06/04/2024 – The Essence of God’s Word is Love
Matthew 23: 23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
Christ taught us that God’s Word has an essence: love. If we see the Bible only as a manual of behavior and investigate it for strategies to improve our behavior, we will be missing the best part. In it is the power of God to transform our way of thinking, our heart, and our Spirit.
But when we ignore the essence of God’s Word, we don’t just miss the best part. The scribes and Pharisees received a “Woe to you” from the lips of Christ, not for completely disobeying the Word of God, but for partially obeying, neglecting the essentials.
Religious leaders carried a curse because they ignored the essence of God’s Word. They considered the literal and external fulfillment of the commandments but ignored the essentials. All commandments are the Word of God and all are important; but there is a hierarchy in the commandments. The Lord Jesus Christ revealed this hierarchy when He affirmed that there is a first and greatest commandment: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. This commandment is not the first in order alone, but in importance.
The most important thing about God’s law is that we love God and each other. When we read the Bible and meditate on its meaning, we must seek the essence. Every verse, every chapter of the Bible has an essence, a message addressed to our hearts. Instead of prowling the shores, circling the Word, and getting lost in the complexity of hard-to-interpret areas, let’s look for the essence. What does the Lord tell me here? How can I apply this commandment to my life? What must the Lord change in me?