Commandment

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 first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. - Matthew 22:37-39

The context of this statement by Jesus was a trick question asked of him by a Pharisee who “was a lawyer.” The question he asked was this: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Trick question. The evidence is that scribes held to there being a total of 613 laws, with 248 being affirmative and 365 being negative. According to one author I read, some Pharisees even argued that the commandment to wear fringes on the garments was the greatest of the 613!

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

You have to love Jesus’ answer. In a brilliance only the true Son of God could muster, he succinctly summed up all of the law (all 613 of them) by saying two things: First, “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 first commandment.”

And then he continues by saying, “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus’ ministry was one that made things rather simple.  Sum up 613 laws with two.  The heart of the Christian faith is so unpretentious.  Do two things…and everything else will fall into place.  Maybe even all 613 laws.

OK, let me admit, even Jesus’ two simple commandments, however, may not be so easy to do. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  There are three alls in that sentence.  All my heart, all my soul, and my mind.  That is a lot of everything.  Then there is this love your neighbor as yourself.  Right. Jesus never met my neighbors! (just kidding, by the way).

But as we drift deeper into the season of Lent, hopefully one spends more time thinking about what all Jesus went through for each of us, the persecution, the pain, the cross.  And how ultimately unworthy any of us are.  And that just makes me love him more and want to know him deeper. (visit Philippians 3:10)  and, it also makes me want to share his love and grace and truth any all that I come into contact with. 

And if that is where my heart truly is, and even though I may fulfill my desires in an incomplete manner, is that not still what “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 first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself, all about?

I want to know him more; and I want to share him.  Do two things…and everything else will fall into place.  Can it be that simple?

I’m fairly sure the answer is yes….