The greatest commandment

According to the practice at the time of Jesus, the Mosaic Law consisted of 365 negative commands and 248 positive for a total of 613 commands. These may be divided into three parts or sections, namely, the moral, the social, and the ceremonial. Roughly speaking, the moral law is the Ten Commandments that governs the moral life of the Israelites in relation to God and humans (Ex 20: 1-17). The social law governs the social, political and economic life of Israel (Ex 21:1-23:13). Finally, the ceremonial law guides and provides for Israel in her worship, sacrifices and rituals (Ex 25-31; Lev.) At that time there is an ongoing debate on the issue of which commandment in the law is the greatest. Some would consider one particular law of the ceremonial law, and the other would say one particular law of the social law. This debate is not just an intellectual exchange, but rather this develops different camps, and they were antagonistic with one another. This is something like the conflict between Pharisees and Sadducees. This is why the author uses the word ‘test’ to describe the question of a lawyer to Jesus. It is a test, because he wants to trap Jesus into the existing conflict, and discredits Jesus’ status. Jesus knows the trap very well, for this is not new to him. No matter what the intention of the questioner is, Jesus provides an answer in order to help them to know the nature of the law. Jesus said,

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 neighbour as yourself.

These two commandments are not just a result of weighting, but are the hangers of all the laws. In other words, every law has to subject to these two commandments. These two commandments not only give shape to all other laws, but also demand the one to do the commandments in love. These two commandments seem very natural to us, but the religious leaders at that time are covered by their prejudice, and as a result, they endeavour to define what love for God and love for humans are, and fail to let love flow.

The first feature of these two commandments is not a kind of prescription with great details, but rather they provide us a fundamental value in which we have to think what they are concretely meant in our context. For instance, some would consider the practice of tithing is the Christian response to the first commandment, but we have to ask whether we are doing in the spirit of love of God. Likewise, are those who would not be able to tithe that they do not love God? Love of God is always an existential question more than a matter of obeying law. Another example is that some would consider many current Christian senior officers of the government do not love God, for what they are doing is not in compliance with ‘to do justice, have mercy and walk humbly with God.’ We have to ask why justice is reduced to a particular form, and why there is only one form of expression of the love of God. I would say that we can and have to criticize the failures of the government, but we have to reflect deeply whether we also abuse the name of God in our criticism. The first commandment invites us to think and repent, not to argue for one particular form of expression of the commandment. We may have some good examples showing what love for God is, but love for God is more than a list of dos. We have to be careful of falling back into the debate of the Pharisees at the time of Jesus.

The second feature of these two commandments is the distinction between love for God and love for humans. On the one hand, it is absolutely right that we can’t say that we love God without showing the love to neighbor. Christians largely would not have problem with it. On the other hand, the love for neighbor is not equivalent to the love for God. Besides, love for God is the prior. First, it is true that there are a lot of good people (Christians and non-Christians) who do good thing and are nice, but this is not the same as love for God, for love for God is a personal relation rather than an ideology. Second, the priority of love for God should not be understood as against humans, because the love of God revealed in Jesus’ life has reflected that he died for us. In fact, the priority of love for God is fully reflected in Matthew’s work. For instance, we are told to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness first (6:33); we can be Jesus’ disciples only if we love him more than our parents and children (10:32).

The question of what the greatest commandment is is the concern of the religious leaders at the time of Jesus. Perhaps, similar question would also be raised in different walks of our life. For instance, what is the greatest commandment in a business? What is the greatest commandment in education? What is the greatest commandment in family? What is the greatest commandment in shopping? Do you think that the commandment of love for God and humans make sense of it? I do not have an answer for you, but you have to respond.