We finished our last post with this statement and a question to ponder:
“Applying the principle of fence building, how might you see these two greatest commands of LOVE as a fence against idolatry, covetousness, defrauding patrons in business transactions, or yielding a first-come and hard-sought-after parking slot—any of the commands?”
The two highest commands are to love God with all one’s resources and to love others as oneself, to form a boundary against idolatry, fraud, covetousness, murder, and the like. If humanity would hold others above self, showing the same self-love and honoring God’s commands out of devotion, then the negative commands would become superfluous. In this way, love is the fence that guards against humanity’s slide into unrestrained lawlessness.
The Law and the Prophets, therefore, hang upon the fence of those highest commands that imbue love. This is why the rabbis, Yeshua, and Judaism as a whole always prioritize a life of imbued love:
“Shimon the Righteous was among the survivors of the Great Assembly. He used to say: ‘The world depends on three things—on Torah study, on the service [of God], and on kind deeds’” (Pirke Avot 1:2).
“Hillel says: ‘Be among the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving people, and bringing them closer to the Torah’” (Pirke Avot 1:12).
From the Tanakh, Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel quotes the prophet Zechariah (8:16):
“The world endures on three things—justice, truth, and peace, as it is said: ‘Truth and the verdict of peace are you to adjudicate in your gates’” (Pirke Avot 1:18).
Finally, Yeshua restates another precept by Rabbi Hillel, yet in the affirmative:
“So, whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 7:12).
Yet another protective fence? Not really. Yeshua sums up the Sermon on the Mount, saying that the “Golden Rule” IS the Law and Prophets. In other words, the Law and Prophets are consideration for others, putting God and others first as deeds of LOVE.
Blessings—
Thanks you my ever-encouraging friend! I am having a robust conversation with a friend on John 10:34 and the nature of the divine council. Is it a supernatural or natural council. I argue it is supernatural created beings but Yeshua is using a rabbinic principle of logic in his argument. I may write on this next.
Great bridging together the Old and New Testaments relating to love! I particularily found the way you latch rabbinic sources to Yeshua’s Word refreshing!
God Bless you, Kathy! You are an amazing writer and champion for our King!!!