Sermon for Sunday, October 25, 2026
Matthew 22:34-46
Love has many different meanings – this much we know. My love for a good game of rugby is not the same as my love for my wife (and I hope no-one’s wife has to compete with rugby for their husband’s love in that way). As Christians, our entire objective is to love, as we have heard three times now in this service. And so we, of everyone, should know the most about love.
There are two directions for our love: to love God; and to love our neighbour. Some say to think upwards and across, like the two beams on the cross. So let’s first look at what our Lord means when he says to love God and to love our neighbour. Then there are the people testing him, and I think we all have had the uncomfortable conversation with a non-Christian who accuses us of not being loving enough. So let’s finish by looking at what happened when people tried to push around Jesus himself.
A lawyer asked Jesus 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.”
Our Lord didn’t pull this out of the air. He has not invented a new religion. This is the ancient Jewish religion as it was from the very beginning, and the lawyer knows this. The reference is to Deuteronomy 6:
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
In context, Moses is about to lead the people into the Promised Land. Their escape from Egypt and wandering through the wilderness (and all-you-can-eat chicken and chips) is almost at an end. Moses gives them one final gee-up, and goes through everything they have learned over this time, and Jesus sums it all up in this one sentence for this lawyer. Why is this case? Why do we need to be reminded of this over and over again? Because, as Moses pointed out all those millenia ago:
10 “And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, 12 then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 13 It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. 14 You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— 15 for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.
When God is good to us, we chuck him away. We only go to God when we need him. And so this commandment must be on our heart, we must teach them diligently to our children, we must talk of it when we sit in our house, when we walk by the way, when we lie down, when we rise. Whenever we do something with our hands, or look at something with our eyes, we must remember the love of God. God is good – all the time – and we love him for it. Never forget the great love of the Lord for you.
Jesus continues:
38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Again, Jesus is not inventing a new religion. In fact, he quotes an even earlier book than Deuteronomy for this one: this one comes from Leviticus 19. Does that sound funny to anyone? The law to love your neighbour as yourself comes from the same book with the laws about holiness, profanity, purity and uncleanness.
But this is not so strange if you think about it. Because what does it mean to love our neighbour? Does it mean to ignore them? Or does it mean to look out for them? Leviticus is about a people set apart as a holy people, as a priestly nation, which prefigures us, the Church. We are the people of God, set apart to sanctify this world as salt and light. In the midst of instructions as related to sexual, hygienic, and ritual holiness, we are commanded that
17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbour, lest you incur sin because of him. 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord.
If we are in the pursuit of personal holiness (which I hope we all are), the love of neighbour is a commandment insofar as it is a divine protection against committing sin. “Reason frankly with your neighbour, lest you incur sin because of him” – love your neighbour, so that you remain pure and holy. If our Lord quotes a bit of Scripture, he often wants us to consider the wider context of that quote. And so if he is quoting Leviticus, he wants us to consider personal purity and holiness as a “greatest commandment”. In order to give us the broad outline, or firm fundamental, or common thread, or main point to remember, then remember this: to help you remain pure and holy, love your neighbour.
And so this is what it means for the Christian to love. We know that everyone will love something as God, since that is human nature. We must always remember to love the one true and living God, the one who is actually responsible for all the good things we enjoy in this life. And we must love our neighbour as ourselves, because we are commanded to be holy as God is holy, and loving our neighbour is our path towards that objective, and our protection from straying from that path. Read it yourself and make up your own mind whether you will obey Jesus as your Lord – which brings us to our last point.
“Aren’t you Christians meant to be all about love? And yet there’s no hate like Christian love.” This is what we hear today, and it is what our Lord heard in the temple. Here are some topics Jesus was challenged on: taxation policy and wealth redistribution; sex and marriage; and biblical interpretation. Has anything changed in the past 2,000 years?
Christ did two things when challenged by others on these issues. First, he skewered them beautifully because you can’t beat God himself. Secondly, he shut them up with one simple question, and that one simple question is, I think, what our response should be when it happens to us.
We want our church to grow. Which means we have to talk to people about Jesus. Which means we will have some people turn around and try and trap us in our words, like they did with Jesus. When it happens, take inspiration from the Master himself.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what Jesus means about love, unless you submit to his authority. Either he is your Lord, or he isn’t. If he is our Lord, then we should open our Bibles, pray to the Holy Spirit, and soften our hearts in humble readiness to learn. If he isn’t Lord, then what does it matter what he says? And this is what Jesus is doing when he asks them this question:
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.
He is quoting Psalm 110, which is a Psalm we should all learn better, because it is God’s favourite Psalm. It is referenced in the New Testament more often than anything else in the Old Testament. You should look it up later and read the whole thing, but a good summation comes from Calvin’s commentary on it:
“As a shepherd is gentle towards his flock, but fierce and formidable towards wolves and thieves, in like manner, Christ is kind and gentle towards those who commit themselves to his care, while they who wilfully and obstinately reject his yoke, shall feel with what awful and terrible power he is armed.”
This is what we therefore should do: if someone says, “what do Christians think about (insert hot topic here)”, our response should begin with “great question, do you want to follow Jesus?” If they do, then jump into it! If they just want to start a fight, then stick to basic principles: God now calls all people to repent and believe in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the Lord of love – but he is Lord.
So what do we do with this two-part commandment? Let us firstly always remember God as our highest and greatest love. Remember always the great love with which he loves you – and continually stir up your love for him in return. Let us also love our neighbour as we strive to shine the pure holiness of God’s love in our lives and theirs. And finally, if anyone wants to know more about God’s love, share it freely, but never compromise. The love of God is the love that sent Christ to the cross and rescues us from the outer darkness into eternal light and life. Since he did that for me, I will always love him, and I gladly call him Lord. What about you?