The greatest commandment
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”Matthew 22:37-39
Reflection
A teacher of the law asked Jesus which was the greatest commandment — a question that generated endless debates among the religious of the time, who counted more than six hundred laws. And Jesus, with disconcerting clarity, summed up the whole law and the prophets in one word: LOVE. To love God and to love the neighbor. Notice the simplicity and depth of this. All of God’s will for our life, all the rules, all the commandments, boil down to relationships of love — one vertical (with God) and another horizontal (with people). God does not want primarily our religious performance; He wants our love.
Notice the TOTALITY the first commandment demands: to love God "with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind". Not a part, not a slice of life reserved for the "religious" — ALL. God does not want to be one priority among others, nor a compartment of our life activated on Sundays. He wants to be loved with the totality of our being: the emotions (heart), the whole life (soul) and the mind. It is a love that embraces everything we are. This confronts the tendency to give God only the leftovers — a little corner of the schedule, a piece of attention. The greatest commandment asks for everything.
And note that Jesus did not stop at the first commandment — He added the second "like unto it": "thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself". Why did Jesus join the two? Because they are inseparable. Love for God, if genuine, overflows into love for people. It is not possible to truly love God, whom we do not see, and despise the neighbor, whom we do see. The apostle John was direct: "he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?". Vertical love is proven in horizontal love. The measure of our love for God is revealed in how we treat the people around us.
There is also an important clue in "as thyself". Jesus assumes we have a natural care for ourselves — we seek our own good, our comfort, our protection. And He calls us to extend that same level of care to the neighbor: to want the other’s good as we want our own. This is revolutionary and practical. It means considering the needs of others as we consider ours, treating them as we would like to be treated. If you want to know whether you are living the greatest commandment, do not ask only "am I religious enough?" — ask "do I love God with all my being? And does that love overflow into concrete love for the people around me?". All of God’s law boils down to this. And, in the end, a well-lived life is, simply, a life of love — for God and neighbor.
Prayer
Lord, You summed up all Your will in love — to love You with all my being and to love my neighbor as myself. Forgive me when I give You only the leftovers, a little corner of my life, instead of all my heart, soul and mind. Fill me with a love for You that overflows into concrete love for the people around me. May my life be, simply, a life of love. Amen.
Put it into practice
Evaluate today the two commandments: (1) have you loved God with "everything" or only with the leftovers of your life? (2) has that love overflowed into concrete love for the neighbor? Choose a step in each direction: a gesture of total surrender to God and a concrete gesture of love to someone today.
To reflect on
Have you loved God with ALL your being or only with a "compartment" of your life — and has that love overflowed into concrete love for the people around you?
Bible text: King James Version (public domain).