Speaker 1: Most of us eat every day, some of us too
much because yesterday's food is not enough to supply energy
for today's needs. Why then, do some of us expect
yesterday's portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to
keep us through today's challenges. On this program, we are
going to change all of that. Let's experience God's words
today and receive the power we need to live healthy,
vibrant lives. Welcome to Your Daily Portion with your host,
author speaker, Elle David Harris.
Speaker 2: Good morning, good morning, good morning, it is Sunday. It's
March sixteen, twenty twenty five. Hello, my name is El
David Harris. I am your host, and this is your
Daily Portion where we give you God's word every single day,
and today is no exception. We are continuing in our
Lesson study series, God's Love and Justice, and our caption
for today is the two Greatest Commandments. I've been waiting
to get to that Two Greatest Commandments. We'll get into
that in just a moment, but first I'd like to
say welcome to you and ask you to go over
to your Daily Portion dot com. Please join our online community.
Please please pick up the Your Daily Portion companion guide.
This will determine whether we continue into the next quarter
with it. Okay, and also please let us know where
you are in the world at your Daily Portion dot com.
This is one of the ways that we continue to
build faith and fellowship. Let's go ahead and pray, and
then we will get underway. Father, we do thank you
this day for giving us your holy spirit. Thank you
for giving us the opportunity to hear from you. How
you see the commandments that you have given to us.
Please help us to live those principles in Jesus name.
I pray Amen and Amen again, the two greatest commandments. Okay.
And so I'm going to read just a paragraph from
the lesson writer and then go right into the scriptures
to reflect on what we might do individually and corporately
to advance God's love and justice in our world. It
is appropriate to begin by focusing on what God has
commanded us. And this is apropos. This is appropriate because
I did say to you that judgment and justice in
the scriptures almost all of the time, not one hundred
percent of the time, actually means righteousness. So where you
see judgment or justice is righteousness. Of course, we could
get technical about it, and I understand why you would
want to do that if you understand these texts. However,
if that's the case, and God's justice is in question,
then the righteousness is measured by what standard? How do
we know what is just or righteous? Of course we
need the commandments for this. The Commandments, the ten Commandments
are a transcript of God's character, okay, if we were
to make it simple, a transcript of God's character. And
they are understood in two very clear principles. And now
we go to the Bible Book of Matthew, chapter twenty two,
and I will read beginning at verse thirty four Matthew
chapter twenty two, and I'll read beginning at verse thirty four,
and the Bible reads, But when the Pharisees had heard
that he had put the Sadducees to silence. Of course,
there's this argument about whether there is or is not
a resurrection right, and so they're arguing about that. They
are gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer,
asked him a question, tempting him, saying, Master, which is
the great commandment in the law. And Jesus said, unto him,
thou shalt love thy God, with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This
is the first and great commandment, and the second is
like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two hang all the law and the prophets.
And so the first four commandments have to do with
loving God with everything we have and everything that we are.
The final six commandments have to do with loving God
and humanity. I know sometimes people make it seem as
if the final six only have to do with loving humans.
But we cannot love God without loving humans for real,
for real, we can't actually love humans without loving without
loving God. Okay, and so, but you can see the
relational element where humans are concerned in the final six.
Love for God, love for other human beings. This is
how it's broken down. But I do like the transition
here after Jesus talks to them about or really teaches
them about the commandment, that is to love God with everything.
Let me ask you a question. Is it a miracle
or is it easy? Is it something that just happens
because we make a decision to love God. I'm saying,
of course it's a miracle, because we were born hostile
toward God, born in sin, shapen in iniquity. Okay, So
I want you to keep that in mind. As he
makes the transition, he says, the second is like unto it.
And then of course he says what we said already.
So in the same way that it is miraculous that
we need power outside of ourselves to love God, we
need that same power. It is miraculous to love ourselves.
And you're like, Dave, you just made a mistake. Did
you hear what you just said? I heard what I
just said? Because the Bible says that we are to
love our neighbors as ourselves. Well, the problem is that
too few people love God enough to value ourselves according
to his principles. This is why we sometimes say bad words.
This is why we entertain ourselves with things that actually
rip down our characters, which were to be patterned after
the character of God. This is why there's so much
in the news about all kinds of creepy, crazy, nasty
things that people in the entertainment and political scenes are
doing to people and have cameras running, and all kinds
of drugs and alcohol moving in people's lives. Because human
beings naturally disrespect God and disrespect ourselves. But if we
experience the miracle of grace. Somebody put grace in the chat.
If we experience the miracle of grace, then we begin
to love God miraculously, and by extension, we are able
to love ourselves. This means now we can love our
neighbor in the way that fulfills that second and great commandment.
That is like unto the first. I hope that made sense.
I hope it made sense. And so really, Jesus revealed
the vertical relationship the love of God as primary, also
the horizontal relationship among people, and it's equally essential. All
other commandments flow from these two commandments. Love is the
foundation of all true obedience. I said true obedience. Some
people say that you can keep the law all you want,
but it doesn't mean that you whatever are going to
be saved. And it's just like pause. That means that
you don't understand the law. You can attempt to do
it and outwardly maybe perform some things that seem like
it's law keeping, but in reality, if a person is
actually keeping the law of God, it is only because
the law of the New Covenant is in our lives.
I will write my laws in your hearts and on
your minds, so that you can actually do the commandments.
If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And
so there is no true commandment keeper that does not
love God. There is no true quote me. There is
no true commandment keeper that does not love God. Everybody
else is a fraud. Everybody else is attempting to keep
the law. But true law keepers are those who love God.
I wish I had the time to really get into
the final chapter Matthew Chapter nineteen, verses sixteen through twenty three,
But of course we want to see the intersection of
that principle in those passages from the lesson we see
from the book Desire of Ages, page five hundred and twenty.
Christ made the only terms which could place ruler where
he would perfect a Christian character. His words were words
of wisdom, though they appeared severe and exacting, and accepting
and obeying them was the ruler's only hope of salvation
and the same as the reality for us. Make it
a great day, peace. Thanks for joining us listening.
Speaker 1: Friends, Always remember we cannot live by bread alone, but
by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
This has been your daily portion with El David Harris.
Make it a great day. Yeah,