Monday: The Two Greatest Sins
Daily Lesson for Monday 17th of March 2025
According to Jesus Himself, the two greatest commandments are love for God and love for one another. And carrying out these commands involves sacrifices that tangibly show love to others, which is what following in the footsteps of Jesus is really about.
Now, if the two greatest commandments are love for God and love for others, what are the two greatest sins?
Read Psalms 135:13-19. What does this reveal about a common sin emphasized throughout Scripture?
Image © Providence Collection at Goodsalt.com
The Old Testament continually emphasizes the importance of love for God above all (see Deuteronomy 6:5). This is closely related to the great sin of idolatry, which is the opposite of love for God.
Read Zechariah 7:9-12. According to the prophet Zechariah in this passage, what does God decry? How does it and the sin of idolatry relate to the two great commandments?
It is not just idolatry to which God responds with the anger of love but the mistreatment of His people, whether individually or corporately. God becomes angry at injustice because God is love.
The two great sins emphasized throughout the Old Testament are failings relative to the two great commandments: to love God and to love one another. The two greatest sins are failings of love. In short, then, you cannot keep the commandments if you do not love God and if you do not love others.
Indeed, 1 John 4:20-21 states: “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also” (NKJV).
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How do you explain why love for God cannot be separated from love for others? How do you understand this unbreakable link? |
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If the two greatest commandments are:
... then it is a straightforward deduction that the two biggest sins are when we break them.
Perhaps the biggest issue we have is when we delude ourselves we are keeping them when we are being pig-headed stupid.
The classic case of delusion in the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus does not use condemnation very often but he reserved it for them.
They thought that by being scrupulously religious they were showing their love for God and Jesus told them the unvarnished truth, "You stink!"
And in the twenty-first century, we look back with our twenty-twenty hindsight vision and say to ourselves that we have come a long way since then. Some of us think that the Laodicean message applies to us. The shortened version of this message is; Jesus says, "You make me want to vomit!"
Yesterday I wanted to move our cell phones from a SIM card to an eSIM. Easy! I am tech-savi! I can do that. I did my phone without any problems. Buoyed with success, I tackled Carmel's phone and stuffed it up big time. I was in serious strife and had to visit the shop and get the little foreign guy to fix it. He fixed it. To rub salt into the wound. Carmel says to the little guy as we leave the shop. "My husband has a PhD in computer science!"
And if you think of the spiritual implications of that story you will discover the biggest sin of all.
The Bible is explicit in identifying the two greatest commandments; however, it does not specify the greatest sins. I am not sure why the lesson writer says that idolatry and injustice are the two greatest sins. The Bible indicates that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is unforgivable sin. “Therefore, I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.” (Matthew 12:31, NKJV). This is Jesus Himself giving this warning. I could have suggested this as the greatest sin. Jesus' qualifying love for God and man as the greatest commandments captures all the teachings of the Bible. Why is Jesus’s warning not to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit?
It is impossible to come to Jesus our ONLY Saviour without the leading of the Holy Spirit. It is not possible to be convicted of sin and coming to repentance without the working of the Holy Spirit. It is not possible to live a spiritual life without the support of the Holy Spirit. Perpetual rejection of the Holy Spirit leads to the hardening of the heart which eventually refuses repentance and hence causes spiritual death. No amount of preaching can revive a heart which is spiritually dead. Spiritual death is a terrible state where God withdraws His Spirit. Romans Chapter one describes what happens when God withdraws His Spirit.
“21 For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonouring of their bodies among themselves,25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonourable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” – Romans 1:21 – 32 (NLT)
(I am sorry for the lengthy direct text above. May the Word of God speak without any dilution)
Idolatry and injustice are foundational sins. Blaspheming the Holy Spirit, as you described, is a final manifestation of the evolution of those foundational sins.
The unbreakable link between love for God and love for others can be understood through the principle that all people are God's children, created in His image. Just as a mother wouldn't accept someone's love if they mistreated her children, God doesn't view love for Him as genuine if it doesn't extend to His creation—other people.
To love God is to respect, care for, and show kindness to those He loves, just as a parent would expect love for their children to be a reflection of love for them.
This connection reflects the fact that love is not just an emotional feeling toward God but is actively demonstrated through our actions, especially in how we serve and care for others. Therefore, the two cannot be separated—true love for God compels us to love others as He does.
Hummmmmm. I thought a smaller sin was the greatest or if you prefer there are no ⚖️ in God's sight. When I want to move my data from my smart phone to my memory stick, a message pops up and says, you have not paid your I cloud bill. That's funny I thought I canceled I cloud. No actually I get a notice from scam that If you don't pay your I cloud bill you will lose your memory. Ok, what has this world come to?
Maurice I am sorry you could not record my voice as I sing and type::: Loving God, loving each other, making music with my friends. Loving God, loving each other, and the music never ends.
Mark 12:31 ESV [31] "The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these."
Answering the lesson’s question:
The inseparable connection between love for God and love for others only becomes evident through the work of the Holy Spirit IN us. The world cannot understand this, considering it foolishness to consecrate one's life to loving one another.
The believers journey begins when we realize the need to accept a new nature — one which is willing and enabled by loving God with all our heart - to hear the Holy Spirit revealing the Word of God to our heart and mind. Only this new nature is capable to accept as Truth that we reflect God’s nature of Love when engaging in kindness toward others.
Zechariah 7:9-12 clearly illustrates the consequences of refusing to 'hear' the Holy Spirit:
“But they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they could not hear. Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Thus great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.” v.11-12.
While God is Spirit, our fellow man is flesh and blood like us. Only by the Grace of God, the Holy Spirit enables us to share our love of God as we caringly engage with our fellow man. Only the Holy Spirit — the agent of God’s Grace — can bridge the gap between flesh and spirit, awakening the living soul to reveal that God’s Presence is experienced through our loving actions.
Rejecting or belittling the work of the Holy Spirit is the gravest sin. When rejecting His guidance, man has no other counselor to turn to but himself. Our very life depends on expressing God's kindness and compassion toward one another. Without His Love having found its home in our new nature, we remain spiritually dead — still trapped in our trespasses and sin – Eph. 2:1-10; Rom. 3:22-24).
I think I'm with Omwenga here - I can't see anything in scripture that indicates what the two greatest sins are. I think it's quite speculative to claim they are idolatry and injustice. For sure, worshipping idols leads to all sorts of sins because one's concept of God is distorted. But the religious leaders were not idolaters in the strictest sense (yes, they had idols of their own but they weren't bowing to the things that were mentioned in Psalm 135), but they still killed Jesus. And injustice is horrible and God calls people to account for it, but is it worse that murder, adultery etc? I don't know that we should be trying to make those judgments.
The lesson says the worst sins are failings of love. Is there any sin that isn't? I think if we suggest there are sins that have nothing to do with love we don't really have a concept of what sin is.
The Law of Love shines brightly! God is love, the beautiful force that created every creature, with humans at the heart of His marvelous creation. Isn't it wonderful to think that, as equals, we are all connected to our Creator and His other marvelous creations?