The Greatest Commandment
Three of the four Gospels tell the same story: an expert in Jewish law puts Jesus to the test with the question, “Which commandment in the law is the greatest?” (In Luke, the question is different but with a similar meaning.) And Jesus gives the answer:
“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matt. 22:34-40; see also Mark 12:28-34; Luke 10:25-28).
Slow down for a moment, and think about what a treasure this story is.
How many of us have wished we could directly ask Jesus for the answer to our burning questions?
And here is the story of a man who asked Jesus one of life’s big questions: “What commandment in the law is the greatest?” – or, in Luke’s telling, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
How else might we paraphrase that question? “Jesus, what is the most important thing?” or “What does God care about the most?” Maybe even: “Jesus, what is the meaning of life?”
Jesus’s answer is testified to three times, and in each version of the story, the meaning and importance of his answer is emphasized in a slightly different way.
- In Matthew 22, Jesus names the commands to love God and love your neighbor, and then he emphasizes: “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Other translations say that the law and prophets “depend” or “are based on” them. The meaning is: without these two commandments, the rest of God’s word falls away.
- In Mark 12, it is the legal expert testing Jesus who emphasizes the importance of Jesus’s answer. After Jesus names the two commandments, the expert affirms: “You are right, Teacher…this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And Jesus responds to him: “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
- In Luke 10, the answer “love God and love your neighbor” is responded to with another question. The legal expert, “wanting to justify himself,” asks Jesus: “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus responds with the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The moral of the story is: “You love. Be the neighbor to any person who is in need.”
Christians often wonder how we can best live faithfully. How do we obey God? How do we understand a certain Bible passage? How do we be more Christ-like? What would Jesus do?
With these two greatest – and seemingly inseparable – commandments, Jesus gives us a guiding principle to answer our particular questions.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
In these three versions of the story, we can see how important and meaningful these two inseparable commandments are to Jesus, to the people he spoke to, to the Gospel writers, and to the people of the early Church.
How are these words important for us today? Where does their meaning intersect with what’s going on in our lives and in our world?
Tonight I’ll be leading the students at the Celebrate! worship service to think about those same questions. At the end, I’ll guide them through a time of prayer, listening to what the Spirit might be saying to them through these stories of the Greatest Commandment. Maybe you’d like to pray through these questions, too, as you read or think about one of these stories.
- Which one word or phrase is drawing your attention? Lean in to the idea that the Holy Spirit may have something to give you through it.
- Think about yourself: what does that word or phrase bring up about your own life?
- Think about the people closest to you: what people or situations does your word or phrase make you think about?
- Think about the wider community you belong to. What situations or issues come to mind?
- Think about the wider world. What national or international themes come up as you continue to think about your word phrase?
- Pray about whatever came up most strongly for you. Discern whether God might be calling you to some kind of change or action.
– Pastor Kate
Rev. Katherine Museus and Rev. James A. Wetzstein serve as university pastors at the Chapel of the Resurrection at Valparaiso University and take turns writing weekly devotions.
February 12, 2025