Matthew 22:34-40, The Great Commandment

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Comments

The motivation for the question was to construct a trap for Jesus to put down some aspect of the law as less important, while they (and Jesus) considered all equally binding. Jesus first quoted Deuteronomy. Our hearts, souls, and minds are not different parts of a person but different ways of describing the whole person in loyal relationship with God. Jesus then quoted Leviticus, regarding love of neighbor. The two stand together on a level all their own in relationship to all the other commandments which hang on them and proceed from them. This statement directs us to understand and apply the other commandments within the context of loving God and neighbor.

Prayer

O God almighty, by whom and before whom we all are brethren: grant us so truly to love one another, that evidently and beyond all doubt we may love thee; through Jesus Christ thy Son, our Lord and brother.

(Christina Rossetti, 1830-1894)