Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your 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.” –Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV)
Rabbinic teaching and debating focused around asking and answering questions. When the Sadducees and Pharisees asked Jesus questions, they were not treating Jesus poorly, they were engaging Him in formal debate.
The question “what is the most important commandment,” was a standard way of discerning where a rabbi stood theologically and to what quality of rabbi he was. If Jesus did not know the answer, it would have been very easy for the Pharisees to discredit Him. Jesus responded by quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 respectively.
In the parallel passage of Mark 12:32-34 the Pharisee who asked the question acknowledges that Jesus answered correctly.
“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
So the most important doctrine to know, the objective truth, the proposition that needed to be known more than any other is Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ And the second is ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. And what do these truths teach? They teach that the most important thing is that we be in a loving community: community with God and with one another. The truth directs us into relationship, first with God, and then with one another.
Why did Jesus say that the Pharisee who asked him what is the most important commandment was, was not far from the kingdom of God? He knew the right answer but he was still not there. He was on the right track but he was still not in the kingdom. Knowledge is necessary but it is not everything.
To understand the law, one must understand that it is relational. To know the law means both correctly interpreting it, and correctly living it out in our relationships. Christianity is both rational and relational. Healthy doctrine leads to healthy community. Christianity involves truth, it involves reason, but this truth finds its ultimate expression not in a creed or doctrinal statement, but in relationship. If there is anything that can mess up biblical community it is in not understanding this truth.
Christianity is both rational and relational. Healthy doctrine leads to healthy community. Christianity involves truth, it involves reason, but this truth finds its ultimate expression not in a creed or doctrinal statement, but in relationship. If there is anything that can mess up biblical community it is in not understanding this truth.
Jesus’ taught that people with the right doctrine would be recognized by their life producing the right fruit in relationship.
Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.—Matthew 12:33-37 (NIV)
The fruit that Jesus is talking about in this passage is not doctrine; it is the living out of doctrine in relationship with one another. Jesus’ chief criticism of the Pharisees was not their doctrine, but on their failure to correctly live out their doctrine in relationship.
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.—Matthew 23:1-4 (NIV)
What He goes on to say in the seven woes is that their relationships: both professional and personal, did not match up with their teaching. Jesus is saying, “Beware of orthodoxy that does not lead to orthopraxy.” Jesus was saying that the kind of community the Pharisees were cultivating made it clear that they were not pleasing God. Knowing the doctrine is not the goal. Living it is. You can’t practice it without knowing it, but you can know it without practicing it.
Perhaps Jesus’ strongest statements of this truth are in Matthew 7:21-23 and 25:41-46. In Matthew 7:21-23 (NIV) Jesus says,
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Having the gift of prophecy, being able to drive out demons, and performing miracles are wonderful things, but they are not the things that prove we are in the kingdom of God. Then in Matthew 25:41-46 (NLT) where He is telling the parable of the sheep and the goats He says,
“Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me.
I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’
“Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’
“And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’
“And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.”
What separates the righteous from the wicked was living a life that showed you not only understood the Law, but you lived it and produced the fruits of generosity, mercy, and compassion. To know and not to do is not to know. If our doctrine does not lead to practice, the doctrine counts for nothing. Christianity is both rational and relational. It is a way of thinking that leads into a way of life. The proof of the saving power and presence of the Spirit is not in the doctrine but in the life together of those who believe it.
The point of discipleship is not to learn but to live. Is learning involved? Yes. Is study involved? Yes. But the goal of the knowledge is wisdom. The end of discipleship isn’t to gain mastery of the Scriptures but to master a life of love. To be a disciple is to be a person whose life is the incarnation of Great Commandment. Because it is about living a life of love there is no set time when discipleship takes place, it takes place all the time. It is not a role, it is a life. It is not something that we can turn on and off. It encompasses all the roles and relationships we have.
