Zacchaeus, Lover of God – The Great Commandment

Zacchaeus, Lover of God

Matthew 22:37, 38

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”

Luke 19:9

And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he is also a son of Abraham.”

They who love God prove by obeying His Law.

John wrote that love – for God as well as for neighbors – is expressed in obedience to the Law of God (1 Jn. 5.1-3). Jesus confirmed this assertion in His encounter with Zacchaeus. This man, who for many years had scammed and skimmed from his neighbors, was suddenly, in the presence of Jesus, soundly converted to living faith in God. His immediate response was to invoke upon himself the obligations of restorative justice set forth in the Law. He had no way of knowing whether or not Jesus or anybody else was aware of his thievery. Yet something in His heart – the love of God like his father Abraham – provoked him to this act of repentance and restoration. When we love God we are sensitive to the promptings of His Spirit and eager to follow wherever He leads. In Zacchaeus’ case that meant full public disclosure of his sin, heart-felt repentance, and a return to the ways of loving God and neighbor marked out in the Law. Loving God must mean the same for us as well. If we fear Him, as Abraham did, and long to know His glory, like Moses; and if we are eager to serve Him, like Joshua, and to provoke others to love Him, as David did; then out of the solitude of our hearts will flow love for God in the form of obedience to His Law.

Such sensitivity to God’s Spirit comes from allowing Him to search the depths of our souls. How do you practice this (Ps. 139.23, 24)?

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.