The Scrolls is a weekly Bible study written by pastors and other leaders at Central Bible Church, based on that week’s sermon topic. Use The Scrolls as a personal Bible study tool, for family devotions, and for small group discussions. You can read part of it below. The downloadable PDF also includes discussion questions, more in-depth commentary, end notes, and a kids’ page designed for families to study the topic together. This lesson goes with the sermon "Honoring Our King."
During his earthly ministry, a Pharisee and expert in the law tested Jesus with the question, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” (Mt 22:34; cf. Mk 12:29-31). “Jesus replied: ‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all our soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments’” (vv. 37-40). So, according to Jesus, each and every Old Testament commandment is rooted in either one or the other of these two commandments.
Years later, in the fourth century, the rabbis agreed that there were 613 commandments, 365 negative and 245 positive—which implied a long felt need, even in Jesus’ day, to distinguish those that were light from those that were heavy. Obviously, the commandment to not murder (Ex 20:13) is more important than the commandment to not boil a kid in its mother’s milk (Dt 14:21). On Jesus’ answer, one commentator writes: “It is not unlikely that Jesus’ hearers were expecting one or other of the Ten Commandments, those that had been written by the finger of God and that, as a group, stood out over all the other commandments. But Jesus did not select one of those. Instead he chose the commandment to love God, the commandment that must have been most familiar of all to his hearers, for it was recited every day by the pious Jew: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” Thus far the words are identical with those in Deuteronomy 6:5 (cf. Deut. 11:13), but whereas that passage goes on ‘and with all you might’ Jesus proceeds ‘and with all your mind’. . . Jesus was asked for but one commandment, but he goes further and adds ‘a second’ that, he says, ‘is like it.’ Wholehearted love for God means coming in some measure to see other people as God sees them, and all people as the objects of God’s love. Therefore anyone who truly loves God with all his being must and will love others, and this is expressed in the commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ a commandment that is repeated in the Pentateuch (Lev. 19:18, 34) . . . The two commandments go together (if anyone says he loves God and hates his brother he is a liar, 1 John 4:20)” (Leon Morris, The Gospel according to Matthew, 563, 64).
The link between the second commandment and the fruit of the Spirit listed by Paul is obvious. The apostle writes: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Gal 5:22-23). As is the link between the fruit of the Spirit and nine of eleven of the Central Virtues: 1) Love, I sacrificially and unconditionally love and forgive others; 2) Peace, I am free from anxiety because things are right between God, myself, and others; 3) Patience, I take a long time to overheat and endure patiently under the unavoidable pressures of life; 4) Kindness/Goodness, I choose to do the right things in my relationships with others; 5) Faithfulness, I have established a good name with God and with others based on my long-term loyalty to those relationships; 6) Gentleness, I am thoughtful, considerate and calm in dealing with others; 7) Self-Control, I have the power, through Christ, to control myself; 8) Grace, I demonstrate forgiveness, mercy and generosity to others, even when they have offended me; 9) Humility, I choose to esteem others above myself. This means that the creed of this week’s Core Competency, Kindness/Goodness, is a clear expression of the second commandment.
So also are the commandments Peter gives to his readers by way of summary in 1 Peter 2:17. He writes: “Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.” One commentator explains: “Honour all men means ‘honour all people’; ‘men’ is not in the Greek text. ‘All’ (pantas) is common in reference to all people generally . . . Christians should be courteous and respectful to all people . . . Love the brotherhood indicates a higher obligation to fellow Christians (note ‘brotherhood’ also in 5:9), not only to respect them but also to show strong, deep love to them (see note on agapaō, ‘love’ at 1:22) . . . Fear God indicates a still higher obligation. Christians are not only to honour and love God (1:3. 8; 2:5,9), they are also to fear him, something they should not do toward unbelievers (3:14) or toward other believers (see note at 1:17 on fear of Gd) . . . Honour the emperor. In what is apparently mild irony Peter has put the emperor on the same level as ‘all people’” (Wayne Grudem, 1 Peter, TNTC, 122-23).
Central Message of the Text:
Live as law abiding free people—God’s slaves, who do not use their freedom as a cover-up for evil.
Family Talk:
During the three minutes I was in the toddler area last Sunday, the Lord showed me what complete lawlessness would ensue if He left us to our own devices. One child considered another child’s head target practice as he chucked a plastic toy, another child had a meltdown over the type of snack being served and the alarms sounded with an urgent potty-training emergency. Anyone who challenges the fact that we’re born with a sin nature clearly hasn’t been around toddlers. The very nature of sin is self-rule, and like toddlers, our rebelliousness wrestles to come out when others exert their authority over us. In the parenting world it’s so much easier for us to lay down our God-given authority and let our kids run amok. However, part of our responsibility is to help our kids learn how to acknowledge, obey and submit to the authority of God and other people in charge by first acknowledging, obeying and submitting to us. Even when it’s not fair, they don’t like it or they wouldn’t make the same decisions we did, our kids need to know how to submit to proper authority, and that starts at home. We teach our children to gracefully accept authority by modeling submission ourselves. How do you speak about others in authority, like your boss or the current president? Do you acknowledge and obey rules or laws that don’t make sense? Do you require your children to respect your authority or let them go their own way? This week, give some thought to how you respond to or exercise authority and ask God to help you honor Him. We’re praying for you!