“Loving Lawfully, Lawkeeping Lovingly”
Mark 12:28-34
SCRIPTURE INTRO: This is the third conflict that Jesus had with his opponents.
First one was over politics, the second over theology, this one over morality.
INTRO: There are some family friends of ours whose children are grown.
Number of years ago, when their son was in his senior year of high school,
his parents notice some things that concerned them.
He was a smart and talented boy but he was lazy and had no direction.
He didn’t have a job or plans to get a job.
He didn’t have any plans to further his education.
Parents had pointed this out but it didn’t make a difference.
So they sat down with him and said: Son, we love you.
We want you to know that the day after graduation you will be moving out
and you will be on your own.
He said: What do you mean?
They said: You are welcome to visit us any time.
You may join us for supper any night of the week if call and let mom know..
But you will no longer be living here.
He said: What will I do?
They said: You better start thinking about that, you have a few months.
He said: You won’t really do this to me.
But the morning after his high school graduation
his mother walked into his room with a suitcase.
After it was packed, dad put it out in the driveway.
I’m sure you want to know what happened.
Called some friends who had an apartment.
Let him crash for a few days but then they had the talk.
Dude, you have to start paying rent if going to stay here.
So he got a job and started to enjoy working.
Then he started dreaming about what he would like to do with life.
Started to pursue his dream job and he got it, did well in it.
Now he’s in his thirties, has his own family.
And his relationship with is parents has never been stronger.
I tell that story to make a simple point:
Law and love are made for each other. Law and love go together.
When there is law without love—it’s destructive.
You can imagine this same thing being done to a boy without love.
Parents lay down the law—day after graduation you’re out of here you lazy bum.
And he would probably still end up getting a job—but with bitterness.
He would never enjoy the pleasure of sharing his success with parents years later..
On the other hand, when there is love without law—it’s also destructive.
You can also imagine parents in this situation coddling their smart, talented,
lazy son, and helping him waste the best years of his life.
Thinking that they are loving him.
Law and love go together.
You don’t have true love without the law—
and you don’t really keep the law without love.
Both are expressions of the character of God.
When Jesus was asked which is the greatest commandment.
He said: It’s to love God and love your neighbor.
That’s the most positive, uplifting view of the law and morality possible.
It has so many wonderful implications for our lives.
But at the same time, it is the most impossible teaching to keep.
Because it exposes our motives.
And shows us that we can do the right thing for the wrong reasons
and become lawbreakers, even as we think we are keeping the law.
Ultimately this incredible teaching of Christ throws us on the grace of God.
Only his grace, and the love for us in his Son that gives us the power
to keep the law as he commands—by loving Him and our neighbor.
Let’s look at this passage under three points:
1. The connection between law and love.
2. What happens when we break that connection.
3. How Jesus enables us to obey the law of love.
MP#1 The connection between law and love.
A teacher of the law came to Jesus with a question:
Which is the most important commandment in the Bible?
The Jews had identified 613 commands in the Bible.
We think of the 10 commandments, but there are lots of other commands.
They often debated which ones were most important.
If we are going to live right where should we put our moral effort?
That may sound like a strange debate, but we do the same sort of thing.
All of us have moral lists of what is important, what is really important,
what sins are bad, and what sins are really bad.
Different churches have different lists of what virtues are really important,
what sins are really bad.
If you go to liberal churches you will hear sermons against racism,
if you go to conservative churches, will hear sermons against sexual immorality.
Each one has a different list of important commandments.
But when Jesus answered the question he went much deeper.
Quoted two passages from Old Testament: Deut. 6:4 and Lev. 19:18.
Love the Lord your God, Love your neighbor.
That’s what the law is about. That’s what’s most important.
Matthew: On these commands hang the law and the prophets.
You can look at Jesus’ words from two different directions.
Jesus was saying that that love is the heart and soul of God’s law.
All of God’s laws boil down to one thing—love God, love people he has made.
Love for an enemy different from love for a friend.
Love for an enemy is not warm affection—it’s blessing instead of cursing.
It’s refraining from revenge, praying for God to bless person.
But all love is the same in that it seeks the good of the person, no matter what.
So obeying God’s law is more than refraining from doing bad things—it’s loving.
“Thou shalt not commit adultery” is a command that you be
an absolutely loving spouse. Person of faithfulness and purity.
“Thou shalt not steal” is a command that you love by being a
be a cheerfully generous person to everyone in need.
“Thou shalt not bear false witness” is a command that you love by living
an open, truthful, transparent life in your dealings with people.
And on and on we could go.
If you just conform your behavior—you aren’t obeying God’s law.
Because you can refrain from all of those things and still not be a loving person.
John Calvin said: “God does not rest satisfied with the outward appearance of works,
but chiefly demands the inward feelings, that from a good root good fruits may grow.”
God’s requires that all lawkeeping come from an inward motivation of love.
That’s one way to look at Jesus’ teaching.:
You will never even come close to keeping God’s law if you don’t love.
On the other hand,
Jesus was teaching that the law is the standard and pattern for love.
You can’t say, I love my children, and not feed them.
Or, I love my job, and never show up for work.
Love is not just words or a feeling.
Love is decisions and actions.
God’s law shows us what those decisions and actions must be.
God’s law is not busywork.
The law is an expression of God’s person, his character.
The Bible says God is love.
Within the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit there is perfect love.
So the Ten Commandments are simply a summary of how
we are supposed to love God and people.
1-4 How to love God,
5-10 How to love people.
You may say you love someone,
but how do you know if what you are doing is loving?
The only way you can know is by following God’s law.
If you ignore God’s law or intentionally break it,
even if you think you are doing it for loving reasons, really not loving at all. .
Jesus didn’t say—Just love and forget about all the rules.
Everything in God’s law is about love,
Love is given definition by the law.
And love defines what it means to live lawfully.
Law and love are inseparably connected.
Brings to second point. Let’s consider . . .
MP#2 What happens when you break the
connection.
There are two ways Christians can break the connection between law and love—
I’ve already hinted at both of them.
You can say:
This feels like love to me, I’m going to do this and not worry about the rules.
I’m going to trust my instincts. This feels like love and if God’s law
gets in the way, I’ll just do what I think is right.
My parents recently kept a child in their home for two weeks because his father
was getting medical treatment out of state and his wife needed to be with him.
They didn’t know what to do with their 12-year-old son so my parents said
that they would keep him.
They didn’t know what they were getting into.
He was horribly disrespectful—a very difficult two weeks.
When his parents came to get him and asked how things had been—
my parents told them.
In the conversation that followed my mother asked:
Do you discipline him for this behavior?
Because she realized he was just as disrespectful to them.
Parents said: We talk to him.
Yes, but are there consequences?
Are his video games taken away?
Or is he not allowed to play with his friends?
Parents said: No, we believe that loving him is a better policy.
The Bible says:
“He who spares the rod hates his son.”
“Those the Lord disciplines those he loves.”
I’m not advocating a method of discipline for your children—
just making the point that one way people break the connection between
law and love is to choose to ignore the law when it goes against what
their instincts tell them is the loving thing to do.
I’m sure all of you could give examples of believers who have gone this route
and brought devastation to friendships, marriages, and churches.
But, I don’t think this is the biggest problem with many of you.
I think most of us, self included, break the connection between law and love,
the other way—by keeping the law without love.
And this is just as destructive. Maybe even more so.
We’re going to have a little self-examination.
Why do you tell the truth?
God’s law says: “Thou shalt not bear false witness.”
Why do you obey that command?
Do you tell the truth because you love God and love your neighbor?
Is that the deepest motive of your heart?
To live a lovingly transparent and truthful life for the love of God.
If you could dig down deep enough, and uncover your true motives
you might find that you tell the truth out of fear and pride.
You tell the truth because you are afraid not to.
Afraid you might get caught. Afraid God will be angry with you.
Or you tell the truth because you are proud to be an honest person.
You hate liars and are proud that you aren’t one of them.
So you tell the truth all the time—but your motive is not love, it’s fear and pride.
What’s the problem with that?
If you are telling the truth, why does it matter what your motive is?
It matters because fear and pride are the very things that prompt us to lie.
We lie when we are afraid and we lie when we are proud.
If fear and pride are your motives for telling the truth,
then you are nurturing evil in your heart, even as you keep God’s law.
And this is what will happen.
You will start trying to manipulate people and control situations.
You will probably find yourself struggling with anger.
You will start to do the same things liars do—but you’ll do it by telling the truth.
All of our lawkeeping can be done without love for God and people.
So as Christians, we have to examine our motives.
Why do I obey my parents? Why am I faithful to my spouse?
Why am I honest in my business dealings?
Why do I come to worship and do other religious things?
Is it because I love God? Is it because I love neighbor, want their good?
Or is it fear and pride? Fear of consequences? Fear that God won’t bless.
Pride that I’m a good Christian person, not like immoral people.
If honest, I think all of us would say at least that motives very mixed.
That brings us to the last point . . .
MP#3 How Jesus enables us to obey the law
of love.
Something was going on spiritually in the man who asked Jesus this question.
Everybody else was asking Jesus questions to trip him up or get him in trouble.
But this man was moved by Jesus’ answer.
He thought about it and applied it to himself.
He said: Teacher, you are right, loving God and your neighbor
is more important than all burn offerings and sacrifices.
You have to realize that most Jews had forgotten the purpose for animal sacrifices.
The Old Testament sacrifices were intended to remind them of God’s grace—
his perfect provision for their sin. OT religion was the Gospel.
But most Jews believed you worked for your salvation. Try hard to obey the law.
If you broke a law, you would offer a sacrifice, ask for forgiveness, to close gap.
You obey 90%, cover the other 10% with sacrifices—and you are in.
But after hearing Jesus’ answer,
this man started to realize for the first time that wouldn’t work.
It’s as if this man were saying to Jesus:
I wanted you to tell me which laws were most important
so I would know where to put my moral effort—
but you’ve given me something impossible.
The demands of God’s law are much harder than I ever imagined.
Nothing less than perfect love for God and neighbor.
Even if I offered sacrifices 24 hours a day, I would never cover my failures.
How can I ever love and obey like that?
And Jesus says: You’re on your way.
“You are not far
from the
The first step to obedience is simply to see how far off the mark you are.
When you start to see that you are full of fear and pride,
and that your reasons for obeying God are all wrong—you are on your way.
When you realize that you don’t have love for God and your neighbors—
when you admit that and repent of it—you are taking the first steps toward
the loving obedience that God requires.
You are on your way—but you are not there yet.
Jesus says: You are not far from the kingdom. Not far, but not there yet.
So why didn’t Jesus tell him the next step?
Why didn’t he say: This is how you experience the grace of God?
This is how you grasp and grow in the fullness of his love?
I think because Jesus knew that in just a few days, when he was crucified,
he would show the way.
Jesus obeyed God perfectly. He was the only man who ever loved God
with all his heart, soul, strength and mind. And yet God sent him to hell.
That’s what those hours of darkness were on the cross—
that was Jesus descending into hell.
God turned his mercy away from his Son and showed him is wrath.
But what did Jesus cry from hell: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.
You see, even from hell he cried: My God, my God.
He loved God completely, even when God turned his back on him.
And why did he do it? For us. For his neighbors. For our salvation.
And so we see in the cross perfect love for God and neighbor.
When you see Jesus’ perfect love on the cross—
when that sinks in—it enables you to move ahead in obedience and love.
Any time you are struggling to obey—have to look at the cross.
The cross will not only give you a reason to love, it will undermine evil motives.
The Gospel is that I am more wicked and sinful than I ever dared to admit.
But at the same time I am more love and accepted than I ever dared to hope.
If you believe that, and preach it to yourself
The first part will destroy your pride—I’m a sinner, terrible sinner.
Even my best obedience is filthy rags. I can’t obey out of pride.
But the second part destroys your fear—I’m loved, greatly love and accepted.
So I don’t obey out of fear of consequences, fear God will pound me.
I’m his beloved son.
That will undermine those evil motives that can ruin our lawkeeping.
This is complicated, isn’t it? Grace is complicated.
Obeying the law of love is complicated.
A little child can understand it, but we work a life time to fully grasp it.
You will find yourself saying the right things, but obeying for the wrong reasons.
So come to the Table—Commune with Jesus Christ.
And let the words of this old hymn be your prayer this morning:
Savior, teach me, day by day, love’s sweet lesson to obey.
Sweeter lesson cannot be, loving him who first love me.
Teach me thus Thy steps to trace, strong to follow in Thy grace.
Learning how to love from Thee, loving Him who first love me.