Participants: Glenn Russell & Ranko Stefanovic (Host)
Series Code: MTBOTB
Program Code: MTBOTB000018B
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00:01 Welcome back, we're exploring the two great commandments
00:04 that Jesus explains 00:06 and declaresin Matthew, Chapter 22. 00:10 Ranko, you've, you've helped us understand a little bit 00:13 but I sense some more here. 00:15 And I also sense this is personal. 00:17 Yeah, Glenn, I hope that the viewers will notice 00:22 that I'm very charismatic about this 00:26 in talking bout this passage 00:28 because when I talk about my previous life, 00:32 um, I had hard time in loving people 00:36 and relating to people and actually, 00:39 God used this passage to change my own life. 00:44 That's why this passage is so much important to me 00:48 and I would like share 00:50 actually in dealing with this text I want to share 00:53 with the viewers how God changed my own life. 00:55 Glenn, you know, when we talked to department 00:57 usually I'm perceived by students to be a loving teacher 01:00 Actually, it happened about thirty years ago 01:03 they would not have such opinion about me. 01:05 I believe that God can change everybody, 01:08 God changed me 01:09 and dear viewers, I just want to tell you 01:12 if God was able to change me God can also change you. 01:17 All right, so we've explored the fact 01:19 that these two commandments are very much connected. 01:22 So Glenn, the first commandment, 01:24 I don't want now to talk too much about others, 01:27 because evidently Christians, 01:29 they try to have that right relationships with God 01:32 they're struggling, but we can notice 01:35 and I believe that the viewers will agree with me 01:37 that the problem that we have in our lives is how generally 01:43 to relate to other people. 01:45 These are struggles of all us. 01:46 How can I love my enemy? 01:48 How can I do the people 01:50 when they don't treat me justly etcetera? 01:52 How to practice it? 01:53 So let's try to see what we have in the text. 01:55 Ranko, you're implying that we even though we're convert, 01:59 even though we're baptized there're still some struggles. 02:02 There are strugglers 02:03 and genuine Christians are struggling with this. 02:05 Wherever I go people are asking me 02:07 many, many questions about how to apply, 02:10 how to put in-- 02:11 Scripture's realistic here. 02:12 Yes, so Glenn, let's go to the second commandment, 02:15 "you shall love your neighbor as yourself." 02:17 By the way if we go to the book, 02:19 to the, to James, 02:22 James, Chapter 2, verse 8. 02:25 He calls, "you shall love your neighbor as yourself, 02:27 as the royal commandment." 02:29 By the way, do you know, that several times 02:33 in the New Testament this royal commandment, 02:35 "you shall love your neighbor as yourself" 02:37 is repeated in New Testament. 02:38 Never the first four, only this. 02:41 Evidently this is what people are struggling about. 02:43 So let's go to that. 02:45 Glenn, you need now to help me. 02:47 You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 02:50 How many parts do you have in this commandment? 02:54 I don't want to put you on the spot. 02:55 It's 3 parts. 02:57 Which are the 3 parts? 02:58 The first part is the imperative. 03:00 I don't like to use the expression, command. 03:03 This is not command, imperative, you shall love. 03:06 The next one, the question is, 03:09 whom, whom shall I love? 03:11 The answer is, your neighbor 03:14 and the third part is how shall I love? 03:17 And the answer is, as you love yourself, 03:22 and I know that many aspects of this, 03:26 what we just presented, is misunderstood. 03:28 So let's go piece by piece. 03:30 The first one is, you shall love. 03:35 You see, the word you shall love, 03:39 that Jesus employed here 03:40 is found here in the gospel of Matthew. 03:42 It's actually the word agapao, 03:45 from which the word agape comes. 03:47 This word is, refers to the love 03:50 which is actually of divine origin, 03:54 unknown to ancient Greeks. 03:56 It's specifically the biblical concept, 04:00 you see that love, agape love, 04:03 that only God possesses. 04:04 We're not born with that love, 04:06 it's actually imparted to us as a,as a gift from God. 04:10 Okay these-- 04:12 Ranko, if I, if I might just intrude here for a moment. 04:14 Please, please. 04:16 I think many times people feel that love is a feeling. 04:19 But I don't feel like loving them. 04:20 This is not about, about feeling, 04:23 you see, this is the gift from God. 04:24 This love is all inclusive. 04:28 You remember when we talked in the Sermon 04:30 on the Mount is we have to love all people as God, 04:34 thus we have to be perfect as God. 04:36 Because He gives His rain, 04:38 He gives His sun to both good and evil. 04:40 It includes all people. 04:41 Number one, it's all inclusive. 04:43 Second, it's unconditional. 04:47 I love this love agape not because people love me 04:54 but so many times despite the fact they love me. 04:58 When I was a young person an idea came to my mind. 05:03 I heard something very similar and it brought me to think. 05:05 This love is like a rose, flower, okay, a rose. 05:10 You know, you take rose from the bush, 05:12 you put to your nostrils, 05:14 boy, such a very nice aroma. 05:17 Then you take that rose, put it down on the ground, 05:20 you trample, put in the dust, do what ever you want. 05:23 Take that rose, put back to your nostrils, 05:26 it's still the same aroma. 05:28 This is what this love is all about. 05:31 This is what Jesus did. 05:32 He loved His disciples whether they were good 05:36 or sometimes they struggle with issues. 05:38 He loved even Jerusalem that rejected Him. 05:41 He cried over Jerusalem, even on the cross 05:43 when He was being crucified. 05:45 "Father, forgive them 05:46 because they don't know what they do." 05:48 This is the first one. 05:49 But the second one also provide clarification to the first one. 05:53 Who are those that we are to love? 05:58 You shall love it. 05:59 The answer is, your neighbor. 06:02 Actually, the Greek word Plesion, 06:05 that is used, let me translate in English 06:08 as the word neighbor is a correct translation. 06:11 In my language the word, believes me, means neighbor. 06:15 But what is the meaning of the word neighbor, Glenn? 06:18 It's old English. 06:20 What is the meaning of neig--neighhbor? 06:23 We usually think of the one who's near by. 06:25 Somebody who's... 06:26 This is exactly what Jesus taught. 06:28 You see, it's very easy to me to stand here 06:31 in front of camera and say to our viewers, 06:34 I love you. 06:36 It's very easy to love people who are faraway from me, 06:40 I don't know them. 06:43 And so many times I hear stories about the mission field 06:47 People are hungry, people are suffering. 06:49 can be so, you know, 06:51 caught with my emotions and take my wallet 06:54 and take money to send to the mission field. 06:56 But when I'm here in the classroom, 06:58 when I see my neighbor, 07:00 the student who's there in there 07:01 who's suffering financially, then I calculate, 07:04 he doesn't know to deal with the money, etcetera. 07:07 its much easier in our lives to love people who are faraway 07:11 than those who are our neighbors. 07:14 Glenn, who's your first neighbor? 07:18 Right in your own home. 07:19 Your wife, next one, children. 07:21 Do you know that it is the most difficult thing 07:24 to love my wife and my children? 07:26 And it might be sometimes difficult for them to love us. 07:30 When we go to restaurant 07:31 and how easy to offer the chair 07:35 to another person, etcetera, 07:37 but when my wife comes, how do I treat her? 07:39 I remember so many times and I know that God forgave me. 07:44 I try, I was always patience 07:46 with young people, trying to help them. 07:48 When they ask me question 07:50 I will sit, let me explain to you 07:51 and then I come home, I'm tired 07:52 and my own children ask me something question, 07:55 please leave me alone, I'm tired. 08:01 You know, who's next my neighbor? 08:03 My neighbor, next house they are. 08:05 I'm coming from the part of the world 08:07 where neighbors are always fighting against each other. 08:09 She can came to my side, you know. 08:11 Who's next of my neighbor? 08:15 The people that are working there. 08:17 When you come for the first time 08:19 to your office, everybody is nice. 08:21 You love everybody, 08:22 but when you become familiar with people, 08:24 when they're close to them, 08:26 when they're really your neighbors. 08:27 That's the test. 08:29 This is the test of my love. 08:31 I know, my wife watch me preaching about this 08:34 and then I would, I would sit in my car 08:37 there in PMCA on campus of Andrews University. 08:40 I'm going to the church, Sabbath morning, 08:42 I'm driving my car and suddenly front of me 08:44 there's that, that shiny car flip flop me 08:47 cut the way, I almost hit there, 08:49 you know, that car 08:51 and there is something, that anger within me. 08:54 You know, students from Andrews 08:55 driving there without thinking 08:56 and my wife said, keep in mind 08:58 at that this moment he is very close to you, 09:00 he's your neighbor 09:01 And suddenly how my attitude changes. 09:04 Yes. 09:06 My neighbor. 09:07 Actually, I remember when I preachedthere in Chicago 09:11 I preached about that and I try to tell people, 09:14 you see, it's very hard to love our neighbors 09:16 But if you want to love people, 09:18 you have to make them your neighbors. 09:21 It makes sense? This is the paradox. 09:23 Do you remember the parable of the prodigal son? 09:26 His brother came there 09:28 he didn't want to enter the house 09:30 but the father says, come, see your brother. 09:32 If you see his repentance he will become your neighbor, 09:35 very close to you and then you love him, 09:38 your opinion will change, change about you. 09:41 I remember I preached in Chicago 09:43 and that one person wrote to me a note 09:45 and he said, we got the new neighbor, 09:48 he said and I came out, he was there in his yard. 09:52 I wave hands, he did not react. 09:54 It happened several days. 09:56 He didn't want to even, even to see me. 09:58 want to make a long story short. 10:00 He said, after two months I start to hate that person. 10:05 I couldn't stand him any more and my wife said, 10:08 hey, our neighbor has birthday, 10:10 I prepare cake, let's go to visit them. 10:12 No, I didn't want to go, he said. 10:14 My wife went with the cake and she came back 10:17 and I ask in cynical way, so what about our neighbor? 10:20 She said, I love them. 10:22 Oh, really? She said, how can you-- 10:24 why wouldn't you love a blind person 10:27 who's such a nice person toward us? 10:30 He said, then I realized, that person was blind. 10:35 I was judging that person and grudge against him 10:39 but then my wife make him really our neighbors, 10:42 that she saw his situation. 10:44 Our relationships changed. 10:46 Number 3, then how to love your neighbor? 10:49 Jesus said, as you love yourself. 10:53 Glenn, I am not always happy of my accent. 10:56 I'm not happy of the color of my voice 11:00 I have very strange voice. 11:01 I'm not happy always with regard to my actions, 11:04 how I behave. 11:06 Every evening, I pray to God 11:08 to forgive me the way how I treated people. 11:10 I'm not happy always with myself 11:13 but despite the fact that I'm not happy how I look 11:16 how I talk, how I behave, I still love myself 11:20 and want other people to respect me. 11:23 Jesus said, this is the way 11:25 how you should love your neighbor. 11:28 You're not always happy how your neighbor look like. 11:32 You're not always happy how your neighbor behaves. 11:36 You're not always happy with many things 11:38 with regard to your neighbor, but in the same way 11:41 that you're not happy with yourself, 11:43 you still love yourself, 11:45 so you should love also your neighbor 11:48 even though you're not always happywith him. 11:52 This is what Jesus tried to-- 11:53 We shouldn't think that what He's telling about 11:55 here is some psychological thing of self affirmation. 11:58 He's saying, look you naturally love yourself. 12:00 It's genuine. 12:02 Extend that to others. 12:03 You remember, I was forgiven ten thousand dollars 12:09 How not to love other people who owe me little? 12:15 I want, I want to make an appeal to our viewers. 12:19 Some of you are good Christians 12:21 belonging to that Christian community to your church. 12:24 Some of you're struggling with your relationships 12:28 with your own family, 12:29 different people you're meeting on the daily base. 12:32 Our struggle is how to love people. 12:35 We love because God loved us 12:38 and can give us strength 12:40 to love other people if he loved us. |
Revised 2023-11-21