The Two Great Commandments

Once, one of the Pharisees, an expert in religious law, tried to trap Jesus with a question about God's commandments: "Behold, 'Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?' Jesus said to him, '"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the first and great commandment. A second likewise is this, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.'" — Matthew 22:36-40

Jesus had answered the Pharisee in a wonderful and all-encompassing way. Let's examine what Jesus said and meant.

The First Great Commandment

The first Great Commandment is from a declaration of faith in one God, a testimony of his sovereignty, and an acknowledgment one's primary duty to love him with one's whole being: "Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might." — Deuteronomy 6:4-5

The importance placed on this commandment is clearly stated in the verses that immediately follow: "These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the door posts of your house, and on your gates." — Deuteronomy 6:6-9

The Second Great Commandment

The second Great Commandment is from God's admonishment that "You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh." — Leviticus 19:18

"Loving our neighbor" means that we should care for the honor of our neighbor just as we would care for our own and that we should protect and respect the property of our neighbor just as we do for our own. "Loving our neighbor" is, in essence, our following of Jesus' command that "As you would like people to do to you, do exactly so to them." — Luke 6:31

Jesus expanded the commandment to "love our neighbor" dramatically from the Old Testament attitude in Psalms 139:21 where the hating of one's enemies was accepted in "Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?" to "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you." in Matthew 5:43-44 .

The Two Great Commandments Encompass the Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments were "written with the finger of God." (Exodus 31:18) The first four commandments apply to our loving God: "You shall have no other gods before me," "You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth," "You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain," and "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." (Exodus 20:3-11)

The remaining six commandments apply to our loving one another: "Honor your father and your mother," "You shall not murder," "You shall not commit adultery," "ou shall not steal," "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor," and "You shall not covet... anything that is your neighbor's." — Exodus 20:12-17

This is why Jesus said at the end of his response, "The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:40) All of the Ten Commandments from God are summed up in the Two Great Commandments; if we follow those two, we will quite naturally follow the ten.

Here are the Ten Commandments as listed in Exodus 20:3-17:

  1. "You shall have no other gods before me."
  2. "You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me, and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments."
  3. "You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain, for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain."
  4. "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. You shall labor six days, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy."
  5. "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you."
  6. "You shall not murder."
  7. "You shall not commit adultery."
  8. "You shall not steal."
  9. "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor."
  10. "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."