When asked what was the most important command, Jesus responded by saying,
Matthew 22:37-40
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 commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."
Of all the 613 commands in the Old Testament, Jesus picked this one as greatest and best summary of all of them: love God with everything you have -- make Him your greatest thought, give Him your best energy, love Him with your greatest affection, and pursue Him as your highest aim. And when you do this, it will overflow to other people. Our theology always comes out our fingertips.
But Jesus did not pick this commandment out of thin air or invent it on the spot. He wasn't riffing or summarizing per se. He picked a particular verse already on record. He pointed out a principle already revealed and He located it in Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
“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 might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 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. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
The command is to worship the one God with everything you have. Give everything you have to Him because there is only one. There is no reason to diversify your worship portfolio. There is only one God. So give all glory and honor and praise to Him alone. And who is the first neighbor identified as the beginning point in applying this theology and putting it into practice? The one sleeping at the same address, under the same roof, with your last name, with your wife's eyes and your smile. Our first neighbors are not those living across the street, but across the hall. Our neighbor is the one in front of us and your family is the training ground where this principle is first played out.
Matthew's Gospel includes the greatest commandment, but it ends with the greatest commission.
Matthew 28:18-20
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The first disciples you need to make are the ones with your last name. You should not disciple other people's children before you disciple your own. Jesus Christ is Lord of all. Everything is under His authority, so we should live like it and receive His gifts with gratitude and responsibility. So if He has given us children, we should take it upon ourselves to make disciples of them. We do this by saturating them in the things of God. Immersing them into a home where God is glorified, sin is repented of and grace and forgiveness are freely given. We teach them what they do not know and we show them how to obey what we've taught them. We don't only teach them to memorize God's Word, but to memorialize it in our budgets, on our calendars, in our hearts, with our hands, through our talents, in our treasures. And we can know for a matter of fact, that when we do this -- devote our lives to making disciples -- that He is with us. You never need to wonder. When the diapers pile up, when you're spanking your child for the sixth time today for the same lesson, when the dishes accumulate and the night is robbed of sleep, know that He is with you. He promised and He will keep His Word. His kingdom come, His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, world without end. Amen.
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