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But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22: 34-40
I think it's funny. He wasn't asked what the second greatest commandment is. But He gave two answers to what was meant as a trick question, because everything hangs on these two: To love God, and to love your neighbor.
Some of us tend to think of the 10 Commandments as boundaries. Things we are allowed to do, and things we aren't; things we need to avoid, and duties we need to fulfill.
And, of course, they are commandments, they really do require obedience, but Christ asks us to see something underneath that obedience: Love.
The First Commandment doesn't just tell me not to worship false gods - it tells me whom my heart is actually for. Keeping holy the Lord's Day isn't merely about checking a box on Sunday morning. It's about recognizing that my time belongs to God. Honoring my father and mother isn't simply about following a rule concerning family relationships. It's about learning to give the honor that is owed to another person.
And the commandments against lying, stealing, adultery, and coveting all reach deeper than the particular actions they prohibit. They reveal something about what we owe to our neighbors, and about what happens inside our own hearts when we stop willing their good.
The Commandments aren't arbitrary obstacles standing between us and happiness. They teach us what love looks like when it becomes concrete.
That's where the Great Commandment gets... difficult. It's easy to say that I love God. It's much harder to let that love dictate what I do with my time, my money, my attention, my desires, and my relationships.
It's easy to say that I love my neighbor. It's harder when my neighbor is inconvenient, irritating, someone I would rather avoid.
Christ sets one of these as the "greatest", but He does something important: He wasn't asked for the second greatest commandment, but He gave it anyway because it's they go together. Love of God becomes visible in the way we live, and love of neighbor becomes the primary place where our love of God is tested.
The Commandments tell us what love requires, and Christ reminds us why. And maybe the question isn't simply, “Am I keeping the Commandments?” as much as “Is love the reason I keep them?”
That's a much harder question. And probably a more important one.
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