Latest / Reformed Thinking / Love Your Neighbor as Yourself, for This Is the Law and the Prophets | John Piper

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Love Your Neighbor as Yourself, for This Is the Law and the Prophets | John Piper · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking, where we seek to understand
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  God's Word more clearly and live by His truth more fully.
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  Greetings to you, our listener. This is the deep dive where we
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  take a stack of sources, articles, research your own
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  notes, and try to unearth the most relevant insights.
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  We aim to give you a shortcut to being well informed.
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  Today we're diving into something really central, the
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  very core of God's revealed will.
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  We're focusing on what Jesus himself called the greatest
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  commandments. Our material for this comes
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  mainly from excerpts of John Piper's All That Jesus
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  Commanded, specifically a section called Love Your
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  Neighbor as Yourself, for This is the Law and the Prophets.
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  And we've also got a set of notes that kind of distill the
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  key ideas. Yeah, and what's really gripping
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  here is how these texts, these passages, they bring the main
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  purposes of all Scripture into such sharp focus.
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  Our mission today really is to unpack how love, this dual love
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  towards God and towards neighbor, how it stands as both
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  the source, the origin, and the ultimate aim of the entire Old
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  Testament. We'll try to connect the dots
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  between what Jesus says in Matthew 22 and then later in
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  Matthew 7. We want to see how they reveal
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  these foundational principles that, well, God's whole
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  deductive plan seems to rest on. It's like looking at the
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  blueprint. OK, let's dive right in then
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  let's unpack this using Jesus's own words.
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  We're in Matthew chapter 22 starting around verse 36.
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  So the scene is a lawyer, someone who really knew the
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  Mosaic Law comes up to Jesus and he has this question, teacher,
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  which is the great commandment in the law.
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  You can sense he's testing Jesus here.
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  Right, seeing if he understands the weight, the hierarchy within
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  the law. Exactly, and Jesus first
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  response. It just sets this absolute
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  standard, no messing around. He says You shall love the Lord
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  your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
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  your mind. And he immediately calls this
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  the great and 1st Commandment. Just pause on that for a second.
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  Out of hundreds of commands in the law, everything from food
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  laws to sacrifices, he picks this one.
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  The absolute top, the supreme command.
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  The Supreme 1. So it's not just important, it's
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  the first and greatest. It signals this complete
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  devotion, doesn't it? Your whole being, heart, soul,
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  mind oriented towards. God, total allegiance, Yeah.
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  But here's where it gets really interesting.
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  I think the lawyer only asked for one right, which is the
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  great commandment, Singular. But Jesus, he then voluntarily
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  adds. And a second is like it.
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  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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  He wasn't asked for a second one.
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  He volunteers it, which is telling in itself.
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  Very telling. And that phrase is like it.
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  That's significant, isn't it? It suggests they're, well,
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  similar in nature, maybe even close in rank.
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  It elevates the second command dramatically.
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  He's linking them together intentionally.
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  It's not an afterthought. He wants us to see them as a
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  pair. Like two sides of the same coin
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  almost. He didn't just answer the
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  question, he expanded it to show the full picture of what God
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  requires. And that really prompts the
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  question, doesn't it? Why did he add that second
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  command without being prompted? It seems to show he really
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  wanted to emphasize the centrality the the wide reach of
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  these two ideas together. He's pushing them forward as the
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  core. Making sure we don't miss the
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  connection. Exactly.
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  He elevates the second one so high, saying it's like the
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  first, creating this kind of inseparable pairing.
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  It suggests the first command, loving God finds it's genuine
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  expression. It's proof in the second.
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  OK. And then he finishes with a
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  statement that covers both of them, verse 40.
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  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the prophets.
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  Now that is a statement. It goes way beyond just saying
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  these are two important rules. He's talking about the core, the
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  source, the entire design of God's plan and Word as we have
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  it in the Old Testament. So when he says the Law and the
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  prophets, what exactly does that cover?
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  Well, it's generally understood, and the source points this out
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  referencing Luke 24, that it means the whole Testament, you
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  know, where Jesus explains the scriptures concerning himself,
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  starting with Moses. That's the law and all the
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  prophets. So Genesis to Malachi,
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  everything written before he came.
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  An entire thing. The entire thing.
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  So he's saying all of that revelation, every story, every
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  law, every prophecy it finds, its source, its structure, its
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  support. It depends on these two
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  commands. Depends on them like you're
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  holding it all up. That's the picture, yeah.
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  It's an amazing claim, really, coming from Jesus himself.
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  He's giving us insight into the divine origin, the divine design
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  of God's entire plan and word up to that point.
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  It suggests that without these two commands at the foundation,
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  the whole Old Testament structure kind of loses its
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  coherence, its meaning. They aren't just a summary.
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  They're the pillars. OK, let's shift slightly to that
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  second command then. Love your neighbor as yourself.
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  Our source uses some strong language here, calling it
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  overwhelming and staggering. What makes it so, so much more
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  than just, you know, being nice to people?
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  Well, the source really pushes the idea of the intensity
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  required. It's about this incredibly deep
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  empathy and identification. It uses this, this really vivid
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  image, almost graphic, saying It's like demanding you tear the
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  skin off my body and wrap it around another person so that I
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  feel that I am that other person.
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  Wow, that's intense. It's not literal, obviously, but
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  it conveys a certain depth of feeling, doesn't it?
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  It does. It's painting a picture of
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  radical empathy. And it goes on to say this love
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  means feeling all the longings that I have for my own safety
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  and health and success and happiness for that other person
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  as though he were me. OK, so if I really loved my
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  neighbor as myself, their safety would matter as much as mine.
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  Their success would genuinely make me happy like my own
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  success does. Precisely.
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  It's not just about being polite or doing good deeds
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  occasionally. It's about a fundamental
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  reorientation of your desires, your concerns towards the other
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  person's well-being, almost as if it were your own.
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  That level of identification, putting their needs and desires
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  on par with or even ahead of your own consistently.
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  Yeah. Yeah, I can see why the source
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  calls it staggering. It goes against our natural
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  grain. Absolutely.
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  And that leads directly to the next point the source makes.
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  How on earth can a fallen human being, someone naturally
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  inclined towards self-interest, actually do that?
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  The text calls it an absolutely staggering commandment for
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  exactly that reason. It requires something massive,
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  something unbelievably powerful and earth shaking and
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  reconstructing and overturning and upending inside us.
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  So it's not just trying harder, it's needing a fundamental
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  mental change within. That's the argument.
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  The source flat out calls this kind of love supernatural.
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  It says it's far beyond what self preserving, self enhancing,
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  self exalting fallen human beings like me can do on their
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  own right. It really highlights our natural
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  bent towards ourselves, self focus, self advancement, to
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  genuinely feel for and pursue another's good as intensely as
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  our own as well. It's a reversal of our fallen
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  nature. Implying it requires God's help
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  divine intervention. Essentially, yes.
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  It suggests an internal revolution, a remaking of the
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  soul that only God can bring about.
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  Without that deep internal change, this kind of love
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  remains an impossible ideal. So loving God is the 1st and
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  greatest command, the internal orientation, and loving
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  neighbors the second like it, and it shows the reality of that
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  first command outwardly. That seems to be the connection.
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  While loving God is supreme, the way we love our neighbor
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  demonstrates the genuineness of that heart change God is looking
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  for. It proves the first command
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  isn't just theoretical. It makes it clear that this call
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  to love isn't some light suggestion.
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  It's a central, demanding spiritual reality that needs
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  God's power to be lived out. It's evidence of grace at work.
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  OK, let's just circle back for a moment to make sure we're clear
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  on the law and the prophets, he said refers to the Old
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  Testament. The source emphasizes this
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  points to the whole Old Testament scriptures using that
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  Luke 24 passage where Jesus interprets everything from Moses
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  through the prophets concerning himself.
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  Right. It's the entire body of inspired
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  revelation given before Jesus came.
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  It's the foundation, the context, the whole story leading
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  up to the New Covenant. So when Jesus says this entire
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  body of work depends on loving God and loving neighbor, what's
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  the deeper significance of that dependence?
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  Well, connecting it to the bigger picture, Jesus is saying
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  the whole spope of God's written word and his redemptive acts in
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  the Old Testament era were fundamentally designed around
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  these two purposes. It tells us the Old Testament
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  isn't just a jumble of history, laws and prophecies.
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  It's a unified story, a divine narrative with a consistent
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  underlying goal or intention. So every part of it somehow
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  connects back to loving God and loving neighbor.
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  That's the claim. These two commands are like the
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  interpretive key. They reveal the coherence, the
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  singular aim behind everything God inspired to be written and
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  everything he did in that period.
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  It wasn't random. It was orchestrated with these
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  loves as the foundation. OK, so let's explore that idea
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  of dependence more. Matthew 22.4 on these two
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  commandments depend. The source gives this really
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  vivid analogy, calling it a window into heaven.
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  Yeah, it's a powerful image. It asks us to picture the whole
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  sweep of God's redemptive history from creation right
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  through to the end, including the Law and prophets, even the
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  New Testament implicitly. Imagine it all written on a huge
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  scroll. The scroll contains everything.
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  God's actions, His purposes, His commands, His promises, a whole.
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  Story of salvation. Right.
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  And then viewing this from heaven, we see this massive
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  scroll isn't just sitting there, it's hanging by two golden
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  chains. It's completely dependent on
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  something outside itself holding it up.
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  Suspended Reliant. Exactly.
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  And where are these chains attached?
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  This is the crucial part. They run up and disappear into
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  heaven, and they're fastened directly to the throne of God.
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  One chain has the inscription You shall love the Lord your God
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  with all your heart, the whole first command, and the other the
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  other chain reads You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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  This imagery suggests these aren't just commands given by
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  God. They represent God's own great
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  sovereign purposes that existed in His heart at His throne
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  before anything else. They are the foundation from
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  which His plans originate. So the entire history of
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  redemption, the whole Bible story, it all hangs on these two
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  purposes originating from God Himself.
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  That's the implication drawn by the Source.
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  The whole scroll, the whole law, and the prophets hang on these
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  two great sovereign purposes of God, that he be loved by his
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  creation and that they love each other as they love themselves.
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  The Source even pushes it further, suggesting maybe all of
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  creation and all the work of redemption, including the work
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  of Christ and all of history. Hang on these two great
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  purposes. Had a massive scope.
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  It is. It positions this dual love for
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  God and neighbor as the absolute origin, The Fountainhead and
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  spring from which the whole river of redemptive history
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  flows. It's the starting point, the
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  reason for everything God does. OK, so love is the origin and
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  foundation based on Matthew 22. Now let's turn to Matthew 7
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  verse 12, the Golden Rule. Jesus says so whatever you wish
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  that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the
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  law and the prophets. Here he seems to say that doing
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  the Golden Rule, which is about loving your neighbor, is the Law
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  and the Prophets. It sounds like he's summing it
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  all up in just the second command.
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  Right on the surface, it looks like he's boiling the Old
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  Testament down to neighborly love without mentioning love for
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  God explicitly in that verse. The source calls it a good
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  commentary on love your neighbor as you love yourself.
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  Yeah, it makes it practical, right?
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  Actionable. Exactly.
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  It gives a very concrete way to live out that second command.
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  How do you love your neighbor as yourself?
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  Well, think about how you want to be treated, and then do that
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  for others. It translates the principle into
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  everyday actions. But does this mean Jesus is
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  reducing everything to just human ethics, leaving God out of
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  the picture in the summary? That's a really important
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  question, and the source warns strongly against reading it that
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  way. That would make Jesus just
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  another ethics teacher detached from God.
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  But the key is that little word so or therefore at the very
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  beginning of Matthew 7.12. The connection to what came
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  before. Precisely.
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  It links the Golden Rule directly back to verses 7
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  through 11 where Jesus has just been talking about God as a
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  loving Father. You know, the one who gives good
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  gifts to those who ask him. He says, if you earthly fathers
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  know how to give good gifts, how much more will your Father in
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  heaven give good things? Therefore, treat others this
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  way. OK, so the context is crucial.
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  God's fatherly love and provision is the backdrop, the
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  enabler for keeping the Golden Rule.
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  That's the connection the source makes.
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  God is upholding the Golden Rule by his fatherly provision.
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  Our ability to live this way stems from our relationship with
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  Him, His love for us, our trust in Him.
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  It shows Jesus is always God saturated in his teaching.
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  Ethics are never separated from theology, from relationship with
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  the Father. The power to love others comes
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  from God. So living out the Golden Rule
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  isn't just being a good person in a secular sense, it's an
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  expression of something deeper connected to God.
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  Right. When people actually love like
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  that, when they live by the Golden Rule because of their
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  relationship with the Father, what you're seeing is the
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  visible expression of the aim of the Law and the prophets.
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  Their actions manifest openly and publicly and practically,
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  what the Old Testament is about. It's the fulfillment made
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  visible. How does that work?
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  Yeah. Does loving your neighbor
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  fulfill the whole thing, including loving God?
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  Well, think about it this way. Loving God is primarily an
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  invisible internal passion of the soul.
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  It's heart, soul, mind stuff. You can't directly see someone's
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  love for God, OK? It's internal.
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  But that internal passion, that love for God, it has to come out
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  somehow. It comes to expression when you
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  love others. Yeah.
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  So loving others becomes the outward manifestation, the
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  visible expression, the practical demonstration of that
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  internal love for God. And therefore it's the
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  fulfillment of loving God, and therefore the fulfillment of
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  what the Old Testament was aiming at.
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  I see. So the second command lived out
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  makes the first command visible. It's the proof, the evidence.
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  Exactly. In that sense, loving your
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  neighbor, especially as captured in the Golden Rule, is presented
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  as the visible goal of the whole Word of God.
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  It's what the whole Old Testament story was moving
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  towards, people visibly demonstrating God's love by
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  loving each other. OK, this is bringing things
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  together. So Matthew 22 shows love as the
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  origin, where the law and prophets depend on it, hang from
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  it. And Matthew 7 shows love,
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  specifically neighbor love, lived out as the goal, what the
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  law and profits are, and they're fulfilled visible expression.
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  Precisely 2 perspectives on the same reality.
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  Are they contradictory? The source says absolutely not.
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  They are complimentary. Matthew 22.40 reveals the
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  source, God's eternal purpose, The Fountainhead from which
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  everything flows. Love is the beginning, the why,
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  the why exactly. Then Matthew 7.12 reveals the
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  goal, the destination, the practical outcome that the Law
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  and prophets were always leading towards.
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  Love is the endpoint, the visible result.
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  Like a river starting from a spring and flowing to the ocean.
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  That's a great way to picture it.
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  The source summarizes it beautifully.
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  Love is the origin Matt 7.4 and the goal of the Law and the
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  prophets. It is the beginning and the end
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  of why God inspired the Bible. The whole story, from creation
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  to consummation, is rooted in God's purpose for humanity, to
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  love Him completely and love one another.
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  And crucially, these two loves aren't separate things.
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  Loving neighbor flows from loving God.
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  Yes, that's vital, the source says.
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  Loving neighbor is based on our love for God, and as the
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  overflow of it is what the Law and the prophets were aiming at,
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  they're intrinsically linked. You can't truly have one without
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  the other in the way God intends.
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  The invisible love for God must become visible in love for
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  neighbor. OK, so bringing this all home,
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  then, what are the implications for us, for you listening today?
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  The source concludes pretty directly.
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  Surely God's purpose is that we take this commandment with
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  tremendous seriousness. This isn't meant to be a minor
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  point of theology. No, it's central.
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  Utterly central. And it adds this challenge.
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  It would be wise, yeah, That we not assume we yet have seen the
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  fullness of what love is, or that it already has the
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  centrality in our lives that it should.
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  That's quite a call to humility and self examination, isn't it?
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  Don't assume you've got this love thing figured out or
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  perfectly implemented. Right.
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  It's a call to ongoing growth, ongoing reflection.
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  Are these two commands truly the operating system of our lives,
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  or just apps we run occasionally?
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  That's a good way to put it in this perspective.
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  It helps make sense of other parts of scripture too, right?
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  The source mentions Hosea 6.6. Yeah, the verse Jesus quotes.
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  I desire mercy or steadfast love and not sacrifice.
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  It shows that even within the Old Testament itself, God was
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  always pointing beyond just the external rituals, the sacrifices
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  to the heart attitude to this heartfelt love commanded by
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  Jesus. So the ceremonies were meant to
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  lead to or express this love, not replace it.
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  Exactly. They pointed towards the deeper
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  reality. The call to love God and
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  neighbor isn't just a nice idea we've seen, it's supernatural.
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  It requires God to reshape us, to pull us out of our natural
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  self centeredness. It's the foundation, the origin,
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  and it's the goal of everything God is doing in history and
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  through Scripture. Wow, so understanding this
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  really shifts how you read the Bible, how you approach life.
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  It's not just a collection of rules, but a story driven by
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  God's purpose of love from start to finish.
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  The 2 greatest commandments. Loving God with everything.
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  Loving neighbor is yourself. They truly are the twin pillars
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  holding up God's entire redemptive plan, the source it
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  flows from and the goal it moves toward.
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  It really provides that ultimate framework and maybe this leaves
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  us with the questioned ponder for you listening, if all of
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  creation, all redemption, all history truly hangs on these
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  twin purposes of love. What's 1 practical, tangible way
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  this week? That you're invisible love for
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  God could become more visible and how you interact with the
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  people around you? How can the Origin fuel the goal
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  in your own life? That's a great question to take
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  away. Thank you for joining us for
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  this deep dive. Until next time, keep seeking
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  truth and applying it to your life.