The Greatest Commandments

During Jesus' ministry, he preached quite often about the Law, indicating that He was the Law's fulfillment (Matt. 5:17-19).  Being the very Son of God, Jesus taught with a unique authority (Matt. 7:29; John 7:46).  As a result, many of His interpretations of the Law frightened the preconceptions of the religious leaders.  So in an attempt to test Jesus, they concocted several questions to challenge both His knowledge and His wisdom.

For one of these questions, the leaders came to Jesus and asked Him, "Which is the greatest commandment of the Law?"  Jesus, not missing a beat, answered, "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. The second is just like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and Prophets (Matt. 22:34-40)."

This statement by Jesus is dense with theological weight.  For starters, Jesus answers His accusers swiftly by making a direct quote from the Torah (Deut.6:5; Lev. 19:18-19), identifying the Scripture as reliable and authoritative.  In this way, Jesus intimately ties His authority with that of the Scriptures.  Additionally, Jesus' amplification of the contemporary interpretations of these commandments reveal to us not only what God desires from us but also what He desires us to do.

The First Commandment, to love the Lord with everything, is to be the basis for all of life.  Loving the Lord means that we consider Him, we pray to Him, and we pursue studying His Word.  There is a comprehensive manner of love when it comes to the First Commandment; Jesus exhorts us to love the Lord with every nook of our beings.  This is key.  God desires our love in body, mind, and soul.  If we are not able to fulfill the requirements of the First Commandments, we will not be able to fulfill the Second.

Loving our neighbors, though a seemingly simple exhortation, is challenging.  When Jesus says, "love your neighbors as yourself," He is not asking us to occasionally say "hi" across our well-groomed lawns.  No, He's asking us to weep with, to laugh with, to sacrifice for, and to invest in our neighbors. Our understanding of love in this regard reveals the necessity of fulfilling the First Commandment in order to fulfill the Second.  Loving our neighbor the way He requires is utterly impossible unless the love of God resides within us.  Therefore, we need to love Him as to be able to love others the way He desires.

Jesus' amplified summary of the greatest commandment is sobering and convicting.  Luckily, the seriousness of His exhortation is overcome by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  When we turn to Jesus in faith, He provides His Holy Spirit to live within us as to help us and guide us to fulfill His commandments.  Let us take His teaching seriously and press on towards the prize of love!