The Greatest Commandments
During the ministry of Jesus, Jesus was asked by a teacher of religious laws what was the greatest commandment. Jesus answered the teacher: “The most important one is this: Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 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 neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” The response of Jesus was based on the teachings found in the Book of Deuteronomy and the Book of Leviticus, and these are the teachings of Jewish prophets from ancient times.
The command to love God is the greatest commandment. One’s spoken and written words, one’s thoughts, one’s feelings and one’s action must be motivated by the love of God. However wonderful, amazing, great or heroic all of one’s spoken and written words, all of one’s thoughts, all of one’s feelings and all of one’s actions, if they are not motivated by the love of God, they do not amount to anything until God, in his wisdom, goodness and compassion, decides they amount to something good. The command to love our neighbor is the second greatest commandment and it is directly related to the love of God. Inversely, love of God without love of neighbor is not love of God. There are many ways by which God manifests himself to humanity, and the most common manifestation is through one’s neighbor: the most vulnerable in society, the orphans and the widows, the children and the elderly, the people in need of God, the individuals with special needs, the homeless and so on. In short, God commands us to love our neighbor because if we love our neighbor, we are loving God.
To love our neighbor is an essential part of loving God. That neighbor can be a family member, an individual in one’s community, a friend, an orphan or a widow, a stranger or a most vulnerable person. Loving our neighbor most often lead us to loving God, and the four main requirements on how to love God are the following: 1) Love God with all your heart; 2) Love God with all your soul; 3) Love God with all your mind; and 4) Love God with all your strength.
Loving God is a commitment. It requires patience and kindness, and it entails sacrifices. Loving God is manifested when a mother commits herself to nurturing the fetus inside her womb – knowing fully well that once the fetus is out of her womb, she will have to nurse and take care of a very fragile and helpless human person for some years. Loving God is expressed when a father commits himself to providing financial support for his family, to insuring that his family has a place to stay and lives well, and to act as the man of the family for protection and stability. Loving God is shown when two individuals decide to establish and maintain friendship in spite of the problems and frictions they have encountered in their friendship. Loving God is shown when a worker or a craftsman or a hobbyist continues to work on his job or craft or hobby that makes for a satisfying everyday living for people despite the cost and time needed to complete the work or hobby. Loving God is manifested when we do charitable and volunteer works. These works take away our time, money and effort but we learn to build bridges, strengthen communities, foster friendships, give hope to the hopeless and reinforce the ideal that there is more to life than nurturing our egos.
Loving God is an integral part of our whole being. We look for God. We take time to pray to Him. We spend a special day to adore Him, week after week throughout the year. We read the Bible and we work for His ideals. In good times and in bad times, we are in need of God --- God is an essential part of us. Our lives lack meaning without God. Something is amiss without Him. For all the wonderful things life has to offer, life is worthless without Him. We hunger for the Spirit of God. Only with God can we experience joy in life. Only with God can we experience a state of true peace. Only with God can we experience a pure kind of love for the very simple that God is love. And love is our human destiny.
Notes:
Bible Verses Mark 12:29-31 - NIVUK 2011
Related Item - “Christ Teachings: The Greatest Commandments”