Matt. 22:34-40. Mark 12:28-34.
The Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees. (Matt. 22:34.) Then they gathered together for another attack upon Him. One of these Pharisees, who was a lawyer (in Mark, he is called a “scribe”), asked him a question, tempting Him. This shows the wickedness that was at the bottom of the question. It was not an honest question, in order to get light, but an effort still to tempt Jesus, and catch Him in His words. This was what the Pharisees desired, although in. Mark, the scribe seems to give an honest approval of Jesus’ answer to the question, and Jesus told him he was “not far from the kingdom of God.” Whether this scribe ever entered the kingdom of God, or not, we do not know. He was not far from it; but, oh! how many have been brought, as it were, to the very door of the kingdom, and have not entered. How often boys and girls, men and women, have been brought to the very point of yielding to Christ, but have not yielded, and have gone down from the very door of the kingdom of God to hell! Oh! may it not be so with you.
The lawyer asked, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus answered very simply, and in such a way as to appeal to their consciences, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” The scribe acknowledged that this was the truth, and that to love God and man in that perfect way was “more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
This is the love that God required in the law; and very blessed it is, if such love is in activity. The whole heart, the whole soul, the whole mind, giving forth all their energies in love to God! Surely it is what is due to God from His creatures. No lower standard could God give. And then He requires that man should love his neighbor as himself. All this is perfect; but alas! who has come up to this perfect standard? Have you, reader? No, you know you have not. Men hate God, and hate one another. They broke His law, killed His prophets and murdered His Son Jesus Christ. And men cheat, and rob, and kill one another, This is just the opposite of God’s commandments. And thus men are condemned. What is to be done? Is there any remedy for this sad condition of the human race? Thank God there is. “God is love:” and if we have failed to love Him, He has not failed to love us. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” ยค Jno. 4:10.
“God commendeth His, love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom. 5:8.
Oh! how blessed is the love of God. It exceeds the love in the commandments of the law. For, when we were the enemies of God, and had murdered His Son, He provided salvation for us through the blood our guilty hands had shed, the blood of Jesus. What could be more wonderful!
Have you, reader, accepted this great salvation? Have you believed God’s love to us? Well, “if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another,” God tells us. And then, too, “we love Him, because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:11-19.
Do you know this love? and are s you living in the power of it, as those in whose hearts it is shed abroad by the Holy Ghost? Rom. 5:5.
ML 08/23/1903