welcome to real Christianity a weekly show designed to help Christians know their Bible defend their faith and truly understand what it means to follow Jesus the premise is simple the culture is getting louder the church is getting flash ear but few pastors are teaching on how to live a Biblical life my name is Dale Partridge along with my incredible wife Veronica join us as we start an important conversation about what it really means to be a Christian
 welcome to real Christianity today we are talking about the first and greatest commandment guys this is a verse that many of you probably memorized as a child if you've been in the church for long but it's important it's an important verse to teach to your family and it's something that I thought I would break down verse by verse today in Matthew chapter 22 if your regular listen to the show thank you for joining us and we also ask that you would leave a review those reviews they really do help the exposure of the show and man we are so blessed by the over 5,000 reviews that have been left they are so encouraging if you have a review please leave when we will read it thank you for those who have already left a review also if you are
 a married couple that is looking to strengthen your marriage consider enrolling in our six-week biblical marriage Mentor program at ultimate marriage.com the great program you could do it in a small group or you guys can do it just as a couple and we got six great videos of some workbook stuff you can do each week and it's a great walkthrough of learning the basics of biblical marriage and so again that's at ultimate marriage.com alright we're going to talk about Matthew chapter 22 verses 34 through 40 I'm going to read in the ESV right now and then we're going to just break down this first a bit and have some perspective that might be edifying and helpful for you guys as Christian as you try to learn more about the Lord and I love him with all of your mind which will talk about here shortly alright versus 34th in chapter 22 of Matthew it says
 who were the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the saddest he's they gathered together and then one of them a lawyer asked him a question to test him he said teacher which is the great commandment in the law and he said to him you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind this is the great and First Amendment and the second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two Commandments depend all the law and the prophets okay powerful passage of scripture something worth studying and having a robust understanding the first thing I want you to do is to evaluate your own ability to keep these two Commandments and have you ever been able to love the Lord with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind for longer than like a worshipful second
 Have You Ever Loved a person like another person as well as you love yourself outside of some of those precious moments in life with maybe an infant right eye I think I speak for all of us when I say unfortunately no we can't keep these Commandments on a regular basis and this shows us how great a need we have for the grace of God we can't even keep the first and second commandments right every time we choose sin or self we break these two Commandments in sadly that that's quite common
 the distance just needs to demonstrate to you how great our need is for Christ without the Forgiveness of sins through the perfect righteous and sacrifice of Christ you and I would be doomed before holy got right we are so utterly incapable of earning a righteous verdict before God we can't even keep the first and second commandment and that's for the most mature Christians on the planet right this is why every person must cast all of their trust in Christ in Christ alone don't trust in yourself in your own righteousness and all you need to trust and righteous the righteousness of Christ Paul David Tripp said a great quote he said you'll never celebrate Grace as much as you should when you think you're more righteous than you actually are
 in other words it if we're blind to how broken and sinful we truly are the grace of God will not be as sweet as it actually is so that's my first point we need to Revel in the grace of God the saving power of Christ we need we need to let that overwhelming Grace become the gratitude that fuels our desire to be obedient okay now so it's just something we need to comprehend how broken we are how great the grace of Christ is and the Gratitude of that Grace is the fuel by which we obey
 now again because we can't keep these Commandments on a regular basis should we not strive to keep them at all like should we not try to be a video of course. Jesus said many times in the gospel if you love me you'll keep my Commandments right 1st Peter 1 15 through 16 said but as he who called you is Holy you also be wholly in all your conduct since it is written you shall be holy for I am Holy my obedience to God's commands is the evidence of those who truly love God if you are obedient and you have a heart to love God and love others that's the evidence that you're truly saved
 I don't want to break down this verse a little bit more so we can have a healthy theological understanding of the passage note man we could spend so much time there's probably books that are written on just this verse but this is to have a brief overview a deeper understanding of this passage the first and greatest commandment as well as the second Jesus says the first graders going to miss to love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind so for me I think of kind of a broader theological
 principal going on here I think of 1st John 4:19 that says we love because he first loved us so what you do is just take that stuck it in your brain for a second we love because he first loved us first John chapter 4 7 through 82 in the same chapter he says beloved let us love one another for love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God he who does not love does not know God for God is love so ultimately it's only by the grace of God that we can even love God and other words like loving God is is a recycling of the love God has given to us by spiritual regeneration
 now can we do religious things without spiritual regeneration can we sing songs at church can we attend church can we read the Bible in The Flash without being regenerated sure this is what religious zealots do this is what the Pharisees did but we can only love God truly love God with all of our heart soul in mind if we have the spirit of God if we've been born again but you know if we just look at the Practical command here I want to just look at that to what is Jesus telling us that can love because we have loved because we have Christ
 he's telling us to prioritize our love for God in every sense that that means in your spiritual life you put nothing for the one true God again who we worship through Christ Jesus the the one and only mediator between God and man write down your physical or your spiritual life you have nothing before before the one true God in your emotional life you put nothing above the one true God in your physical life you put nothing before the one true God in your intellectual life you put nothing for the one true God and I want you to just take a moment
 and evaluated that true of your life obviously it's not always going to be true but how far off the mark are you is God the reigning focus of your life
 this isn't
 a passage just for pastors this isn't a passage just for Spiritual mature people this is for all who call on the name of Christ This is for people who are calling themselves Christians are to prioritize God through Christ in every aspect in every faculty of there being
 and are you putting Christ first in your thoughts in your schedule is he being pursued first in your day in your parenting is he is he present in the way that you parent your children in gentleness and in love are you showing your family Christ and that you are seeking him first are your relationships reflective of Christ is your reputation reflective of Christ because he is your raining priority and then we don't prioritize price because we're afraid of being punished by God if we don't that's not the motivation we don't prioritize Christ because we think he's going to love us more if we do
 that's not the motivation we prioritize God in this way with all of our heart soul and mind as a reaction to the love that he first showed us but that is it he saved us while we were still Sinners and made us knew he made us one of his own that is the the cause the motivation to deep you will the drive behind why we do this you need to search your heart go why am I trying to be obedient my trying to be able to because I want to earn my self-righteousness you just got to go hey let go of your own self-righteousness you'll never make it on your own self-righteousness don't worry about that
 Christ already made you righteous through his righteousness you don't need to be self-righteous will you need to do is just allow the love of God the grace of God on your life be the fuel which which Gets behind your life and motivates you generates obedience because you love God and you're so grateful that he gave his life for you
 so that's the first section the next section want to talk about is he he says this verse that the second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself is the first passage supposes that humans love themselves and we know this fusions five talks about this right love your wives as you love yourself like nobody's ever hated his own flashes what it says in Ephesians 5 write the passage supposes her presupposes that the humans already let themselves we know this because when we're hungry you know we do we love ourselves so much that we feed ourselves when we're cold we love ourselves too much that we put on a jacket we love ourselves you know we don't need to be taught how to love ourselves
 we need to be taught how to love others and that's what this is really about the ultimately we need to apply that type of self-love to others and basically we need to follow Christ in his example of sacrificial love not thinking of ourselves only but also the needs of others which is Philippians he loved us more than he loved himself when he willingly and what Hebrew said it says his joyfully went to the cross and so the bottom line is that between these two sections on this great commandment number one and two is it Jesus the Same Love God and love others if you want to simplify it like really simplified love God and love others he closes with this one verse in chapter and verse 48 does on these two commands depend all the law and the prophets so the new King James
 say like on these two commands hang all the law and the prophets and so first notice it was only two into a Jewish Community he's he's responding to people who are trying to keep 613 laws and so to simplify all of the law and the prophets on these two commands is really incredible and very compelling for the audience that's there in the in the moment of this text but I want you to just noticed something real quick as we get ready to close here
 what do you think are the Ten Commandments and so the Ten Commandments the first for no other gods no Idols don't take the lord's name in vain keep the Sabbath basically those first four are love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind you're not going to be other gods in there there's no Idols in your life you're not going to take the lord's name in vain because you love him right you keeping the Sabbath holy which could also apply to our benefit but I threw it in this first category within the last six of those are the first four to the first four are basically love. The last six you're going to see are basically love others and the last six or honor your parents write your father and mother don't murder don't commit adultery I don't steal the bear false witness don't cut it and his yard in are basically love your neighbor as yourself and so what Jesus is saying he resist giving a summary statement on the Ten Commandments
 and so close with a statement that Augustine wants made I think that really hits the heart of what's being said here and I think those of you who have had deep devotion with the Lord in prayer in the study of the word can see yourself saying something like this and my hope for you is that you all through your maturity the Lord's sanctifying you and growing you that you all get to a place where you can produce this type of joy and love resting in Christ's righteousness and still seeking out of gratitude to love the Lord your God with everything you have dogs named what's that
 there is a joy which is not given to the ungodly but to those who love thee for thine own sake who's Joy daicel fart
 and this is the happy life to Rejoice to be of thee for the this it is and there is no other
 what's closing prayer father we thank you for the simplification of what everything you stand for and everything you want of us is broken down in the simple verse father we ask that you would impress this truth upon those who were listening we asked father that you would guide us to understand the love that you have given us as we reflect it back to you by the we pray for a growth of Revelation and understanding of who you are Lord that we might love you and love others the way that you want us to the Jesus name amen
 thank you for joining us on this episode of real Christianity real Christianity is an audio Ministry of relearn church.org if you'd like more information on how to live out a Biblical life relearn church.org hosts a variety of Articles podcast sermons and videos to support your journey real Christianity is 100% listener-supported Ministry and if you'd like to support our efforts simply click the don't have a tree learn church.org you can also connect with both Veronica and I on Instagram Facebook and Twitter for daily lessons and Bible teachings thank you for being with us today we hope to see you next Wednesday for another episode of real Christianity