Greatest Commandments

Matthew 22:36-40 says:

 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’<sup class="footnote" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-size:.625em;line-height:22px;position:relative;vertical-align:top;top:0;" data-fn="#fen-NIV-23910a" data-link="[a]”>[a]  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’<sup class="footnote" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-size:.625em;line-height:22px;position:relative;vertical-align:top;top:0;" data-fn="#fen-NIV-23912b" data-link="[b]”>[b]  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

We must start by loving God-giving him our whole heart (nothing should have more of our heart than him). When we love with our heart we give our time and attention to the object of our love.  We are to also give him our whole soul-nothing else in our lives should receive our soul’s longing more than him.  Our soul is eternal and so perhaps this is referencing our eternal longing which should be all God’s.  Lastly, loving God with all of our minds is just that-using our thinking, intelligence and ideas to love God.  Nothing else in our lives should take over our thinking, intelligence and ideas more than God himself.

So loving God with heart, mind and soul takes all aspects of who we are and puts Him first.

Loving others as ourselves is the second greatest command yet it does not just say love others-it says, ‘love your neighbor as yourself’.  It seems that rarely does anyone need to be told to love themselves-as in providing care for ourselves/caring for our own needs. With that in mind, adding ‘as yourself’ to the command to love our neighbor reminds us to care for them in the same way we care for ourselves.  No human life is greater in needs than any other human life-we are all the same when it comes to our needs-we all need food, water, safety, love… (thinking Maslow’s taxonomy of needs here).   If we give ourselves food, water, safety, etc. instinctively then loving others as ourselves means we must give it to them in the same way as well.