The Chosen + BibleProject | Season 1 Reading PlanSample

Divine Love Filled Full

Is it possible to love someone more than they deserve? The world around us says yes. We should show love to those who need or deserve it—but not to the evildoers or enemies.

While Jesus travels around to teach and heal people, big crowds gather to hear him. Hurting people listen to Jesus, and they are filled with new hope and faith in God. Yet religious “experts” lurk in the shadows, irritated or outright angry with Jesus. To them, he’s a lawbreaker, in part because he is loving people whom they believe to be undeserving. He blesses people who, according to them, should be shunned and punished. These religious authorities lost their love for others, seeing God’s law as a tool for condemning and ostracizing, and their hearts have hardened in fear.

But Jesus has been showing up in the world as Israel’s promised leader, who would guide people into faithful obedience, according to God’s law. Jesus makes his attitude toward the law crystal clear. “I am filling it full,” he says, “not breaking it.” Jesus’ way involves generous healing and, above all, love. He loves all people, even as the most respectable religious leaders urge him to stop.

Jesus’ love is fearless and shows no partiality—he brings healing to a socially ignored paralyzed man to show God’s goodness and care. Then he forgives the man rather than holding his sins against him. “Illegal!” cry the experts. “Not fair! According to the law, you cannot do that! Only God can do that!”

But no threat from the authorities, no traditional expectations, and no misinterpretation of God’s law can stop Jesus from offering God’s healing forgiveness. He does not try to gain social favor by conforming to the regulations of the religious establishment. And by doing so, he adheres to the law of love, which fulfills or “fills full” all of God’s laws. All of this suggests it is not possible to love people too much. If all of God’s instruction aims to transform us into people who love God and love others with everything we’ve got, then followers of Jesus can live according to his example by loving everyone without reservation.

Reflection Questions

1. What does the response of the teachers and experts in the law reveal about what they see as most important in the law? What do Jesus' words and actions reveal about what he sees as most important in the law?
2. In your own words, describe the whole point of Israel’s law—the most important commandment of all.
3. How might others see us if we always forgave and loved without partiality? Would they honor us or pity us, and why?