FIRST QUARTER 2025
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #12
MARCH 22, 2025
"LOVE AND JUSTICE: THE TWO GREATEST COMMANDMENTS."

 

Love and justice, the two greatest commandments, and the two greatest sins are our topics for consideration this week.

The Two Greatest Commandments

Our Creator God is the source and sustainer of all life.  God is love, and faith that works by love is foundational to His government.  When the lawyer inquired which was the greatest commandment, Jesus replied, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it.  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40, NKJV throughout).

Since the two greatest commandments are loving God supremely and loving one another, our lesson suggested that the two greatest sins are idolatry (failure to love and worship God) and oppression of our fellow human beings (failure to love others).

The Sin of Idolatry

Idolatry was a continual snare for the children of Israel.  Rather than being a consistent witness as to the blessings that accompanied the worship of their Creator and Redeemer, the chosen people were prone to follow the idolatrous practices of the surrounding nations.  

What was (and still is) the lure of idolatry?  Idolatry is creature worship.  “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands (Psalm 135:15).  Paul speaks of those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.  “Professing to be wise they became fools and… exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever” (Romans 1:22-25).  

When the prophet Samuel rebuked Saul for disobeying God’s command to destroy all the Amalekites and all that belonged to them, Saul justified his actions.  Saul’s rejection of the word of the Lord resulted in his loss of the kingship.  “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry” (1 Samuel 15:23).  The Hebrew word translated stubbornness here has also been translated arrogance, presumption, insubordination, disobedience, defiance, or being proud.  Idolatry is thus identified with pride which originated with Lucifer.  We are told that “self-idolatry lies at the foundation of all sin.”—Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 9, p. 27.  

The sin of pride, also identified as self-sufficiency, is addressed in the following Signs of the Times article.  Praise God, the article addresses not only the disease but also the cure.

“The most hopeless, the most incurable of all sins is pride, self-sufficiency.  This sin stands in the way of all advancement, all growth in grace.  It has caused the ruin of thousands and thousands of souls.  A man may be a great sinner but if he realizes that he has sinned against God, if he repents and confesses his sin, and strives to make restitution for the past, he will receive forgiveness.  God declares, ‘Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.’  His promise to the contrite, repentant soul is, ‘Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’

“But when a man is so filled with self-sufficiency that he cannot see his faults, how can he be cleansed from sin?  ‘They that be whole need not a physician.’  How can a man improve when he thinks his ways perfect?  Self-sufficiency was the ruin of the leaders of Israel.  They did not come to Christ, because they did not think they needed a Savior.  They refused to admit that they cherished sins which needed to be repented of and forsaken.

“Many, many Christians are lacking in power because they are self-sufficient, because they do not feel the need of an abiding Christ. They suffer great loss; and the world, in need of their testimony, also suffers great loss.  Lying in the darkness of error, the world needs the light which those who claim to love and serve God, should reflect.  But many who stand as witnesses of the Savior exalt self.  Jesus is hidden by poor, selfish humanity.  The world does not see the pure, holy example that should be a bright and shining light amid its darkness.

“Some feel that in their Christian experience they have need of nothing more, that they are ‘rich and increased with goods.’  Could they see themselves as God sees them, they would acknowledge that they are ‘wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked.’  To such the True Witness says, ‘I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire,’—the gold of faith and love, —'that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment,’—the robe of Christ’s righteousness, —’that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness does not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see.’ 

“Let no one who reads this description become discouraged and say, ‘If this is my condition, I can never be an acceptable witness for Christ.’  Take the Word of God, and search its pages as never before, that you may learn what it means to be a Christian.  You need not be discouraged; for the One who died to save you declares, ‘Ye shall receive power,’—power to overcome self and selfishness, power to reveal Christ as He is, full of grace and truth.

“In order to work for God successfully, we must die to self, surrendering all to God.  In words of great tenderness, Christ invites us, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’  When you respond to this invitation, when you learn what it means to find rest by lifting the cross and bearing it after the Lord, you will be true witnesses for Him.  But until this lesson is learned, self will appear, and Jesus will be kept in the background.

“Come to Christ, and His gentleness and love will break down the harsh, cold selfishness that prevents you from revealing Him to the world.  Your hasty temper will be subdued, your pride expelled.  Jesus will fill your heart with His gentleness, His patience, His love.  Then you can lift Him up before sinners.  Working with Him, you will lose all thought of self.  For His dear sake you will be willing to endure shame and reproach.

“The Lord says, ‘Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God.’  ‘Then will l sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.’”—Ellen G. White, “The Crucifixion of Self,” Signs of the Times, April 9, 1902.

Failing to Love Others- Selfishness

Ellen White was given a view of the judgment.  She records, “The great day of the execution of God’s judgment seemed to have come.” —Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 4, p. 384.  She goes on to detail the opening of the books and what the books contained.  “Another book was opened, wherein were recorded the sins of those who profess the truth. Under the general heading of ‘Selfishness’ came every other sin.”—Ibid.

In the book Ministry of Healing, in the chapter entitled “Helping the Tempted,” our lack of love and concern for those in great need is addressed.  

“How little do we enter into sympathy with Christ on that which should be the strongest bond of union between us and Him—compassion for depraved guilty, suffering souls, dead in trespasses and sins!  The inhumanity of man toward man is our greatest sin.  Many think that they are representing the justice of God while they wholly fail of representing His tenderness and His great love.  Often the ones whom they meet with sternness and severity are under the stress of temptation.  Satan is wrestling with these souls, and harsh, unsympathetic words discourage them and cause them to fall a prey to the tempter’s power.”—Ellen G. White, Ministry of Healing, p. 163.

I find it very convicting that “the inhumanity of man toward man” here refers, not to appalling acts of cruelty which have been committed throughout the ages, but to the professed Christian’s lack of Christlike compassion and failure to cooperate with God in the saving of souls.

A rich young ruler came to Jesus and inquired, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  After pointing out to the young man that God alone is good (humanity’s only hope is found in God’s goodness which Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to reveal and impart), Jesus recited five of the Decalogue’s commandments.  The young ruler confidently replied that he had kept these since his youth.  “Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me’” (Mark 10:17-21).

Part with all his accumulated wealth?  The young ruler thought the price too high.  “He was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions” (Mark 10:22).  He chose the deceitfulness of earthly riches rather than the enduring heavenly treasure.

Though the rich young ruler claimed to have kept the law he was a commandment breaker.  He worshiped other gods.  His heart clung to his idols.  He trusted in his wealth and status.  He refused the rest that Jesus, the giver of everything needful for this life and the life to come, offered.  Covetousness kept him from representing God’s character of love.   

“Whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10).

“Christ read the ruler’s heart.  Only one thing he lacked, but that was a vital principle.  He needed the love of God in the soul.  This lack, unless supplied, would prove fatal to him; his whole nature would become corrupted.  By indulgence, selfishness would strengthen.  That he might receive the love of God, his supreme love of self must be surrendered. —Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 519.

Idolatry, pride, selfishness, bearing false witness, desecrating the fourth commandment, covetousness, failure to do the good we might have done (James 4:17) —sin is ultimately choosing the lie and rejecting the Life Giver, the only source of life and happiness.  Sin is unbelief (Romans 1:17, 14:23).

Love and Justice

Our unrenewed natures do not love God or others.  We are full of self-love.  “We are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6).   As Romans 3:23 points out, every one of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  

But good news immediately follows.  We are “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ” (Romans 3:24).  “Who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:25).

On Thursday’s section of this week’s lesson the author shares the following:  “In direct contrast to the enemy, who grasped for power and sought to usurp God’s throne, Jesus lowered Himself and identified with those under sin, injustice, and oppression (without being infected by sin), and He defeated the enemy by giving Himself in love in order to establish justice as the One who is just and the Justifier of all who believe.”

It is at the foot of the cross where we find justice and mercy.  Here we behold agape.

“The sacrifice of Christ as an atonement for sin is the great truth around which all other truths cluster.  In order to be rightly understood and appreciated, every truth in the Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, must be studied in the light that streams from the cross of Calvary.  I present before you the great, grand monument of mercy and regeneration, salvation, and redemption—the Son of God uplifted on the cross.”—Ellen G. White, Gospel Workers, p. 315.

To prepare and equip His church to fulfill His glorious purpose, to have a people whose law of love would be written on their hearts, “The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders Waggoner and Jones.  This message was to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Savior, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.  It presented justification through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God.  Many had lost sight of Jesus. They needed to have their eyes directed to His divine person, His merits, and His changeless love for the human family.  All power is given into His hands, that He may dispense rich gifts unto men, imparting the priceless gift of His own righteousness to the helpless human agent.  This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world.  It is the third angel’s message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure.”—Ellen G. White, Manuscript Releases, Vol. 14, p. 128.

All our plans, programs, time, money, and best efforts cannot make us good people who live only to do right by others and give glory to God.  But we need not despair.  We have a precious Savior who cleanses from the leprosy of sin.  Loving God with all our hearts, souls, and minds, and loving our neighbor as ourselves will be the fruit of receiving the righteousness of Christ, the faith of Jesus.

“In the story of the good Samaritan, Jesus gave a picture of Himself and His mission.  Man had been deceived, bruised, robbed, and ruined by Satan, and left to perish; but the Savior had compassion on our helpless condition.  He left His glory, to come to our rescue.  He found us ready to die, and He undertook our case.  He healed our wounds.  He covered us with His robe of righteousness.  He opened to us a refuge of safety, and made complete provision for us at His own charges.  He died to redeem us.  Pointing to His own example, He says to His followers, ‘These things I command you, that ye love one another.’ ‘As I have loved you, that ye also love one another’ (John 15:17; 13:34).”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 503.

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:7-11).

~Martha Ruggles