really curses upon us because we don’t have what we really want.
As they were about to enter the promised land, Moses writes of God’s people:
“And you murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the LORD hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.” (Deuteronomy 1:27 ESV).
God was about to give them paradise, and they saw His blessings as a curse. But it wasn’t always like this with the people. In Deuteronomy 5, the people are humbled by God when he speaks to them from the mountain and they praise and glorify His name. In longing appreciation, God says this about them:
“Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!” (Deuteronomy 5:29 ESV).
But we know the path that His people often took that led to complaints and murmuring against Him. No matter what God did for them, it often wasn’t enough.
The problem with complainers is that they often have no desire to change. They want the right to be heard. They want others to know and acknowledge how bad their lot is. They want people to commiserate with them and to declare their grievances as legitimate.
So, all I can say is try to learn from the Israelites what happens when people despise the blessings they have from God and complain about what they do not have, or complain about what they have to do. I understand that the lessons of contentment and appreciation are often only learned when the Lord’s hand comes down harshly to teach us to appreciate Him, but it doesn’t have to be this way.
To those who have to endure being around complainers, take heart and do not let their leaven weaken your humble heart. Never forget the bountiful blessings that God has showered upon you and never cease to give thankful praise to Him.
Perhaps, your content and thankful spirit will teach them to see the glass that God has set before them as half-full, which will change the very way they get out of bed each morning.
We all have the same choice: to focus on what we have or what we do not have. Both are worthy to bring to God in prayer. But where do we linger?
A new week is upon us. Remember these truths as we seek His glory this week:
1. God will win.
Period.
Stay on the right side.
2. Satan is NOT God.
- He is not sovereign
- He is not all-powerful
- He is not omnipresent
- He is not omniscient
- He can only do what God allows
Period.
3. Satan WILL flee from you when you resist him.
- “The Devil Made Me Do It” is a lie
-But “I Made The Devil Do It” is the truth God gives you when you resist and he flees from you.
4. God will not let anything happen to you this week that you cannot handle.
ANYTHING.
Period.
5. Read His Word every day and talk to Him in prayer without ceasing.
-With that combination, nothing will overcome you.
-With that combination, you can do all things through King Jesus who gives you strength.
6. Seek out a way to love your neighbor this week.
-It's the way to Jesus' heart.
-He loves it when we do that.