“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39).
In most legal dramas, there is a pivotal moment where the expert lawyer traps the witness with some linguistic trickery.
Through posing a question, or a series of questions, the lawyer tricks the witness into revealing the truth of who they are, or what occurred on the night in question. It makes for a dramatic end to any legal-based television show.
The Pharisees often attempted the same strategy with Jesus. They would pepper him with complicated questions that were designed to reveal his blasphemous character. On one occasion, a lawyer asks Jesus his thoughts on the first and greatest commandment.
In other words, what is the first call for the people of faith? Given that the Jewish Law (or the Torah) had over 600 commandments, all codified in the books of Moses, this was a complicated question. To the lawyer’s mind, the trap was set.
Of course, Jesus sees through the ruse and responds in an unexpected way. Instead of talking about laws to be obeyed, Jesus speaks about persons to be loved.
According to Jesus, love is the foundation of our life with God. It sums up the entirety of the law; it is the essence of faith.
But what does Jesus mean by “love”? After all, love is a word that we toss around much in our day. We use it to describe everything from our intimate relationships to our favorite pizza toppings.
We hear it sung on the radio and depicted on television screens. Is Jesus saying the same thing as contemporary pop songs?
Of course not. Jesus is particular and nuanced in his response. In fact, in calling people to the way of love, Jesus calls them to three specific things.
1. A Relationship with Yahweh
Jesus was not a philosopher. Nor was he a highly evolved but spiritually non-descript mystic. Jesus was a faithful Jew. His response quotes the most significant passage in the Hebrew scriptures, The Shema.
Found originally in the Book of Deuteronomy, the Shema governed the lives of the Jewish people. The Shema reads, “Hear O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4).
The passage then goes on to speak about writing this law down, repeating it throughout the day, and teaching it to one’s children. Faithful Jews would repeat this verse at least two or three times a day.
Jesus doesn’t say something mystically vague like, “Love with all your heart, soul, and mind.” Rather, he says, “Love the Lord your God.” Jesus calls us to a relationship with our heavenly Father.
Love is not a theoretical concept but a relational one. Our hearts, with all our emotions, will, passions, and desires are turned to the Lord.
Our soul, which is the inner part of ourselves, is surrendered; and our minds, meaning our thoughts, intelligence, and reason, are renewed through a continual contemplation of God’s presence. Living faithfully involves an abiding relationship with Yahweh.
Loving God establishes us as the people of God. It is an essential element of the Christian faith. If we want to live the life that God has created us to live, then the first order of business is to turn to God in love.
The benchmark for faithful life is not just obedience to a law or perfect execution of some commandment. Living faithfully, first and foremost, consists of a deep and active love for our Lord.
2. A Service to Others
An obvious question might be: how is our love of God to be lived out?” Is loving God a private affair, something between me and my creator alone? How can I show my love for God in this world?
This is why Jesus continues his response. “The second commandment is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” Jesus calls the call to love our neighbors a second commandment because it is tied to the first. Our love for the Lord necessarily flows outwards to our neighbors.
Like the first commandment, Jesus takes this statement from the pages of the Torah. Leviticus 19 reads, “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:18).
Even here, love for our neighbors is tied to a recognition of Yahweh’s Lordship over our lives. We simply cannot love God without loving those whom God loves.
Love for our neighbors means that we cannot look at another in a dehumanizing way. As faithful people, we can never suggest that someone is not worth the grace, mercy, or forgiveness that we ourselves claim.
Nor can we believe that another is not made in the image of God. Rejecting our neighbor dismisses God’s hand on their lives, and places ourselves in the position of God. This is the worst form of idolatry and a complete abdication of our love for God.
The way of love, therefore, is a way of moving towards the other, not away from them. It is to serve as Jesus served. If we refuse to love our neighbors, can we really say that we love the Lord?
3. The Way of the Cross
Jesus images perfect love. His arms will be outstretched, embracing the divine act of love. Jesus will hang, not in defeat, nor in blasphemy, but as the full image of what love of God, and love for others, looks like in human Life. The way of the cross is the way of love.
This is a way that Jesus calls all his followers to walk. Faithful life stems from these two co-equal calls to love. Jesus says, “Upon these two commands hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:40). The life of faith simply cannot be lived apart from these two mandates.
The image Jesus puts forward is of these two commands, equal in importance and eternally tied together, are two branches upon which everything else in the faith grows. As the nation of Israel was often imaged as a tree (Jeremiah 8:13), such an image made sense in the ancient world.
There is, however, a deeper image at play. Perhaps, the two love commandments are not two branches of the tree of Israel, but the outstretched beams of the cross, upon which hangs the very incarnation of God’s boundless, reckless, and grace-filled love.
After all, Jesus says, “Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). Walking the way of love is not a safe and costless way. Love pushes us to the extremes and calls us to walk with Jesus on the way to the Cross.
How is faithful love worked out in your life? How do you love, robustly and sacrificially, with a love that defies all boundaries?
How do you allow the love of God to transform you such that it informs how you see God, how you see the people around you, and even how you see yourself?
Because at the end of the day, what matters is not how many commandments we tick off the list. What matters is being so filled with divine love, that our lives become an ongoing testimony to Love’s incarnation.
For further reading:
What Kind of Work Does God Call Us to Do?
3 Things to Do When You Doubt Your Calling
How Do I Know When God Is Calling Me to Wait?
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/iiievgeniy
The Reverend Dr. Kyle Norman is the Rector of St. Paul’s Cathedral, located in Kamloops BC, Canada. He holds a doctorate in Spiritual formation and is a sought-after writer, speaker, and retreat leader. His writing can be found at Christianity.com, crosswalk.com, ibelieve.com, Renovare Canada, and many others. He also maintains his own blog revkylenorman.ca. He has 20 years of pastoral experience, and his ministry focuses on helping people overcome times of spiritual discouragement.