Please turn to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 22.
Let us read from verses 34 through 40.
But the Pharisees, when they heard that He had put the Sadducees to silence, gathered themselves together.
And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, tempting Him:
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
And He said unto him, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the great and first commandment.
And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets.”
Let us bow down and pray.
Lord, we thank You and praise You that You have given us another chance to gather before You. This is holy ground. We shall take off our sandals and stand before You.
We say, “Lord, whatever word You want to speak to us, we are all Your servants, listening here.”
Lord, we pray that You take away every veil and obstacle from our hearts. Open the eyes of our hearts and the ears of our hearts, so that we can hear Your words.
May Your word be effective in us, so that we may be brought into Your reality by Your word.
We acknowledge that at this end time there are many falsehoods and substitutes. We ask that You help us, so that we may touch the spiritual reality of You and truly be filled by Your life.
May Your name be praised. We put this time before You. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
This time, as we gather together to fellowship before our Lord, our subject is brotherly love.
Yesterday morning, we mentioned the first thing: God is love. In 1 John 4, we saw that love is of God. Those who love are born of God and know God.
I really hope that this word can be carved into our hearts, because oftentimes we think that we have love—that we are able to love God and to love the brothers.
But in this word we are told that God is the source of love. Outside of God, there is no love. Whatever love is outside of God is not true love.
If we love God with a love that is outside of God, that is not true love. Oftentimes we use a love that is outside of God to love God.
This kind of love—we do not know how much we have used it, and we do not know how much time we have wasted.
Oftentimes we also love our brothers outside of God. For this reason, we do not know how much harm we have done.
So, brothers and sisters, when we talk about love among brothers, the first thing we see is that we do not have love. This is the position in which we have to stand before God. Otherwise, we are always confused on this matter of brotherly love.
God is love. That is the essence of God. You cannot separate love from God.
When we receive God, we receive His love. When we receive His love, we receive God.
This love was not there when we were created. This love is what God has given us when we were born again. This love is knowing God.
Because we know God, we receive this love. Also, because we have this love, we know God.
I hope that this foundation may be deeply imprinted in the heart of every one of us.
This morning, we want to progress further. We see that because God Himself is love, His requirement for man is also love.
We can say that God’s requirement for man is only one: love. The only requirement is for us to love.
When God created man, He created man because of love. Not only did He create man because He loved His Son; He also created man because He loves man.
We remember in Proverbs 8 that wisdom is the representation of the Lord. When God created all things, wisdom was there. The Son of God was with God, delighting before Him.
Not only was He joyful because of what God created; He also delighted to dwell among the sons of men. Therefore, we see that God created man out of love.
He created man according to His own image. On the one hand, when God created us, He gave us a capacity for love.
Through this capacity, we are able to receive the love from God, so that this love can come into us and so that we can love God.
Actually, love is the commandment of God. It is not an option for man. This commandment itself is not something for us to choose.
In other words, this is the will of God. Whether you like it or whether you do not like it, to love God and to love the brothers is the commandment of God.
This commandment does not change. It does not change because of our own choice.
But, amazingly, although this commandment is unchanging, when God created man, He gave man a free will.
Our God is the God of greatest will. When God created man according to His own image, He also gave man a free will. What is free will? Free will means that you can choose.
On the one hand, God’s commandment is not an option for us. If that were all, then when God created us, He would have created us so that we could only love Him and could not choose not to love Him.
But the amazing thing is that when God created us, He gave us free will. Of course, when we have this free will, we can choose.
Love is not something forced upon us. It is not something mechanical. If you love something, it is voluntary; it is something that comes out of yourself.
Although love is a commandment of God, and this is an unchanging will of God, He gave man a free will to choose to love or not to love.
So that when we love Him, it is out of our own will; it is voluntary.
When God gave us the capacity to choose, in reality that is love. He put the man whom He created in the Garden of Eden.
We see that the garden was full of trees with fruit. All these fruits were allowed to be food for man. This was truly the supply of the love of God.
He knew that the man He created had needs in the flesh, so He created every supply for those needs.
In the center of the garden was the tree of life. That was the calling of love. God was calling man, saying, “You shall eat of the tree of life.”
If you eat the fruit of the tree of life, love enters your heart. Then you can love God, and then you can love one another.
But besides the tree of life, there was another tree: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God put that tree there to offer a choice to man.
God seemed to be saying to man, “My will is for you to eat of the tree of life. I call you to receive My life. I am going to fill you with My love, so that you can lead a life of love.”
“But I do not force you. If you want to live for yourself, if you want to love yourself more than you love Me, if you want to be independent from Me, you can choose that way.”
“But remember: if you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in the day that you eat of it, you shall die.” This is a warning of love.
God warned man that if he chose that tree, he would die.
In other words, God put before Adam the best and the worst. He put Himself before Adam to remind Adam: “You need Me. I call you.”
The first commandment from God to man, on the surface, appears to be negative: “Of that tree thou shalt not eat.”
To obey the commandment of God is life. Love is expressed in obedience. God showed man, “You need to submit to Me.”
If you obey Me, if you obey My commandment, you shall gain life. You shall be filled with love, and you can enter into a state of blessedness.
If you do not do so, if you want to live only for yourself, death is before you.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, although on the surface this command is negative, in reality it is positive. Even this command itself is love, because God loves man and is willing that man may be blessed before God.
The first command from God to man is love. From that time on, throughout the history of man, every time God gives a command, God’s love is behind it.
Even the judgment of God is the love of God.
Because Adam sinned, God said that he would sweat and toil in order to earn a living. Normally, we think that when Adam was in the Garden of Eden, he did not have to sweat and could have a very comfortable life.
When he was hungry, he could go to any of the beautiful trees and take fruit for his hunger. Maybe we all envy this kind of life.
We often feel that we suffer because every day we have to sweat in order to earn a living. But, brothers and sisters, for a sinner, to earn a living is a blessing.
If he has nothing to do, he will sin more. We remember David. He should have been fighting with his soldiers, but he stayed in the palace. He had nothing to do—nothing to do—and he sinned a terrible sin.
Therefore, even the judgment of God is full of love.
When God cast Adam and Eve out of Eden, He set at the east of Eden the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every way, so that man would not be able to return to the Garden of Eden and eat of the tree of life.
This also is the love of God, because God knows that if a sinner lives forever, that suffering is without end.
Can we see that after man was created and sinned, in everything we can see the trace of God’s love?
Even when men multiplied on the earth, we see that they sinned and did all evil things. Violence filled the earth, and sin permeated all the thoughts of man.
God regretted that He had made man, but He was not regretting His will in creating man. He was only changing His method. Therefore, He destroyed mankind at that time with the flood.
But Noah and his family received grace from God.
After the flood, when Noah and his family came out from the ark, Noah offered the clean animals to God. When God smelled the sweet savor, He said, “From now on, I shall not again cover the earth with a flood.”
Therefore, He placed a rainbow in heaven. Every time we see the rainbow in heaven, we think of the promise of love.
Noah and his family, although they were preserved, were filled with fear. After this great judgment, they truly trembled in fear within themselves.
So God comforted them. God made a covenant with them and gave them a proof: the rainbow in the heaven.
God knew that fruit and vegetables were not sufficient to sustain the corrupted body, so God allowed man to begin to eat meat. But they were not allowed to take in blood, because life is in the blood.
One day, God would use the blood to redeem the sins of man.
God knew the corruption of man. Therefore, God began to establish rule and government.
God said, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” From that day on, God put man under government because He wanted to preserve man, though corrupted.
Here we see again that God has dealt with man and treated man with love all the time. Although man is so unworthy, this God of love continues constantly to love man.
Now let us come to the time of the fathers, and then we see the story of Israel. Because God is love, He is also the God who keeps covenant.
He told Moses, “I have seen the travail of Israel. I want to send you to Egypt to save them from the house of bondage.”
This was not because the Israelites were spiritual in Egypt, but because of the love and mercy of God. He delivered the Israelites through the hand of Moses.
He brought them under Mount Sinai. There God gave them His law and His statutes.
God wanted them to be His people. God wanted them to be a kingdom of priests. God wanted to dwell among them, because God loved them.
God gave them the Ten Commandments. In addition to these Ten Commandments, there were also statutes and ordinances.
But these Ten Commandments summarize all the laws that God gave to man. These Ten Commandments are the command of God, and they express God Himself.
These Ten Commandments are the testimony of God. God wants to display to man what kind of God He is. Because this is the God He is, He wants His people to be like Him.
Today, when we look at the Ten Commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances, we are very much like the Israelites at that time.
We look upon these Ten Commandments outwardly, and we feel that they are a burden—a heavy burden. When we see the Ten Commandments, we see that we are condemned by them.
But when God gave the Ten Commandments to Israel, His purpose was for them to live because of them, not for them to die because of them.
God used His finger to write the Ten Commandments upon two tablets.
On one tablet, the commandments describe the relationship between man and God. The other tablet speaks about the relationship between man and man.
If we truly understand the significance of these Ten Commandments, we see that their essence is love.
Let us look at these commandments.
One day, a lawyer came before the Lord Jesus. He wanted to tempt our Lord. He asked the Lord, out of these many commandments, which one is the greatest?
The Lord Jesus said:
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the great and first commandment.
And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets.
Now let us look at the first commandment. Turn to Exodus 20.
The first commandment says:
Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.
Let us first turn to Exodus 20:2.
I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Why shall you not have any other gods besides Him? Because He is the God who delivered them out of Egypt. He is their God, their Redeemer. Besides Him, there shall not be any other god.
We know that love is very singular. Love does not allow another to compare with it or to compete with it.
Love has a character: love is pure, and love is singular. This is how God loves us.
He loves us singly, without other thoughts, and with a lasting love. Therefore, He asks us to love Him in this way.
The relationship between God and us is based on love. God so loves us. He loves us singularly. There is no other thought.
Besides us, He has no other purpose. So He wants the relationship between us and Him to be the same.
What does it mean that outside of Him there are other gods? If we love any things or matters outside of God, and let those things compare with God, or even love those things more than we love God, these are other gods.
If, in our hearts, we are occupied by various things other than God, these are other gods. If we trust any man, thing, or matter outside of God, then we have other gods besides our God.
Today, all our love should be singularly toward God.
Just as it says in the Psalms, “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee.”
Every day, we should trust Him and lean upon Him. It should not be that outside of Him we trust anything else.
If we truly love Him, we trust Him. We can say, “With You, it is sufficient.”
If we think that He is not sufficient, and that we need other things to supply us, then we have other gods besides Him.
At the end time, it is a dangerous time. Men love themselves. Men love money. Men love pleasure.
In other words, men do not love God. Men do not love goodness. Men love themselves more than loving God.
Men love the things of the world more than loving God. Men love pleasure and enjoyment more than loving God.
These things show us that outside of God we have other gods.
In Philippians 3, Paul tells us that he wanted to gain Christ, to know the power of His resurrection, and to be conformed to His death.
At the end of chapter 3, he says with tears that some are enemies of the cross. They seek vain glory, and they take their stomach to be their god.
Brothers and sisters, these words were not spoken to the nations. These words were spoken to believers. But gradually, unknowingly, we can have other gods besides God.
Why does God so command us? Because He loves us. He knows that only in Him is there eternal blessing. If we leave Him, we fall into sin and death.
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, the first commandment reveals the singularity and purity of love.
The second commandment says:
Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate Me,
And showing lovingkindness unto thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments.
The second commandment shows us that love is jealous. If we truly have that love, it is very jealous. It does not allow any other purpose or any other loyalty.
We should have God as our center and as the object of our loyalty. God is Spirit. He has no image.
He wants us to worship Him in spirit and truth. Our relationship with God is in the spirit.
God wants us to take Him as our center. What we pursue is Him. What we worship is Him. What we serve is Him.
But God says, “You shall not carve for yourself images.” I think the emphasis here is “for yourself.”
We should live for God. We should take God as the object of our pursuit. He is our only worship, and He is the only object of our service.
But sometimes we do things for ourselves. We consider ourselves to be the center. We make for ourselves various idols.
We can say that this actually is a projection of ourselves. This is the meaning of an idol.
The Bible tells us that whatever image you pay homage to, you become like that image.
There is a very precious hymn, and I think many brothers and sisters know it. The hymn says that although the Lord Jesus came a thousand times to Bethlehem, if He does not live in your heart, it is of no avail.
One verse says, “Man, whatever you love, that too shalt thou become.”
If you love God, you will become like God. If you love dust, you will become like dust.
When you yourself go out and God comes in, if you die, then God can live. Without you, there is Christ. If you have no things, then you have all things.
God knows that if we love Him, we will be like Him. If we love dust, we will be like dust.
If our service and our worship are toward Him, then we will be like Him. If we serve or worship things outside of God, then we will become like the things that we worship.
The second commandment shows us that God is a jealous God.
He is so jealous because He loves us, because He wants to pour out His grace upon us.
He knows that if we do not come through Him, we have to go through pains and suffering instead.
Even in His judgment, in which He visits the iniquity of sinners for three or four generations, His blessings to those who love Him and serve Him extend through thousands of generations.
This shows us again that God’s love is without end.
Dear brothers and sisters, what do we take as our center today? Is it God or ourselves?
Who is the one whom we worship and serve? Do we worship and serve our God, or do we worship and serve idols?
The third commandment says:
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.
What does it mean to take the name of the Lord in vain? Why can we not take His name in vain? Because His name represents Himself.
If we take His name in vain, we are taking His name lightly. Our God is a holy God.
Therefore, He said, “Ye shall be holy: for I am holy.”
The opposite of sin is righteousness. The opposite of holiness is what is common. Our God is uncommon. He is different from everything.
Therefore, He wants us to be separated, so that we may partake of His holy nature.
To take the name of the Lord in vain is to treat Him as common, as though He were the same as us.
What does it mean to take His name in vain? Oftentimes we approach Him with our lips, but our hearts are far away. This is to take His name in vain.
Oftentimes we pray in His name, but actually we are seeking our own purpose. This is taking the name of the Lord in vain.
Sometimes we vow using His name in order to cover our sin. This is also taking the name of the Lord in vain.
We do not see that our God is the most holy God.
Dear brothers and sisters, especially at this time, we really do not have proper reverence for our Lord. Oftentimes we think that we are so familiar with Him. We consider our God to be common. We do not take Him seriously.
Our God is a holy God, and we need to have godliness in us.
This is the third commandment: God wants to constitute His nature and His character in us.
We know that at this end time, one phenomenon is that men have an outward form of godliness but do not have its power. Even among God’s children, we see this. May God have mercy.
Commandment number four:
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work;
But the seventh day is a sabbath unto the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
God used six days to create the world. On the seventh day, He rested, because He had finished all the work.
We know that God created man on the sixth day. To God, He used six days to work, and on the seventh day He rested.
For man, his first whole day was to enjoy the rest of God.
The spiritual meaning is this: because God loves us, He has prepared all things for us. The moment He made us, He wanted us to enjoy His work.
But because of the sin of man, the rest and peace of God were destroyed. God came to the Garden of Eden to look for man, and He began to work to restore him.
Therefore, our Lord says, “My Father worketh even until now, and I work.”
But we thank and praise our God. When our Lord was on the cross, at His final moment, He cried out, “It is finished.” The work is finished.
So, dear brothers and sisters, today we are called to enter into His rest.
Hebrews tells us that there remains a rest reserved for us. It is not that we come to the seventh day and merely observe a day outwardly.
We thank God that today we have entered into Christ as our rest. Daily, we can rest in the work He has accomplished for us.
This is the love of God. God wants us to rest in the work that our Lord Jesus Christ has already finished.
Oftentimes we want to work. We are not willing to rest in the work that He has already finished. We think that what He has done is not enough, and that we have to add to it.
This is to violate the Sabbath. We should rest in Him.
This is God’s preparation out of love, so that we can know Him deeply.
Dear brothers and sisters, when you see these commandments, they represent God Himself. He wants us to enter into Himself.
When we combine the essence of the first four commandments, it is one word:
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
The meaning and purpose of God is not that outwardly we observe this commandment or that commandment.
Even when God gave these Ten Commandments to the Israelites, in Deuteronomy He spoke again and again, saying, “You shall obey My command. Love Me. Love Me with all your heart.”
He used all these commandments so that the Israelites could love Him. What God wants is love. It is not the outward observance of letters.
If you only outwardly observe these letters, but inside do not have love, you still violate the commandments.
You remember the young man who came before the Lord. He said, “What can I do to receive eternal life?”
The Lord Jesus told him, “You shall obey the commandments.” He said, “What commandments?”
Our Lord did not use the first tablet. He only used the second tablet. He said, “Honor your father and mother. You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery,” and so on.
The young man said, “I have obeyed all these from my youth.” The Lord saw him and loved him. The Lord said, “There is one thing you lack. Sell all things and follow Me.”
The Lord knew that this young man loved money. If he loved his money, he could not love others as himself.
So, dear brothers and sisters, here we are led to see what God wants: love, because He is love.
We do not have time to explain every point, but let us quickly speak about the other six commandments.
The Lord says that the second commandment is equally important. If you combine the last six commandments together, they are one word:
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
No one does not love himself. The problem is that if you love yourself, it is not possible for you to love others as yourself.
To love others as yourself requires you to sacrifice yourself.
Only our Lord Jesus loves men as Himself. He gave Himself for us.
A lawyer came to the Lord because he wanted to tempt Him. He was well versed in the law, and he asked, “What is the greatest commandment?”
The Lord said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
This lawyer wanted to show that he had an argument. He dared not mention loving God with all his heart, soul, and strength, because he knew that he was not adequate in that respect.
But he thought that he was able to love his neighbor as himself. So he asked the Lord, “Who is my neighbor? What is the scope of this neighborhood? How many people do I need to love?”
The Lord used an example. One person was going from Jerusalem to Jericho.
We know that Jerusalem is the place to worship God, and Jericho is the place of curse. Jerusalem is on a high hill, and Jericho is below sea level.
We can say that this man was walking toward corruption. Halfway there, he was robbed, beaten almost to death, and left there.
A priest came down from Jerusalem and passed by that place. He saw him and passed by. A Levite did the same.
Finally, a Samaritan came. The Bible says that he came to that place.
The Samaritan had a heart of love. On this path there were many robbers, so he was doing a work of rescue.
When he saw this man left there to die, although the Jews despised the Samaritans, he bound up his wounds with oil and wine.
He put him on his own beast and brought him to an inn. He told the innkeeper to take care of him, saying, “If it costs more, I will repay you.”
The Lord asked the lawyer, “Who was the neighbor of that wounded man? Was it the priest? Was it the Levite?”
The lawyer was a smart man. He quickly said, “The one who showed mercy to him.”
The Lord said, “Go, and do thou likewise.”
What does that mean? It means, “You shall love Me. I am your neighbor.”
You think that you are the one who loves your neighbor. But it is your neighbor who loves you. I gave My life for you.
It is not possible for you to love your neighbors in yourself. You do not have that love.
But if you are constrained by My love, if you accept My love, and you love Me, then you can love men as yourself.
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, we see here that in the Ten Commandments God did not mean for us to do something merely external.
God wants us to see His love. God wants us to open our hearts to receive His love, so that His love can be poured into our hearts.
Then we can love our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Then we can love others as we love ourselves.
The Lord said in John 14, “If a man love Me, he will keep My word.” Those who obey My commandments love Me.
Dear brothers and sisters, love is inseparable from the commandment of God, because God has only one commandment, and that commandment is love.
So today, if we truly love Him, we have to obey His commandments.
In these years, one story that has touched my heart is the story of C. T. Studd.
We know that C. T. Studd was one of the Cambridge Seven who came to China to preach the gospel. He was a graduate of Cambridge.
He was from a rich family. He was a cricketer, the number-one cricketer in England—as though he were the number-one baseball star in the United States.
His name was known in every household. But he was touched by the love of God, and he wanted to go to China to preach the gospel.
Before he came to China, he did deputation work and traveled in various places in England.
Once he was in Edinburgh, and he was staying with F. B. Meyer. F. B. Meyer was a young man with gifts, and he was highly used by God.
F. B. Meyer received him. November in Edinburgh was very cold.
In the early morning, around three or four o’clock, F. B. Meyer saw that the room of C. T. Studd was lighted.
He was the host, so he was a little worried. “Is my guest feeling uncomfortable?” But it was too early, and it would be too imposing to knock on the door.
So he waited. After a long while, the light was still there. Finally, he knocked at the door.
C. T. Studd said, “Come in.” F. B. Meyer entered and saw C. T. Studd sitting there.
Because it was cold, he had wrapped himself with a rug. He was reading the Bible.
F. B. Meyer said, “You are up so early.”
He said, “I love my God. I look for His commandments in His word. I want to keep His word.”
Brothers and sisters, when we read the Bible, we often look for promises.
Some people are rather lazy. When I first came to the United States, I went to the home of Christians. In the morning, at the breakfast table, there was a little box—a promise box.
Every morning, he would pick one promise. “This is how the blessing of God comes to me today.” This is the way we love God.
But C. T. Studd was different. He said, “I am looking for His command.”
Brothers and sisters, this is truly loving the Lord.
The Lord said, “One who loves Me obeys My commandment. He who obeys My commandment loves Me, and I shall dwell with him.”
Let us bow down and pray.
We prostrate ourselves to worship You. You are indeed love. In Your commandments, there is fullness of love. We worship You.
What You ask of us is only one thing: that we love You and that we love each other.
Save us from many fragmented things. Save us from external things, so that we may be constrained by Your love.
May we love You with the love that You have given us. May we love each other with the love that You have given us, so that Your heart may be satisfied.
In the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.