But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.
The Pharisees gathered together after hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees. That silencing came through His answers about the resurrection and the power of God, which left His opponents unable to reply, exposed their ignorance, and gave them no advantage against Him. Just before this gathering the Pharisees themselves had been thwarted when Jesus answered their trap about paying tribute to Caesar, and they had left marveling at His discernment. The gathering belongs to a series of attempts by the Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees to trap Jesus with questions, and He answered each question plainly and wisely, bringing precious light to the people and sowing seeds of truth that would later bear fruit.
The gathering leads into a lawyer's question about which is the great commandment and Jesus' answer to love God with all the heart and the neighbor as self, on which hang all the law and the prophets. Loving God with all the heart is impossible while breaking the fourth commandment, which stands in the center of the Ten Commandments, and obedience fits a person for eternal life. The answer calls for filial rather than slavish fear, as obedient children in a family, with reward promised to the obedient and punishment to the disobedient, so that declaring God's law unworthy to be kept makes a person God's enemy. Professing love for God while disobeying Him shows that the love of God is not perfected in the person. Those who have their duty pointed out to them must walk in the light in harmony with His requirements during the probation given to test them, which God will not compel.
The verse stands within Jesus' warnings about the consequences of rejecting the Son of God, first addressed to the Jews but applying to every age. Those who refuse Christ as Redeemer face the doom foreshadowed by His teaching unless they repent.
The Pharisees gathered together after hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees. That silencing came through His answers about the resurrection and the power of God, which left His opponents unable to reply, exposed their ignorance, and gave them no advantage against Him. Just before this gathering the Pharisees themselves had been thwarted when Jesus answered their trap about paying tribute to Caesar, and they had left marveling at His discernment. The gathering belongs to a series of attempts by the Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees to trap Jesus with questions, and He answered each question plainly and wisely, bringing precious light to the people and sowing seeds of truth that would later bear fruit.
The gathering leads into a lawyer's question about which is the great commandment and Jesus' answer to love God with all the heart and the neighbor as self, on which hang all the law and the prophets. Loving God with all the heart is impossible while breaking the fourth commandment, which stands in the center of the Ten Commandments, and obedience fits a person for eternal life. The answer calls for filial rather than slavish fear, as obedient children in a family, with reward promised to the obedient and punishment to the disobedient, so that declaring God's law unworthy to be kept makes a person God's enemy. Professing love for God while disobeying Him shows that the love of God is not perfected in the person. Those who have their duty pointed out to them must walk in the light in harmony with His requirements during the probation given to test them, which God will not compel.
The verse stands within Jesus' warnings about the consequences of rejecting the Son of God, first addressed to the Jews but applying to every age. Those who refuse Christ as Redeemer face the doom foreshadowed by His teaching unless they repent.