Loving God: Unpacking the Greatest Commandment

Embracing God's Love: The Heart of the Commandments

A sign that you master a subject is often your ability to simplify and apply it. Jesus is cornered by a Pharisee, an expert in the law, who tries to trap Jesus by asking a question that is nearly impossible to answer: What is the most important commandment in the law of Moses? Jewish scholars often debated how to summarize and whether it was possible ot rank all of the scriptural commandments. (Mishna Hagiga 1:8; Babylonian Talmud Berakot 63a; Mek 6; Craig Blomberg, Matthew, vol. 22, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 334.

The greatest commandment

The expert in the law was sure Jesus would not be able to answer this question without making some Jewish leaders very upset. Surprisingly, Jesus provides a straight answer without rebuking His interrogators.

34 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
—Matthew 22:34-40 NKJV

Jesus used a question that was nearly impossible to answer to masterfully summarize all the laws of the Old Testament. Jesus understood the law better than anyone, because He understood the heart of the Father like no one else on earth. Jesus knew that everything was based on love. Jesus knew that a wholehearted devotion to God in every area of life would result in obedience to all that God has commanded. However, Jesus was not inventing a new teaching; He was quoting from Deuteronomy 6:5.

The Shema

In the heart of the Old Testament and all of its laws, we have the Shema (Deuternomy 6:4), “the centerpiece of the daily morning and evening prayer services and is considered by some the most essential prayer in all of Judaism.” (MyJewishLearning.com)

But let’s look at the context surrounding Deuteronomy 6:4

“Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, 2 that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. 3 Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you—‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
— Deuteronomy 6:1-9 NKJV

This commandment is about a lifestyle, a mindset, and a personal culture that prioritizes God and His will in every aspect of life.

Commanded to love?

But is it not egotistical for God to command us to love Him? What kind of person commands another to love them?

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
— Romans 5:8 NKJV

When we read the Bible, one message should be crystal clear above all others. God loves us. God loves us more than we could ever possibly comprehend. The Bible tells the story of God seeking us, revealing Himself to us, and offering us guidance. Jesus died for us not because we asked Him to, not because we deserved it, but because God loves us and desires to be with us. (For more on salvation, see “One Story to Rule Them All”)

In other words, when I look at the cross and see Jesus dying for my sins, it reveals to me the heart of God and His desire to save me. Jesus’s death on the cross was not an upgrade or latest patch on the divine plan of salvation. Revelation 13:8 refers to Jesus as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” The idea of substitutionary atonement is now a New Testament concept. I see the earliest evidence for this concept in Genesis 3:12, where God makes tunics of skin for Adam and Eve. The text does not explicitly state that an animal was sacrificed, but I believe that it is implicit in the detail that the tunics were made of skin. The Hebrew verb used for made here is עָשָׂה (asa), which means to fashion, as opposed to the verb בָּרָא (bara) used in Genesis 1:1, which means to create. The biblical text indicates that God did not magically create a leather outfit for Adam and Eve, but rather God made one, and you can’t make a garment of skin without killing the animal and skinning it. I believe this was Adam and Eve’s first glimpse of what the actual penalty of sin was. Until this point, they did not know what death was. Adam and Eve had tried to make clothing for themselves from fig leaves, but that did not work; they still hid from the presence of God. So God covered their shame and nakedness with tunics of skin. An innocent animal had to die for Adam and Eve’s sin to be covered.

The message was clear: someone would have to die to cover humanity’s sin and shame. At the risk of belaboring the point, I want to emphasize this because it reveals that God did not become kinder in the New Testament. The plan of salvation and Jesus’ sacrifice was always the plan and the only possible plan. That is why when Jesus prayed and asked the Father if it was possible for the cup of suffering to pass from Him (Matthew 26:39, 42), the answer was no, it was not possible. There is no salvation outside of Jesus. (John 14:9; Acts 4:12). If the sacrifices had been enough, Jesus would not need to die, but it was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins (Hebrews 10:4).

I say all that to say this: the cross is the hermeneutical key that unlocks the proper interpretation of the Bible. This means that the revelation of God that we see in the life of Jesus is the clearest picture of the Father we have (John 14:9). So, the God of the Old Testament is not different from what we see in the way Jesus lived His life here on Earth. There is no discrepancy or contradiction. Any perceived contradiction means that I have failed to understand the biblical text properly. The problem is not the biblical text; I should not remove what I consider troublesome text, but rather I should study further to understand how they fit harmoniously with the message of God’s love for us in the Bible.

Something will be first in your life

Something will be first in our lives, and anything other than God will disappoint us and lead us astray. Self is not a good god; work/career, education, or a significant other also make for lousy gods. None loves you unconditionally, and none has the knowledge and power to always guide and deliver you.

But when God is at the center of your life, then self cannot be.

24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.
— Matthew 16:24-27 NKJV

When we love God above all else, it means that even ourselves take a backseat to God. Even my personal desires become secondary to God’s will. But the more I think about it, I am totally fine with it because I have experienced in my life that the pursuit of my self-centered desires above all else has only led to loneliness, pain, and suffering. While the pursuit of God’s will, though often not easy, has led to contentment, joy, and peace of mind.

Conclusion

Something has to be primary in your life. Something will be first, above all else. You have tried different things in life that have not worked out great. What if you give God a try?
How different would your life be with God at the forefront?
When you love God above everything else, how does that shape your life?

Let’s give it a try this week. Let me know how it goes. Please feel free to reach out with any feedback or questions you may have. (For some practical tips on how to do this, see my post Put God First: A Simple Habit That Changes Everything)