• Home
  • News
    • Great Reset
      • New World Order
      • WEF
    • US and World New’s
      • Politics and Corruption
  • Science
    • A.I.
    • CERN
    • Prophecy of Enoch, Fallen Angles, God, Creation Mysteries And More!
    • Science Commentary
    • Space Travel | Outer Worlds
    • Tech
  • Theological
    • Biblical Video Studies
      • Basic Bible Topics
      • Colossians
      • End Times
      • Ruth
    • Devotionals/Bible Studies
    • Blogs-Commentary
    • FCBBI
      • Book of Daniel
    • My Commentary
    • Pastoral Sermons
      • Podcast
      • Sermon Of The Month
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
Sunday, June 8, 2025
Christians Do Matter
  • Home
  • News
    • Great Reset
      • New World Order
      • WEF
    • US and World New’s
      • Politics and Corruption
  • Science
    • A.I.
    • CERN
    • Prophecy of Enoch, Fallen Angles, God, Creation Mysteries And More!
    • Science Commentary
    • Space Travel | Outer Worlds
    • Tech
  • Theological
    • Biblical Video Studies
      • Basic Bible Topics
      • Colossians
      • End Times
      • Ruth
    • Devotionals/Bible Studies
    • Blogs-Commentary
    • FCBBI
      • Book of Daniel
    • My Commentary
    • Pastoral Sermons
      • Podcast
      • Sermon Of The Month
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • Register
  • Home
  • News
    • Great Reset
      • New World Order
      • WEF
    • US and World New’s
      • Politics and Corruption
  • Science
    • A.I.
    • CERN
    • Prophecy of Enoch, Fallen Angles, God, Creation Mysteries And More!
    • Science Commentary
    • Space Travel | Outer Worlds
    • Tech
  • Theological
    • Biblical Video Studies
      • Basic Bible Topics
      • Colossians
      • End Times
      • Ruth
    • Devotionals/Bible Studies
    • Blogs-Commentary
    • FCBBI
      • Book of Daniel
    • My Commentary
    • Pastoral Sermons
      • Podcast
      • Sermon Of The Month
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
No Result
View All Result
Christians Do Matter
No Result
View All Result
Home Theological Blogs-Commentary

Love and Fulfilling the Law

John MacArthur by John MacArthur
in Blogs-Commentary
Reading Time: 5 mins read
299 16
A A
The Kind Of Church God Wants

The Kind Of Church God Wants

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

What does a holy, God-honoring life look like?

To answer that question, we need to consider one particular altercation between Jesus and the Pharisees. Matthew records one of the religious leaders attempting to trap the Lord with a trick question. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” (Matthew 22:36). It seems their plan was to pin Him down on one of the hundreds of ceremonial laws and rituals they had heaped on the people of Israel, only to contest whatever He said. They believed they possessed the superior knowledge of God’s law. They were wrong.

Jesus replied with a quote from the Mosaic law. “‘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 foremost commandment” (Matthew 22:37–38). He was quoting from Deuteronomy 6:4–9 (specifically verse 5), a key passage of the law that links love for God with obedience, and which also figured prominently in the customs and ceremonies the Pharisees had instituted. Once again, He was contrasting the emptiness of their pious rituals with the comprehensive, full-orbed love God commands from His people.

But Christ doesn’t stop there. He says, “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:39). Again, He’s pointing back to the Mosaic law—this time, to Leviticus 19 and God’s commands regarding the way His people were supposed to behave toward one another, and to strangers.

Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the Lord your God. You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. You shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to profane the name of your God; I am the Lord. You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him.

The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning. You shall not curse a deaf man, nor place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall revere your God; I am the Lord. You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly. You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor; I am the Lord. You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord. . . . When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.

You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measurement of weight, or capacity. You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin; I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt. You shall thus observe all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them; I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19:9–18, 33–37)

God wove those specific provisions into His law to protect His people from themselves—to keep them from defrauding each other or leaving each other destitute. If you think about it, that’s really the purpose for laws—to protect us from one another.

The truth is, if we could truly love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and if we could faithfully, graciously, and sacrificially love our neighbor as ourselves, we wouldn’t need laws—we’d be living holy lives. Like Christ concluded in Matthew 22:40, “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” All of God’s commands, both the spiritual and moral duties He has given to us, are fulfilled in our comprehensive love for Him and our faithful love for our neighbors.

Paul picks up this same idea in Romans.

Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:8–10)

Reading that, it’s easy to see how that kind of love is missing in the human heart today. How our society runs in the opposite direction, with people demanding their own rights and privileges without a thought for one another, much less any consideration of God.

In a world of selfishness, greed, inequity, and injustice, believers need to be set apart by their consuming love for God, and their sacrificial love for others. That’s the kind of holy living that brings salt and light to this dark, decaying world.

Signature John
Previous Post

The Church and Rational Truth

Next Post

The Church and Integrity

John MacArthur

John MacArthur

John MacArthur is the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, as well as an author, conference speaker, chancellor of The Master’s University and Seminary, and featured teacher with the Grace to You media ministry. After graduating from Talbot Theological Seminary, John came to Grace Community Church in 1969. The emphasis of his pulpit ministry is the careful study and verse-by-verse exposition of the Bible, with special attention devoted to the historical and grammatical background behind each passage. Under John’s leadership, Grace Community Church’s two morning worship services fill the three-thousand-seat auditorium to capacity. Several thousand members participate every week in dozens of fellowship groups and training programs, most led by lay leaders and each dedicated to equipping members for ministry on local, national, and international levels. In 1985, John became president of The Master’s College (formerly Los Angeles Baptist College; since 2016, The Master’s University). Located in Santa Clarita, California, it is a distinctly Christian, accredited, liberal arts institution offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs. In 1986, John founded The Master’s Seminary, a graduate school dedicated to training men for full-time pastoral and missionary work. John is also chairman and featured teacher with Grace to You. Founded in 1969, Grace to You is the nonprofit organization responsible for developing, producing, and distributing John’s books, audio resources, and the Grace to You radio and television programs. Grace to You radio airs more than a thousand times daily throughout the English-speaking world, reaching major population centers with biblical truth. It also airs over a thousand times a day in Spanish, reaching twenty-seven countries across Europe and Latin America. Grace to You television airs weekly on DirecTV in the United States, and is available for free on the Internet worldwide. John’s 3,300-plus sermons, spanning more than five decades of ministry, are available for free download on this website. John has written hundreds of study guides and books, including The Gospel According to Jesus, Our Sufficiency in Christ, Strange Fire, Ashamed of the Gospel, The Murder of Jesus, The Prodigal Son, Twelve Ordinary Men, The Truth War, The Jesus You Can’t Ignore, Slave, One Perfect Life, The Gospel According to Paul, Parables, and One Faithful Life. John’s books have been translated into more than two dozen languages. The MacArthur Study Bible, the cornerstone resource of his ministry, is available in English (NKJ, NAS, and ESV), Spanish, Russian, German, French, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic, and Chinese. In 2015 The MacArthur New Testament Commentary was completed. In thirty-four volumes, John takes you detail by detail, verse by verse, through the entire New Testament. John and his wife, Patricia, live in Southern California and have four married children: Matt, Marcy, Mark, and Melinda. They also enjoy the enthusiastic company of their fifteen grandchildren.

Next Post
Guarding Your Mind and Emotions

The Church and Integrity

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Categories

Recent Posts

  • Masonic 33rd Degree Knowledge The Hidden Knowledge Elites Has Suppressed for 300 Years.
  • Ancient Aliens The Great Egyptian Pharaohs and Gods.
  • Who was REALLY Running the Country under Biden Glenn Beck
  • FBI Arrest Shocks The Nation
  • BREAKING US Receives Nuclear Warning Russia Iran Update

Pages

  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Login/Registration
  • Sign In
  • Register
Masonic 33rd Degree Knowledge The Hidden Knowledge
New World Order

Masonic 33rd Degree Knowledge The Hidden Knowledge Elites Has Suppressed for 300 Years.

Are these great Pharaohs and Gods from an extraterrestrial background?
Mythology or Truth

Ancient Aliens The Great Egyptian Pharaohs and Gods.

Who was REALLY Running the Country under Biden Glenn Beck
Politics and Corruption

Who was REALLY Running the Country under Biden Glenn Beck

FBI Arrest Shocks The Nation - Kash Patel Warns What's Coming Next
Politics and Corruption

FBI Arrest Shocks The Nation

Welcome Back!

OR

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

OR

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Great Reset
      • New World Order
      • WEF
    • US and World New’s
      • Politics and Corruption
  • Science
    • A.I.
    • CERN
    • Prophecy of Enoch, Fallen Angles, God, Creation Mysteries And More!
    • Science Commentary
    • Space Travel | Outer Worlds
    • Tech
  • Theological
    • Biblical Video Studies
      • Basic Bible Topics
      • Colossians
      • End Times
      • Ruth
    • Devotionals/Bible Studies
    • Blogs-Commentary
    • FCBBI
      • Book of Daniel
    • My Commentary
    • Pastoral Sermons
      • Podcast
      • Sermon Of The Month
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy