THÉ KING’S BUSINESS
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there were two commandments, one dealing with God and the other with our neigh bor? I f a man could love his neighbor without first loving .God, would that take the place o f loving God—would God hold it to be “just as good” ? Can a man love his fellow until he does love God ? Let us keep the right order. What must be wrought in us before we can really love God and our neighbor? How did the scribe receive our. Lord’s teaching? What did his appreciative answer lead our Lord to say of him? What effect had our Lord’s answering o f the three questions upon the rest o f the people? Do you love God who so loved you that He gave His Son to die for you? Dp you love the Son, who bore your sins in His own body on the tree? Do you love your neighbor, whom God the Father, and Jesus the Son love? How are you manifesting your love? “Let Jesus come into your heart.” the number o f Hebrew letters in the Ten Commandments. The commandments were given to the covenant people, not as a means o f salva tion, but as a revelation o f the righteous demands o f the Holy God, and to show the necessity for an atonement for law less, law-breaking, God-defying man. When one stands in the presence of the first great commandment, he stands a guilty sinner : “Thou 'shaft love the Lord thy God.” No man ever did. Love is the most perfect o f all the affections o f the soul, the most unselfish, thè most divine. “God is love.” The expression o f God’s love is Christ Jesus. The law o f God is love. The badge o f the family o f God is love. To love God is the highest expres sion o f holy desire. W e are moulded by the things we love; by the people we love. In loving God we are made like Him. Love is the expression o f the heart; the heart is the principal thing.
mass o f oral tradition that had h'een handed down through generations. They laid great stress on tile ceremonial law and neglected true spirituality, so that -Pharisee came, to be nearly Synonymous with hypocrite.. Do not forget, however, that there were some» honest, conscientious Pharisees like Nico- demus and Paul, and others. They kept' alive, largely ,the Messianic hope. . What question did the Pharisees ask Him? What was. His answer? Was this new teaching, or old? See Deut. 6:5; 10:12; 30:6; Lev. 19:18. What did Jesus add to His answer over ^nd above what the question asked? What is significant about the order in which Jesus-puts these two commandments? Is the emphasis being placed on that order in oUr popular teach ing today? Is loving our neighbor the same thing as loving God? I f our Lord meant that it was, would He have said H ERE is a great lesson illustrated by the contrast between the Pharisees and the widow in relation to their neighbor. It is a lesson so searching iri its character that we are liable to lose sight in follow ing the historical facts. Let your plummet line away down deep; it will strike the Son of God in the heart o f the Father, and when you reach the depths you will reach love—pure, holy, unadulterated love; unmerited, unwearied, unchanging, unending, unbounded, unknow able love. A love from which we shall never be separated who are born into the family o f God. The Scribes and Pharisees knew the lan guage o f the commandments, but not the heart. When the Scribe asked which of them was the first, the most important, he was not thinking'of ten, but o f 613 into which the Jews had resolved the teaching of the Pentateuch; 248 direct command ments; 365 prohibitory laws, making 613,
HEART OF THE LESSON
By T. C. Horton.
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