Matthew 22:37–39
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind... Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Jesus' Teachings
The Greatest Commandment
Every command in Scripture hangs on two: love God completely, love your neighbor as yourself
Introduction
A religious lawyer asks Jesus a test question: which commandment matters most? It's a real debate among rabbis of the time — six hundred and thirteen commands in the law, and everyone had an opinion about which one carried the most weight.
Jesus doesn't pick one. He gives two, in a fixed order, and says every other command in Scripture hangs on them: love God completely, and love your neighbor as yourself.
That answer collapses religion's endless list of rules into a single, unavoidable question — not what am I allowed to do, but who am I actually loving.
Scripture
Deuteronomy 6:5
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
1 John 4:20
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
Translation note: Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (KJV). The King James Version is in the public domain.
Key insights
- 613 commands collapse into two, in a fixed order
- Loving God engages heart, soul, and mind — not just feeling
- You cannot separate love for God from love for people
- Jesus quoted Israel's own Scripture — this wasn't new
Related resources
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