Holiness Demands True Love

Part 1: Loving God

Matthew 22:36-40

Introduction.

  1. Here Jesus quotes the two greatest commandments in the OT.

    1. These commandments, reiterated here, are for us to follow as well, though the particulars may be a little different.

    2. The first is to love our God, and that’s what we’re going to focus primarily on today.

    3. The second is to love our neighbors, and the passage Jesus quotes is from Lev. 19:18.

    4. We’ll talk more about that one tonight, but I noticed something while studying Lev. 19 for our series on Sunday evenings—it talks about both loving God and loving our neighbors.

    5. Since the Sunday morning crowd isn’t all familiar with that series, I will save some of the background info for tonight since it’s not strictly relevant for this lesson.

  2. One common phrase that we see in this chapter is: “I am the Lord” (19:1-2).

    1. We see it throughout the books of the Law, but primarily in Leviticus and 16 times in this chapter alone.

    2. It provides a truth, but also our motivation—He is our God.

    3. And He implores that we be holy as He is, a command repeated in the NT by Peter (1 Pet. 1:15-16; Lev. 19:2).

    4. While many of these rules don’t apply to us today, the principles do—particularly that of love.

    5. This chapter helps to teach us how we can be holy like He is holy!

  3. Preview.

    1. Loving God requires keeping His commandments (19:3-4).

    2. Loving God requires proper worship (19:5-8).

    3. Loving God requires devotion to Him (19:23-25).

    4. Loving God requires worshiping Him alone (19:26-31).

Body.

    1. Loving God requires keeping His Commandments (19:3-4).

      1. We might think of the Ten Commandments for this section.

      2. The Ten Commandments are broken up into two main sections: laws toward God (1-4) and laws toward man (5-10) (Exo. 20; Deut. 5).

      3. The first command here shows the reverence and respect, we are to show our parents, which shows up in the 5th commandment, the first of the laws toward man.

      4. But then the Lord quickly pivots to keeping His Sabbaths—the fourth commandment.

        1. They were to observe this weekly Sabbath Day, the last day of the week, where they were to do no work.

        2. These honored God by recognizing His Creation and rest after His Creation was finished, as we honor our Lord on the first day of the week, the day He rose from the dead.

      5. Then in vs. 4, we have a reminder not to turn to idols or make molded gods—the first two commandments.

        1. There’s the phrase: “God made us in His image, and we have been trying to return the favor ever since.”

        2. We need to give credit where credit is due, to the true God of heaven and earth, not to false, man-made deities, even if we call them God.

      6. One way the people honored God back then was in the peace offerings.

    2. Loving God requires proper worship (19:5-8).

      1. Since this was addressed to the people, the regulations for the peace offering aren’t as laborious as we see earlier in Leviticus (Lev. 3; 7).

      2. The peace offering was the culmination of true praise and worship in the OT system.

        1. It was an offering of praise and thanksgiving to God.

        2. The meat from it was given to all those around to eat of it and rejoice with the one offering it, especially to family and the poor.

        3. It was a free will offering, but also a way to show your love and appreciation to the Lord for all that He’s done for you.

        4. We express the same things in different ways today, especially through Christ.

      3. One possible reason for why it had to be eaten within a couple days: how long does it take for meat to spoil? They had no real way to preserve it.

        1. Corruption had crept in by the third day, and it was unloving to feed people old meat that has been lying around for awhile.

        2. Let us make sure that we feed others good food, not corrupted by decay.

        3. While this isn’t a religious practice, it is a good idea.

        4. We know that Christ, our sacrifice, is uncorrupted and incorruptible.

        5. When we partake of the Lord’s Supper, it is a meal uncorrupted by leaven as a memorial to Him.

      4. Let us make sure that our worship is in a manner that pleases Him as laid out for us in the NT.

        1. It is not up to us what feels good or sounds good.

        2. It is up to God what He said in His Word, so let us show our love by doing it.

    3. Loving God requires devotion to Him (19:23-25).

      1. I’m not a farmer, so my understanding of this is limited.

      2. It would seem that the fruits of a plant for the first few years after it is planted is not very good for three years.

        1. Its best fruit begins coming in its fourth year.

        2. This was to be devoted to God as a firstfruits sacrifice.

        3. Only then, the fifth year’s fruit could be eaten.

      3. This shows the dependence they were to have on God to take care of them for that amount of time coupled with their show of devotion to Him.

        1. This specific requirement is not expected of us.

        2. But we ought to show our devotion to God in other ways.

        3. One way is monetarily—I know times are tough for many, but the Lord’s work goes on!

        4. If you, as a member of this congregation, can still give, please do.

        5. But if you can’t, God understands things aren’t what they used to be—take care of your family.

        6. Whatever the case, we are all dependent on Him for all things and are grateful for whatever blessings we have.

        7. Another way to show devotion is through worship, prayer, and service to God.

        8. We take time out of our week, and ideally, out of every day, to focus on God, to pray, to serve Him (perhaps by serving others) in some way.

        9. While we are not to make a public spectacle of it, He sees and He rewards.

    4. Loving God requires worshiping Him alone (19:26-31).

      1. This reiterates the ban on eating blood, along with bans on divination and soothsaying, having your hair and beard a certain way, cutting flesh, tattoos, prostitution (temple?), keeping Sabbaths, reverencing the tabernacle, and ignoring mediums and familiar spirits.

        1. All of these things that are banned were involved in worship of false gods, in particular the cult of the dead that existed around them.

        2. Their practices were particularly egregious and an affront to the holiness of God as we’ll see here.

      2. Recall that the purpose of blood in the OT was only to be used in atonement of sins—the life of the flesh was in the blood—not to be eaten (Lev. 17:11).

      3. Diviners, soothsayers, and mediums were not to be consulted when God was silent.

        1. The people were to walk by faith in accordance with God’s Word.

        2. We see in the time of the judges, there was no widespread revelation from God (1 Sam. 3:1), so many turned to idols for their answers, causing many problems.

        3. It was good that King Saul had cast them all out of the land (1 Sam. 28:3b), but bad that he consulted one when God wasn’t answering him in his impatience (1 Sam. 28:4-7).

        4. Saul clearly did not trust in the Lord enough to walk by faith and wait on the Lord.

      4. The hair cutting, cutting of the flesh, and tattooing were involved in pagan mourning rites.

        1. Such things are not strictly forbidden today, but get a sensible haircut (when you can) and don’t harm yourself.

        2. Our bodies are the temple of Holy Spirit, and should not be harmed but appropriately adorned (1 Cor. 6:19).

        3. Recall, the prophets of Baal cut themselves while trying to summon their false god in their contest with Elijah and the true God (1 Kings 18:28), but it was to no avail.

        4. You see the main point is that we are to avoid every appearance of evil, not doing as the world does (1 Thess. 5:22).

        5. As in West Africa, upstanding women are to avoid wearing foot jewelry to keep from being confused as a prostitute, we too must avoid similar appearances of evil.

        6. Tattoos are not strictly forbidden for the Christian, but don’t get gang-related tattoos or anything sacrilegious, lascivious, or vulgar—of course, if a teenager is watching this, do defer to your parents’ judgment.

        7. Of course, some scars and tattoos are irreversible, so I thank God for repentance and forgiveness!

      5. The pagan religions around them involved all manner of sexually immoral acts (Lev. 18 & 20), but temple prostitution and such sexual exploitation were forbidden in God’s Law.

        1. Recall, any such activities were considered unclean in the least and an abomination at worst, and therefore completely unsuitable for worship (Lev. 15; 18; 20).

        2. Once people experienced it, the Lord knew it was likely to become popular, and the land would fall into harlotry and be full of wickedness.

      6. The best way to keep from such pagan practices is to be reminded every week of their obligations to the Lord on the Sabbath, and to show the respect due the Lord and the objects involved in worshiping Him.

        1. It’s not about what feels right, but what is right.

        2. We are reminded every Lord’s Day of His sacrifice for us in our worship each week when we take the Lord’s Supper.

        3. While we don’t need to treat the church building as holy, we should treat it with respect as we would anything that belongs to another.

        4. We should recognize that the Lord’s money paid and continues to pay for the building that we normally worship in, so we should be good stewards of it.

        5. Most importantly, we should treat our worship time as sacred and holy to God with the reverence it deserves.

Conclusion.

  1. The Lord ends this chapter with a command and the reason (19:37).

    1. They were to observe and statutes and judgments.

    2. They were also to perform them.

    3. Why? Because He is the Lord.

    4. We are still to perform His statutes and judgments, and perform them, though the particulars are different.

    5. There is still much application in the principles presented here and in the rest of the OT that are so beneficial for us, e.g. for our learning (Rom. 15:4).

  2. Let us work all the more to show our love to God …

    1. by keeping His commandments,

    2. by worshiping Him as He wishes,

    3. by showing our devotion to Him, and

    4. by worshiping Him alone.

  3. The first thing, however, we need to do to show our love for Him is to become a Christian and get right with Him!