Many of the teachers of the Law in Jesus’ time inadvertently saw God’s Word as a single simple thing: a rulebook. In their minds, they skipped over the parts that seemed less important and just got to the directions they were supposed to follow. If we’re honest with ourselves, many of us are guilty of the same error. How often do we tend to reduce the gospel down to instructions on how to live? Shouldn’t the instructions be backed by a big Why?
When the scribe asked Jesus what the most important commandment was, the power of Jesus’ answer was that he corrected the scribe’s thinking about the commandments. The most important is this: love God with all of your being. Why? Because he’s one, and because he’s good, and he’s all-powerful, and he’s sovereign over all things, and he steadfastly provides all that his people need, and he redeems them and saves them from evil, and he is the perfect standard and source of all things good in whom all of creation, including us his people, find our perfect fulfillment and joy. So love God! How could we do otherwise? Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 6 here, because this greatest commandment and the gospel behind it has persevered since the very beginning.
What does loving God look like exactly? We obey his commandments. We seek to glorify him. We act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with him, to quote the prophet Micah. And perhaps most importantly, we love others. We treat others with kindness, seek to elevate them at every opportunity, and desire and delight in their good even more than our own.
14th-century theologian Catherine of Siena contemplated why Jesus considered this the second most important commandment. She reasoned that, since we will never be able to love God as much as he has loved us, he gives us the ability to love our neighbors, and he counts love unto them as love unto himself. Loving others is not a secondary matter; it is in fact the primary way that we love our God.
The heart of Christian living is not morality; it’s love. It’s God’s defining characteristic, and so it should be ours. Consider today who God is—consider the good news of the gospel—and then respond with love overflowing. Love the Lord your God with the fullness of your being! Love your neighbor with the same! How could we do otherwise?
