Love for God is Greatest
15th Sunday after Pentecost
2 Corinthians 4:6-15; Matthew 22:35-46
Confessors of the one God, the Jews (or Israelites) had hundreds of rules and laws that regulated their entire life. There were rules for public services, private prayers (when and how to pray), what and how to eat. There were laws that specified how to farm, how to sow (on the 7th year the land had to lie fallow), and how to trade. There were laws and rules governing relations between men and women, between family members, about the right of inheritance, and about the relationship to one's own people and to foreigners, and many such others.
The laws of Divine service and daily life were inseparable. If someone doubted something, he went to a lawyer. He was an expert consultant in faith, in all spheres of life. And in today’s Gospel reading, one of these legal experts turns to Jesus Christ with a question:
"Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?" (Matthew 22:36)
The lawyer's question was not for clarification or knowledge, but for testing. But the Lord Jesus Christ provided the answer:
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And a second one is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments all the Law and the Prophets stand." (Matthew 22:37-40)
That is, in order to achieve salvation -- the entire Law of God, and the formal Ten commandments, and the hundreds of instructions on how to lead a virtuous life in accordance with the will of God – all is based on one’s recognition and confession of love for God and one’s neighbour.
A little explanation about love...
There are different types of love-relationships: young people (boys-girls) falling in love with each other is a love-liking that, apart from being virtuous in relationships, does not define or outline certain obligations.
The love between a man and a woman is already a love that imposes many duties and responsibilities on them. It requires reciprocity; from it grows the selfless love of a father and mother for a child, which binds them and obligates them for the rest of their lives.
Love between brothers and sisters is a constant mutual feeling for a lifetime. Their love is special, unlike the love between a girl and a boy, between a man and a woman.
There is love between friends, like-minded people...
There is love for oneself...
These are all variations of God's gift; they are different and at the same time share elements in common…. They have a commonality in that they create unity among people. Without love, people's lives would be dull, uninteresting, and unstimulating.
There is no commandment of God about self-love, but this is because, as the apostle says, no one has yet hated himself, no one has violated that love that exists by the grace of God. Christ only confirmed what was said in the Old Testament, that each of us should "love our neighbour as ourselves." (Book of Leviticus 19,18)
But, first of all, one should "Love the Lord your God..."
God, the fulfillment of his will, should take precedence in our lives. That feeling should be nurtured in our consciousness. Our love for God should not be abstract, but rather, life-giving, so that we do what God commanded.
We love children, parents, friends, but when they oppose God, stand against the truth, then our place can only be with God. If, as a consequence of our recognition of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, our relations with father or mother, brothers or sisters will deteriorate, then we must choose God, God's truth. Christ gives us a definition and a clear instruction in this matter:
"Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is unworthy of Me. And whoever loves a son or daughter more than Me is unworthy of Me." (Matthew 10:37)
But if our father or mother, brothers or sisters, daughters and sons remain faithful to God, then we must show our love to them first. And by doing so, this will attest our love to God. Christ obliges us to show our love for God by showing it to our neighbours, and definitely to our family members.
One must love one's neighbour as oneself; that definition is from God. (Matthew 22,39)
We often realize that we have done something wrong, but we forgive ourselves... Let's try to do the same towards our neighbours. A neighbour can make a mistake, can anger us, can do us harm. But let us remember: if we had done likewise, we would want people to forgive us... The Lord through the apostle gives us an instruction:
"Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger." (Ephesians 4:26)
In keeping with The Holy Scriptures, our people say: "Forgive while you are yet on your journey..." We are all on our individual journeys. As recent events have convinced us, our road can end either now or at any time. We need to resolve our differences while we are yet on the road, while we have the opportunity. We must show love to our God and our neighbours with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind - as the Lord Jesus Christ instructed us.
When we make the sign of the cross, we cross ourselves:
In the name of the Father - for the sanctification of thoughts and mind,
and the Son (on the chest) - for the sanctification of our feelings,
and the Holy Spirit - for the sanctification of our deeds and actions.
We should always bear in mind that when we cross ourselves, when we mark ourselves with the sign of the cross, we will attain the fulfillment of God's will “to love your neighbour as yourself.”
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.