What does the passage say about the role of words in our life? How can you apply this wisdom in your daily interactions?
Proverbs 18:8 discusses the allure and harm of gossip. How can you confront and overcome the temptation to gossip in your life?
In what ways does the chapter illustrate the distinction between wisdom and foolishness?
How does Proverbs 18:10-11 contrast trusting in God versus trusting in wealth? How can you incorporate this wisdom into your financial decisions?
Verse 13 warns against making judgments without fully understanding a matter. How can you ensure that you listen and understand before making judgments in your own life?
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
Mark 12:28-31
28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Introduction:
Recently I went with our oldest daughter and my two grandsons, Elam and Able, to the zoo. Elam is 2 and Able is 8 months.
We had a great time but there was one thing I noticed with the two boys. Getting them to focus on something is really hard.
The focus to which I refer is not, focus on your classwork here, or pay attention to what I am saying. It is getting them to see what is literally around them.
I can give several examples, but this is the best one. We were looking at the manatees. These are 2-ton shrimp. They are big, gray, with whiskers. Enormous animals and because of the widow viewing area, there is not a lot of room for failure to notice them.
I was pretty much in charge of the youngest, Able. We are standing in front of this tank and it was feeding time so all the manatees were eating salad, floating near the top of the water.
We are at the window this 2-ton creature is less than 6 inches from my face and Able did not see it. He is focused on this tiny air-bubble that is coming up through the water.
“Able, look! Right here buddy.” I am moving his head with my hands pointing it in the right direction so he can see this animal. Then he sees it. Smiles and moves wildly like, “Oh yeah, where did you come from?”
This happens all day long. We are walking around the zoo and the animals are ready for the day having just woke up. Moving and interacting with the people.
Oh, another one. We were at the Aquarium. All the lights are low in there. Tons of fish swimming around and here comes this shark that is as long as these church pews. Ol’ boy misses it.
“How can you miss that Elam?” I was thinking, it is such a good thing we were on this side of the glass. Oh, E would have ended up as an appetizer if we were in the wild.
I observed this all day long and it hit me: Part of the mission statement here at Donnels Creek is to love God and love others. Great goal. Sometimes, (or even often) DO I MISS what is right in front of my face? Just like the boys, it’s right here in front of me, an opportunity I am distracted by other things and I do not fully love God and love others?
How often have I missed an opportunity to love. Opportunities that were as big as a manatee? Opportunities that were 6 inches from my face and I was just looking over here, looking over there. Sometimes I was focused on this tiny air bubble that is floating.
We have spent the last two weeks emphasizing the particulars of forgiveness and I want to go back to a phrase used in the last sermon. My desire to was to turn attention to how to properly interpret this text in Colossians 3 and it was stated, “This was a letter written to Christ followers, teaching them how to love other Christ followers.”
What is the central teaching here? Love.
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
As believers we are chosen, holy, beloved: therefore have a compassionate heart, be kind, humble, meek, and patient and bearing with one another. These are ALL traits of love. If there is an issue, forgive as you have been forgiven.
The words of Paul are addressing Christians and telling them, treat each other like Christians.
Here is a thought that really drives me on this text. What if we are missing something?
There is the issue that we can be going through life, day to day and at the same time missing opportunities to love God and others. They can be the size of a manatee and we not see it. That manatee can be 6 inches away and we still not see it.
Before we get into the meat of the text, let us pray and ask God to bless the message.
In our second text Jesus was asked which was the most important commandment. The response by Jesus was the Shema Israel, which is a summary of the law: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Many see this as quoting all of the commands in summary form. You had the first half of the law, 1-4 how we are to love and honor God and then the second half, how to love and honor each other. Those made in God’s image.
In this culture it is very easy to assume the meaning of, “Love the Lord you God with all your heart,” and think of it in our own terms.
We have so many love songs, poems and sonnets, I love you with all my heart.
This is not how they conversed back in Jesus’ day. If you wanted to communicate the same idea as Al Green, “I love you with all my heart” you would say it differently. For them it would be kidneys or the liver. Maybe you would say, “You make my liver quiver.”
For in Jesus’ day, to say love the Lord your God with all your heart, it would be like saying, loving God with all your ability. The heart was the seat of the entirety of a person. Today we would say mind.
All your thoughts, all your motives: this is the heart. Love God with the seat of your life – the MOTIVE of your life.
How are we to do this? Jesus was quoting a passage from Deuteronomy 6. If you look at the larger context of you find even deeper meaning:
6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. xx8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
They were to talk about this law of God at all times: while sitting, walking, lying down, rising, on the door posts, on the door frames and on the gates.
Even more, the kings, when they take the throne, were instructed to write down a copy of the law. It is said that this would be the copy they would read from daily. When they ruled as a king, they would read the law, the very law they had written.
This is the MOTIVE. IT WAS FUELING MOTIVE. This becomes the thing that energizes the followers of God. They would know and fear God and most of all, love Him.
Wisdom is God’s Commands
For those of us who are doing the Proverb study, this week I discussed something that had occurred to me and I consulted some other puritan writers and found confirmation.
In Proverbs 6 can be found an almost identical statement from Deuteronomy 6. In this scripture the father is giving advice on how to avoid an adulterous woman:
“20 My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching. 21 Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck. 22 When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; xx and when you awake, they will talk with you. 23 For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life, 24 to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. ” Proverbs 6:20-24
It continues: obviously the main teaching is about avoiding an adulterous person. However, that is not the deeper meaning. This is an allegory.
The love of our life is God. This God that you love, we must keep his word close to you. Let it lead you. Let it watch over you. Let it be a light in your life.
This will keep you from sin. This is the deeper allegorical meaning of the adulterous woman. She is a distraction and she will keep you from the love of your life.
What we are finding with the words of Jesus in Mark, from the words that Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy and the wise words of Proverbs is, this life that we have, this life in Christ is not an emotion. It is NOT TO BE WISHY WASHY.
It is the very thing that moves us. All the issues of life come from this seat of our heart.
This is the foundation of love. This is the foundation from which everything is built in our lives. And so often I miss it. Loving God and loving others. We are to PUT ON this love.
(illustration with coats – old coat, new coat <coach old>) we are new we put this on
Moreover, we are commanded to love God. It is not just a suggestion.
How do I miss it? If I love my Lord correctly, I will love other correctly. How do I know God’s love? I can look into the mirror of His word and see how it binds all things together!
God is Love
That we are to be like God, God is loving. God loves. We imitate Him in this trait.
D.A. Carson in his book “The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God,” mentions different ways the Bible speaks of God ‘s love.
The Father for the Son (John 3:35; 5:20) and the son for the Father (John 14:31)
The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand., I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.
God’s “common grace”. (Matthew 5:45-46)
For he sends the rain on the just and the unjust and causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good.
God’s choosing and electing love (Dt 7:7-8; 10:15)
It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples
God’s conditional love (Exodus 20:6; John 15:10)
But (I am) showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. . . 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love
Sometimes what we put on can look like love
Throughout Scripture our Lord has taken the thread of love stringing it in and through so many lives. Doctrine is important. Theology is important. These are daily ingredients in my life. But may they never come at the expense of failing to see God’s love.
The love which motivated our Lord to cover Adam and Eve. This was not because they were indecent. It was a foreshadow, that I will cover your shame. I will give you garments of righteousness.
Sometimes we can put on what looks like love, because we are missing it. Like the boys at the zoo. It is right there, but we just don’t see it.
You know what looks like love? Think of Joseph and his brothers. They really hated him. Some of them wanted him dead.
At the right opportunity they got rid of him. Eventually selling him into a caravan and he is taken far, far away.
When they come back to Jacob, their father, they have a story and they have some evidence. We did what we could. Here is his coat.
I can say that as a church family, there is love here. As we begin to rebuild this place, there is a good foundation of love.
But what is more important than our love for each other, is our love for our Lord. Love God and love others is a perfect summation of Jesus’ answer in Mark 12.
Love the Lord your God, love you neighbor. Jesus answer in our text takes us right back to a love for God that is tied with God’s word.
What binds everything together? Moses, Solomon and Jesus give the answer to what binds everything together: Love God, love others.
And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Col 3:14
You shall bind them as a sign on your hand Dt 6:8
My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching. 21 Bind them on your heart always Prv 6:20-21