Verse of the Day 6/9

Through the Bible - Jeremiah 12-14, Matthew 22:23-46

 

Good morning,

In today's New Testament reading in Matthew 22, the religious leaders were trying to trap Jesus with questions designed to trip him up so that they could accuse him and cut him down in front of "the people".  In each circumstance Jesus answered with answers they had not anticipated which left them embarrassed in front of the people while elevating Jesus authority before them.

 

Today's verse is a familiar one.  One of the Pharisees, a lawyer,  asked him "what is the greatest commandment?"  Here is Jesus reply.

 

Matthew 22:37-39 (NKJV) Jesus said to him, " 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'

 Yesterday in 1 Corinthians 8 we considered growing in knowledge and combining it with love as opposed to being puffed up by knowledge.  The Sadducees and Pharisees showed examples of what being "puffed up" looks like.  In tomorrow's reading we'll see where the scribes and Pharisees had "seated themselves in Moses chair" putting themselves in the seat of authority, creating their own commandments of do's and don'ts to follow, rules that they themselves didn't keep.

 

Jesus shows that He has the authority and he displayed it in the way He lived and loved.  If you follow His words in these verses and apply them in your life, in the power of the Holy Spirit, things will take care of themselves.  They are the foundation of rhe Law and the Prophets.

 

In Luke, this is tied in with the story of the good Samaritan where another  question is asked, "who is my neighbor"?    Perhaps the question for us today is "whose neighbor am I"?   To whom will you be a neighbor today?

 

Blessings,
Mike
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Matthew 22:34-40

New King James Version (NKJV)

The Scribes: Which Is the First Commandment of All?

   
³⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. ³⁵ Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ³⁶ "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"
³⁷ Jesus said to him, " 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."