Matthew 22:34–40: The Great Commandment
Introduction
Although the world hates God’s Word, the world talks endlessly about something close to the heart of the Bible: “love.” Many urge us to reject all the rules in the Bible in favor for the deeper message of “love” held out in the Bible’s pages. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day had a different value system. They loved the rules of the Bible and often forgot about the urgency of love. Can we have law without love? Or, can we have love without law? Against both views, Jesus insists that true love is characterized by obedience to the commands of the Bible. The law and love are not in opposition, but two sides of the same coin: love is the fulfilling of the law (Rom. 13:10).
Discussion Questions
1. How did the Pharisees react to Jesus’ silencing of the Sadducees (v. 34)? Why did the Pharisees send a lawyer to engage with Jesus in this confrontation (v. 35)? What deeper debate among Jewish rabbis does the lawyer open up with his question in v. 36? Why did the Pharisees try to rank the commandments? How does this fit in with their larger project of legalism? Why did this question put Jesus in a very difficult position?
2. How had Jesus answered the various groups of religious leaders who had challenged him in the past? What do you think we should make of the fact that Jesus does not rebuke this lawyer, and that Jesus also gives a very straightforward answer to the question? In what way do the commands that Jesus cites here function as the first and second great commandments (vv. 37–39)? How do these commandments stress internal and external love for God and for neighbor?
3. In what sense does the whole Law depend on these two commandments (v. 40)? How does this idea of dependence contrast with the Pharisees idea of a hierarchy of laws? Why does Jesus add that the Prophets also depend on these commandments? How does this idea contrast with the biblical minimalism of the Sadducees? How does Jesus reunify and reconcile the whole Bible under a single ethical principle of love?
4. How does the gospel clarify that we love because God first loved us (1 John 4:19)? Where is the love of God seen most clearly (1 John 4:10)? How does the world define “love”? How do God’s commandments define “love”? What person do you need to pray for God to transform your heart to love him or her? What action do you need to take to serve someone with the love of God? What are you justifying as “love” right now that is really some form of pride or selfishness?
