A Lawyer Questions Jesus in the Temple Courtby CBPepper
22:35Matthew 22:35
Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
The question was put by a lawyer connected with the Pharisees, who asked in order to test and entrap Jesus as part of a series of hostile, deceptive questions pressed by the Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees. Such hostile questions were met with plain and intelligent answers that gave precious light to the listening crowd and sowed seeds of truth among them. The lawyer asked which is the great commandment in the law, and the answer given was that love to God with all heart, soul, and mind is the first and great commandment, that love to neighbor as self is the second like unto it, and that on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
These two loves sum up obedience and carry the binding force of the whole Decalogue and of all the moral precepts in the prophets, with love to God covering duty to God and love to man covering duty to fellow man, so that they sum up and require the keeping of the Ten Commandments. It is impossible to love God with all the heart while breaking the fourth commandment, which stands in the center of the decalogue. The answer proves that the moral code of the Old Testament remains in full force in the New Testament, so that if these two commandments are brought into the gospel, all that hangs upon them is brought in as well.
The answer demands doing and not mere believing. The obedience so required fits a person for eternal life. The verse calls for being a family of obedient children with filial rather than slavish fear of God, with reward promised to the obedient and punishment to the disobedient.
To decree that God's law is unworthy to be kept makes a person an enemy of the Lord. To claim to love God while not obeying Him shows that love to God is not perfected. Probation is given to test obedience, and God will not compel obedience, but when duty is seen and pointed out it must be done by walking in the light in harmony with His requirements.
The question was put by a lawyer connected with the Pharisees, who asked in order to test and entrap Jesus as part of a series of hostile, deceptive questions pressed by the Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees. Such hostile questions were met with plain and intelligent answers that gave precious light to the listening crowd and sowed seeds of truth among them. The lawyer asked which is the great commandment in the law, and the answer given was that love to God with all heart, soul, and mind is the first and great commandment, that love to neighbor as self is the second like unto it, and that on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
These two loves sum up obedience and carry the binding force of the whole Decalogue and of all the moral precepts in the prophets, with love to God covering duty to God and love to man covering duty to fellow man, so that they sum up and require the keeping of the Ten Commandments. It is impossible to love God with all the heart while breaking the fourth commandment, which stands in the center of the decalogue. The answer proves that the moral code of the Old Testament remains in full force in the New Testament, so that if these two commandments are brought into the gospel, all that hangs upon them is brought in as well.
The answer demands doing and not mere believing. The obedience so required fits a person for eternal life. The verse calls for being a family of obedient children with filial rather than slavish fear of God, with reward promised to the obedient and punishment to the disobedient.
To decree that God's law is unworthy to be kept makes a person an enemy of the Lord. To claim to love God while not obeying Him shows that love to God is not perfected. Probation is given to test obedience, and God will not compel obedience, but when duty is seen and pointed out it must be done by walking in the light in harmony with His requirements.