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Love God and Neighbor by Fr. Reid Hensarling
Matthew 22:34-40
The Pharisees had tried to trap Jesus in his speech (22:15) without success. Now they learn that the Sadducees had been silenced and so they reviewed the situation among themselves. An expert in the law tested Jesus by asking him what was the greatest commandment in the Law. He probably hoped to catch Jesus in a misstatement that could trap him. The ongoing attempts to trick Jesus into an answer that would discredit him either with the authorities or with the public continued. His opponents never figured out that they were on a futile quest because of who Jesus was.
Jesus gives a brilliant reply about loving God and neighbor. The combination of Deuteronomy 6:5 (“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might”) and Leviticus 19:18 (“You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord”) form a summary of the requirements of God’s law, which forms the heart of this episode. The two great commandments do not dispense with all the rest, but the rest depend on them. They go together. The apostle John says, “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (I John 4:20-21). Love for God is always first. The second great commandment is properly understood only when viewed within the context of the more fundamental demand of the first. Love for one’s neighbor is inescapably practical and altruistic. The teaching of the primacy of loving others is also taken up by Paul in Romans 13:8: “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”
These two commandments involve the whole law and not only the law, but the prophets as well hang on these two commandments. Together they cover the two main foci of human responsibility under God. Anyone who loves God and people wholeheartedly is not going to come short in religious observances, nor in doing what is proper to other people. What really matters can be summed up in one word: love. This does not, of course, mean that all other commandments may be ignored and that all that one must do is love. The commandments of God are serious and must be observed. Jesus is saying that it is only when we love that we can truly obey them and that without love we do not really understand what the commandments mean. In one way or another all the commandments are expressions of God’s love. Love is the thrust of them all, and it is only as we love that we fulfill them. Far from making the law irrelevant, love becomes the primary principle for interpreting and applying the law.
True religion consists of a perfect love for God and of other human beings. “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins” (I Peter 4:10). “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth” (I John 3:18). “And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us” (I John 3:23). “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs” (I Corinthians 13:4-5). Unfortunately, none of us can love perfectly. That is why we need a Savior and that is why we need Jesus every day of our lives. May he grace you with his love for himself and for others.
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