The Great Commandment and the Like

The first.
1. Agape includes affections but it emphasizes intelligence and purpose.
  1. It is to know the true God in all His greatness and grace delighting in Him with all one’s being.
  2. Agape begins in the “heart,” (the very center of our personality), extends to our “soul” (the life which animates the body) and then the “mind” (our thoughts, ideas, convictions according to which the personality acts).
  3. Love is the secret of true obedience to God.
2. How do we obtain this love towards God?
3. Jesus rightly calls this “the first and great commandment.” Its quality outranks all others.
Agape is the grand secret of right behavior towards our fellowmen.
1. Right love of God is “like” because the God we love puts us next to our neighbors.
  1. The command to love our neighbor is like the first because the first leads to it.
  2. Agape Is what God demands of us toward our neighbor even if that neighbor is a stranger (Luke 10:29-37) or an enemy.
2. And how do we obtain this love towards our neighbor?
3. “As thyself.”
“On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (N.B. the emphatic “all,” whole.)
1. These two are the nail from which all else written in the Old Testament hangs suspended.
2. These two commandments show our need for the gospel.