Greatest Command

There was a "expert" in the law that tried to fool Jesus.  He was trying to give him a no-win question, a question with no right answer (or maybe just a lot of wrong answers).  The question was about the Law.

The Jewish leaders were dependent on the Law - also referred to as the Torah, the Pentateuch, the Books of Moses, the first five books of our Bible.  There are 613 laws found in these books.  Symbolically, Jewish prayer shawls will often be made with 613 knots or tassels to represent the commands of God.  We hold the Ten Commandments to be some of the most important, but this leader figured that he could argue with Jesus about the best commandment, depending on which one he chose.  So how would Jesus respond to a question about which commandment was the greatest?



Love God.  Love other people.  That sums it up - all of the Law (Genesis through Deuteronomy) and the Prophets (most of the rest of the Old Testament).  It is not an emotion that we feel for someone on Valentines day; love is a verb that describes an action.

First, that action should be directed toward God.  We love God first and foremost.  When we love someone, we also love the things which that person loves and care about the things which that person cares about.  Loving God brings us to our second command.

Love others.  God loves all of his people and he calls us to love them as well.

If the first commandment about loving God is the vertical line and the second commandment about loving others is the horizontal line, then the Cross is where these two lines come together - the perfect example of love.  God calls us to love.

Even the commandments seem to follow this pattern:
1 You will have no other gods
2 You will not take God's name in vain
3 Remember the Sabbath day
(all three are about loving God)

4 Honor your father and mother
5 You will not murder
6 You will not commit adultery
7 You will not steal
8 You will not bear false witness
9 You will not covet your neighbor's house
10 You will not covet anything else of your neighbor
(all seven of these are about loving others and how we live while loving others)

The greatest commandment is to love.