In Bible Class right now, we’re studying the Book of Revelation. Those who’ve been coming to class know that we’ve just covered chapter two, which begins Jesus’ letters to seven congregations in present day Turkey. To the congregation in Ephesus, Jesus commanded the Apostle John to write the following words. "I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. ³ You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. ⁴ Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. ⁵ Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place" (Re 2:2-5). They had "forsaken their first love." They had lost the zeal they once had for the Gospel. In speaking of the last days, Jesus said "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold" (Mt 24:12).

Today’s text calls on us to examine our hearts and our actions, and see where we stand in regard to God’s Greatest Commandment, to Love: 1. To Love God With All Our Heart, Soul, Mind And Strength, and 2. To Love Our Neighbor As Ourselves.

The Pharisees asked Jesus this question during the last week of his life. Before they killed him, they wanted to at least try to make him look like a fool and discredit him in front of his many listeners. As is almost always the case, their motive for wanting to tear down someone else was to try to make themselves look better. Don’t you find it just a little noteworthy, that the nastiest folks in town were the most outwardly religious people? The Pharisees were what we today would call "legalists"—people who look at religion and don’t see Jesus, and grace, and forgiveness and love at the center, or even at all, but only a bunch of rules and traditions that have to be slavishly followed.

The Pharisees looked at God as a lawgiver, and by their reckoning, God had given 613 commandments. In their zeal for rules and tradition they had even ranked those 613 commandments in order of importance. So what the Pharisees were really up to in asking Jesus what the greatest commandment was, was to try to make a fool of Jesus and trip him up. They were sure the people would see how uneducated and unspiritual he was as he discussed a topic he would surely not know as well as they.

But of course, Jesus knew what he was talking about. He’s God. He wrote the law. And Jesus knew that the commandments all begin with the heart, specifically the relationship a man’s heart has toward God—which is the exact opposite of legalism. Love God, who first loved you, and you’ll be able to love your neighbor too. That’s what the commandments are all about. Love God. Love his Word. Love his Son. Love what he has done for you. That’s where it all starts.

While the Pharisees had no idea at all what the love of God is all about, and therefore had no ability to love him back, Satan even tries to get Christians to fall into the same trap. And sadly he sometimes succeeds. The Ephesian Congregation Jesus spoke to in the book of Revelation had cooled in its first love. That tends to happen with everything after a while. If you’ve ever had a new car, you know what I mean. The first two months you guard it with your life. Three years and 12 scratches later, you don’t even bother to wash it too often. Sadly, Satan gets us to treat the Gospel that way.

God’s Word was no longer the number one priority of the Ephesians. Either they weren’t studying it too much any more, or they were studying it with their heads and not their hearts, like the Pharisees. Quite naturally, their love for God waned as well. They tired of God’s love, or they just took it for granted.

And what did Jesus say to them? He threatened to take their lampstand, i.e. their congregation away from them. Sadly, that eventually happened. Today, Ephesus is a site frequented only by archaeologists. There’s nothing left but ruins.

We need to learn from such mistakes. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. Remember what he has done for you. Remember that he sent is one and only Son to this world to be killed by hateful men, for our sins of hate and lovelessness. Don’t despise his sacrifice. Don’t despise his Son. Don’t despise his Word. If God’s Word has slipped from its rightful place at the very center of your life, repent. Change. Put it back where he belongs. Treasuring and studying God’s love is the only thing that will inspire us to love him more. And that’s also what will give us the ability to keep Jesus’ second great commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Love Your Neighbor As Yourself. Every day is filled with a thousand opportunities to do just that. How many of them don’t we miss, just because our hearts and souls and minds are not filled with the love of Christ. This month we conducted a secret experiment in "loving your neighbor as yourself" here at St. Matthew’s. How many noticed? How many failed the test. One of our Christian brothers proposed at the last council meeting that we try ushering people out of church for a month. He was concerned especially about the elderly communicants who sit in the front pew to take communion so they don’t have to negotiate the steps, and the kids who sit in the front when they sing.

The council—who by the way are worthy of our love and respect not only because they have been elected to their positions, or because they donate a great deal of their time to the church, not only because they are our brothers in the faith, but also simply because they are our neighbors, and the second greatest commandment is "love your neighbor as yourself."—the council reasoned that it was certainly worth trying for a month, because, after all, we’re not Pharisees who honor man made rules and traditions above God.

As it turned out, it was as much a test of the level of our love for our neighbor as it was a trial for a new ushering method. Sad to say, some failed the test miserably. They broke the eighth commandment, slandering the pastor and the council and even others on the sidewalks outside of church after the service. For shame! And that was hardly the first time such lovelessness has been displayed, not in the darkness, not in the privacy of our own homes—but proudly, and publicly and right at church.

God wants us to attract people to the kingdom through our words and actions. That’s our number one job. How many people haven’t we instead scared away from the church by such loveless words and actions through the years? ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

Our offerings are another opportunity for us to love God and others above ourselves. Obviously our offerings are a gauge of our love toward God, but they also show our love for our fellow Christians. And yet here we are in October once again, wondering if we’re going to be able to pay our bills, wondering if we’re going to have to cut programs from our new budget—not because we’re living in the depression, not because we’re all so poor that we’ve got holes in our shoes from walking to church and the soup kitchen and the outhouse, or growling stomachs from eating potato skin soup.

Does anybody really think we don’t have enough money in our congregation to comfortably pay all our bills, help reduce the high school’s indebtedness and send generous mission offerings to synod as well? If we all gave 10% of our income, we’d have enough money to advertise our church and school in the paper and on TV and a hundred other things we’re too small in our faith to even think about or pray for.

"But pastor, if I gave 10% of my income to the Lord, I might have to forgo steak once a month, or drive an older car. I’d have to really love my neighbor as much as myself." Exactly!

This is not little stuff. Jesus said to the Ephesians, "you have forsaken your first love. I will remove your lampstand from it’s place," i.e. I will take your congregation away and be done with it. Paul said, "If I have not love, I am nothing." "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." (1 Cor 13:2,4-7)

We need to repent of our lack of love—all of us. Not a one of us can claim he has kept this commandment the way our Lord wants us to. We have all been cold and indifferent toward God’s Word. We have all been angry and selfish and cold in our relationships with others. These sins have one very clearly spelled out penalty according to the Bible. They are death-penalty crimes.

Unlike us, Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Thank God Jesus kept God’s commandments for us—from the greatest to the least. Thank God Jesus died on the cross for our many, many sins against his two great commandments. Through faith in his holiness and his sacrificial death, we are forgiven.

But we’re not forgiven to go on sinning. We need to remember how horribly offensive our lack of love for our God and for our neighbor really is. If we take our forgiveness for granted then we need to fear the final judgment. The Epistle to the Hebrews says "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God." Hebrews 10:26,27

Are we like the Pharisees who want to rank sins in some arbitrary way? "Well, I haven’t had an extramarital affair. This love thing is just a petty matter". Then we need to pay close attention to Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees. These two commands are the sum of all 10 commandments put together.

May God lead us to search our hearts and truly ask for his forgiveness. He will truly grant it to all those who repent. Then may the Holy Spirit inspire us to amend our sinful lives. May he melt our stony hearts and give us of his love, so we can love him most, and love our neighbor too. Then the Holy Spirit will be freed to work noticeable spiritual growth in our midst. Amen.