Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” – Jesus, Mark 12:30-31
Sometimes we become so familiar with certain passages in Scripture that we gloss over them without giving them due considerations. I believe that if many of us were honest, we would admit to this as it relates to what God Himself exalts as His two greatest commands.
Of course, many of us know these passages by heart. We’ve read them and referred to them hundreds of times over the years during our Bible studies. But how often do we devote the necessary time to fully consider the full context of the Love God commands?
When we observe these two greatest Commandments being cited by Jesus, what do we see?
It begins with an imperative to Love. So, what does it mean to Love?
First and foremost, a relationship grounded in true love involves commitment and loyalty. When we truly love someone, we don’t desire others. True love doesn’t covet. It is commitment and loyalty to one person. This takes us to God’s very first Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
Second, a loving relationship involves love and respect for the person loved, and loving that person for who he or she is. We love God because of Himself, because He is who He is. He created us. He sustains us. He saved and redeemed us. He is the Author and Owner of life itself. So, we love Him.
Third, a loving relationship involves the sacrifice and surrender of oneself. The heart’s true desire is giving to the other, not in the receiving from the other. And lastly, a loving relationship involves knowing and sharing. There is a desire to know and to share life with this person, to learn, grow, work, and serve together.
So to Love God means that we desire to enter into a personal, intimate relationship with Him that places Him above everything and everyone else, and to love Him with every ounce of our being: our heart, our soul, our mind and our body. Nothing stands in the way of this love.
The second thing we notice is how many times the word “Your” is mentioned. Jesus is saying that we are to make this love of God personal. He is the Lord my God. I belong to Him and He belongs to me. When we have an intimate relationship with someone, we don’t hide certain aspects of our lives from them. There is no place that is off-limits. What is mine is theirs and what theirs is mine. Honesty, commitment, and united through love for one another.
But what about the second greatest Commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself? If we’re keeping the first greatest Commandment, that means we’re keeping the second greatest Commandment. They’re both connected. The love of our neighbor is an all-encompassing love that transcends personal interests, that is selfless and unconditional, and emphasizes a deep, caring affection for others without expecting anything in return.
If we look at the 10 Commandments as a whole, Commandments 1-4 deal with how we are to rightly relate with God, while the final 6 Commandments deal with how we are to rightly relate with others. Jesus was saying that the 2 Greatest Commandments cover all of these. This is why he also says that if we break just one of these, we stand guilty of breaking all of them.
So this obviously presents a huge problem. Who among us is able to maintain perfect adherence to God’s Law?
This was what caused the Pharisees to stumble. They thought that religion was the answer, that following the Law was all that was needed to be made perfect. They just couldn’t come to grips with how impossible it was for them to be perfect. So they added works to their plan of salvation, which wasn’t part of God’s plan at all. It reeks of self-righteous entitlement.
His plan was to come to earth in the form of a human, to live among us and experience life just like we experience it, but live perfectly without sinning. And then, because He loved us, Jesus gave his life on the cross so that we would no longer be bound by the Law, but would be forgiven for our sins and made perfect through His Father’s grace and mercy. This is our salvation, God’s saving grace.
So maybe this will help remind us to not gloss over this familiar passage of Scripture that we think we know so well. Because honestly? Many of us forget what it means to Love sometimes and that God wants us to Love Him in the same way He loves us.
Former Blackout Artist 