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Intermediate Sunday School Lesson 135 : Which is the great commandment in the law?

Text: Matthew 22:34-40
9 February 2025

Topic: “Which is the great commandment in the law?”

34 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.
35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying,
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’
40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 22:34-40

ANOTHER ROUND OF ATTACK

1. The Sadducees had been silenced

2. The Pharisees now mounted the next attack

3. It was led by “a lawyer”

a) An expert in the Law of Moses
b) A Biblical scholar

THE QUESTION RAISED TO THE LORD JESUS

35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying,
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

Matthew 22:35-36

1. This was a tricky question to answer

2. Which is the great commandment?

THE TRAP LAID FOR THE LORD

1. The Jews had 316 commandments

2. A whole lot more than the 10 Commandments Exodus 20

3. Anyone chosen would have objections!

THE LORD’S BRILLIANT RESPONSE

37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’
40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 22:37-40

1. He cited The Shema of Israel

2. This was a prayer-call that every Jew recites every single day

3. Often more than once a day

4. It is taken from Deuteronomy 6:4

“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

a) To love the Lord God
b) This was truly the great commandment

THE LORD ADDED ANOTHER WORD

1. You shall love your neighbour as yourself Leviticus 19:18

2. This was something the Pharisees did not practise

THE SUMMATION OF THE LAW

On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets

Matthew 22:40

1. On these two commandments

2. All the commandments and teachings found in the Law and the Prophets hang

3. The Law and the Prophets

A common phrase to describe the Scriptures

OUR CHALLENGE

1. To love the Lord

2. To know the Scriptures better

3. To practise what we have learned