The Greatest Commandment
I have two teenagers, and sometimes they don’t act like they love me. Not only that, oftentimes they won’t even say the words, “I love you.”
How should I respond? One thing I would like to do is command them to love me. I could demand that they love me or else!
How do you think that would work out? I see it going one of two ways.
First, they might resent me and rebel.
Or second, they might fear me, and do it so that they won’t get punished. If that happened, it might be noticeable from the outside that they appear to love me, but would that really be the case? No, of course not. They would just be performing and acting like they love me to avoid punishment or to get blessings from me.
We cannot command or demand that our kids love us in order to produce real love for us as parents. It doesn’t work, yet one of the most often quoted Bible verses to Christians from our pulpits is the commandment to love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
If we know that commanding our own kids to love us would not produce genuine love for us as parents, then why do we think that it would work with God?
When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, did His answer mean that this is what He was commanding us to do?
Let’s look at the passage in Matthew 22 to find out.
THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT
In Matthew 22, there were religious leaders trying to test and trap Jesus. Matthew tells us this as Jesus gets posed with the question about the greatest commandment.
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
(Matthew 22:34-36)
So, this is the context of the question. It’s posed by a Pharisee who was an expert in the law, and he was trying to test or trap Jesus. Let’s look at Jesus’ reply.
37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”
(Matthew 22:37-39)
First, let me ask you how you are doing with these two commandments? Are you loving God with ALL of your heart, ALL of your soul, and with ALL of your mind? And are you really loving your neighbor AS YOURSELF?
My guess is that you are loving God with some of your heart, soul, and mind, but not every aspect of your heart, soul, and mind. I would imagine that while you might love other people, you probably aren’t loving them as much as you love yourself (based on your actions).
If that’s true, why not? I mean Jesus commanded you to do it, so why are you not doing it?
YOU DIED TO THE LAW
After Jesus’ death, resurrection, ascension, and sending of the Spirit to indwell believers, the writers of Scripture teach us that we died to the law.
One of those places is found in Romans 7.
4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
(Romans 7:4-6)
I’m not sure Paul could be any clearer here. He says that we died to the law and have been released from the law. He says that we no longer serve in the old way of the written code (law).
What does this have to do with Jesus’ commands in Matthew?
They were a response to a question about the greatest commandment in the Law. So, if we have died to the law and been released from the law and no longer serve by the way of the written code, as Paul said, then Jesus must have meant something different for us here.
What could that be? Well, the apostle Paul said earlier in Romans that no one is declared righteous in God’s sight by works of the law (Romans 3:20).
In other words, you were not going to be declared righteous by God for trying to love Him with all of your heart, mind, and soul.
Why? Because it’s impossible. Paul also says in that same verse that through the law we become conscious of our sin (Romans 3:20).
If Jesus says the greatest command is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, then I’m going to realize that I have a problem. I can’t do that. I’m going to become conscious of my sin and recognize my need for a Savior.
If Jesus says the second greatest commandment is to love my neighbor as myself, then I’m going to realize I have a problem. I can’t do that. I’m going to become conscious of my sin and recognize my need for a Savior.
RECEIVE, REST IN, AND EXPRESS GOD’S LOVE
After Jesus’ death, resurrection, ascension, and sending of the Spirit, the writers of the New Covenant were never inspired by the Spirit to command people to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Instead, they were inspired to write about the love that God has for us.
The apostle John actually reminds us that love doesn’t come from us loving God but rather His love for us.
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins… 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
(1 John 4:10)
When the apostle Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians, he shared what he prayed for them, and it wasn’t that they would love God with all of their heart, mind, and soul, but rather that they would know God’s love.
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
(Ephesians 3:17-19)
Commanding people to love God doesn’t produce true love, but receiving God’s love and knowing you are rooted and established in love will allow you to rest in His love and have it expressed through you.
Being rooted and established in love also means that you have been given a new heart and a new nature.
You are rooted in a spiritual union with Christ. You are intertwined as one with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17), and He is love (1 John 4:16).
In Christ, your new heart is filled with love for God and for other people. Instead of demanding that you love Him, He’s given you a genuine heart of love by His grace.
Therefore, instead of trying to prove your love for Him by mustering up love in your heart, mind, and soul, recognize His love for you that has been put in you and is expressed through you.