Christian Social Studies
When a scribe asked Jesus, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus responded,
The most important is, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 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.” The second is this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:29-31)
Love is our most important responsibility. In Jesus’ response to the scribe, we find at least three important applications on love.
1. Loving God and Loving Others Is Connected
In addition to what we read here, look at these verses from 1 John:
“But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” (3:17).
“Beloved let us love one another, for love is of God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (4:7-8).
“If anyone says, ‘I love God’ and hates his brother he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (4:20).
“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments” (5:2).
Why are these two obligations connected? When you are put in a relationship with God through Christ, you automatically become a part of his family. His children become your brothers and sisters. If you are truly in a relationship with God, you will recognize that you are in a relationship with the rest of his children.
2. Love Is Fundamental to the Law
It is upon the commandments to love God and love our neighbors that the whole law depends, according to Matthew 22:40. Furthermore, keeping the commandments is conditioned upon love (John 14:15).
So when the scribe in Mark 12 said loving God and loving one’s neighbor is “much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices” (v. 33), he was saying love is fundamental to those things. In other words, obedience is an outward expression of love for God and man. That doesn’t make love a substitute for obedience. The two go hand in hand.
3. Love fulfills the law.
This is another way, maybe, of saying love is fundamental to the law. In Romans 13:10, Paul said, “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” The law is not being fulfilled unless it is obeyed as a way of giving and showing love to God or others. In another place, Paul said,
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Cor. 13:1-3).
Legalism is essentially law without love. When people hollow out God’s commandments by stripping them of love, they change the purpose of the law and twist it for their own purposes. For example,
Confronting social issues like homosexuality and abortion for political reasons.
Doing good works to be seen of men.
Going to worship out of self-righteousness.
Arguing truth to win and look smart.
Condemning sin in someone because you don’t like them.
In this study, we’ll be examining our obligations to others. We will discuss our love for our families, the poor, the lost, and our brothers and sisters in Christ, among others. It’s easy to engage in social studies like this and forget the proper purpose for our interactions. In every case, let there be love. Love fulfills the law.
