We Cannot Love Without First Loving God

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sad′ducees, they came together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, to test 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 first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”

Matthew 22:34-40

There is surely not a Christian alive who is not intimately familiar with the Great Commandment. Nor are there likely any who are not also aware of the second Commandment, which Jesus presented as nearly co-equal with the first.

Yet I suspect we often do not pause to consider all that Jesus might have been saying in this teaching. Recently I have been struck by its logical elegance, its all-encompassing completeness.

At first, Jesus might be seen as saying too much. If the question is “what is the greatest commandment?” what need is there to add a second commandment to the answer? Why not stop simply with “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind”?

The obvious and necessary answer is that the second is relevant and somehow connected to the first. The second commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” is somehow essential to the first.

Whatever the connection between these two commandments, Jesus makes clear their importance cannot be overstated. As He says, all the rest of God’s Law, and everything taught by each of the prophets, is foundationally derived from this pair of commandments.

How is that even possible? How can one reduce all of Jewish Law—all of God’s Law—along with all the teachings of the prophets, to two relatively simple and straightforward commandments?

The Great Commandment itself is structurally simple: Love God with every aspect of your being. Every thought, every feeling, every impulse should have at its core love and reverence for God.

Love for God is why we follow God’s Law, and why we heed God’s Word.

Love for God is very much the “what” which leads to God’s Law.

But loving anyone or anything is by definition an action. “Love” is best understood as a verb and not as a noun.

When we love someone, our words and our actions reflect that we love them. We say and do certain things.

What, then, do we say and do to show our love for God?

Jesus apparently anticipated this question, for rather than wait for the Pharisee to ask it, He gave the answer.

We show our love for God by loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.

If the Great Commandment is the “what” which leads to God’s Law, the second and nearly co-equal Commandment is there for the “how”—how we show or love for God is by loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.

This much seems fairly obvious even with just casual contemplation.

Yet how do we go about showing love for one another?

If we are indeed following God’s Law, the answer is self-evident. If we are following God’s Law by definition we are compassionate towards one another. If we are following God’s Law by definition we care about what happens to our fellow human beings. If we are following God’s Law by definition we help one another, whether it is a small everyday act of kindness such as opening a door for someone whose hands are full or a larger gesture such as helping to feed the poor and the homeless.

Yet as important as what we do is with regards to showing love for our neighbor, what we do not do is no less significant.

We do not indulge our neighbor’s sins. We do not turn a blind eye to bad behavior, but are explicit in calling out bad behavior as such. We do not excuse or rationalize the sins of others any more than we excuse or rationalize our own sins.

We cannot forgive others their trespasses against us without first identifying and calling out those same trespasses. We cannot forgive one who has done us wrong without saying “you did me wrong.”

If we love our neighbor, we hold our neighbor accountable for what they do, and for what they do not do—just as we ourselves are held to account for what we do, and what we do not do.

How do we know what constitutes sin? Sin is any word or deed that does not reconcile to God’s Law. If some act of ours is in any way sinful, that same act is sinful if done by others—God’s Law does not play favorites.

The second commandment is necessary for the Great Commandment to be realized and rendered into action. The Great Commandment is essential for the second commandment to be enacted at all.

The reality is that we cannot truly love one another or love ourselves without first loving God. Our love for God is where the choice to do what is right originates. Our love for God is where our desire to follow God’s Law begins. Our love for God is where our understanding of how we may love one another starts.

The reality is also that we cannot genuinely care about others without first caring about what is right and what is wrong. We cannot genuinely show compassion for others without holding to account not only ourselves but them as well.

If we are to build others up we must not only make good choices regarding how we treat others but we must encourage good choice in others regarding how they treat themselves. We must be willing to declare openly that self-care is not just a good idea, but is a moral duty each of us owes to God.

If we are to build a good and just society we must not only do the right thing ourselves, but motivate others to do the right thing side by side with us. We must be willing to declare openly that we are all called to do that right thing, and to make good choices. We must be willing to declare openly that making good choices is the essence of what it means to follow God’s Law and to heed God’s Word.

If we do not do these things, then we cannot truly love our neighbor or ourselves. If we do not do these things, then we cannot truly follow God’s Law, and it is certain we are not heeding God’s Word.

If we do not do these things, then we cannot truly love God.

So it is that within these two commandments, first to love God with all our heart, and all our soul, and all our mind, and second to love our neighbor as ourselves is found all the particulars of God’s Law. So it is that every teaching of the prophets—every calling to account and every assurance of forgiveness—unfolds directly from these two commandments.

Jesus was not exaggerating when He said that all of God’s Law and all of God’s Word depends these two commandments!

My prayer each day is that I will be true in my love for God and my desire to follow God’s Law. My prayer each day is that I will reflect my love for God by showing love for all who are my neighbor. My prayer each day is that I will find ways to build my neighbor up, encouraging them to make good choices, and so lead them always back to God’s Law, and back to God.

My prayer for you is that you also will be true in loving God and in following God’s Law. My prayer for you is that you also will reflect that love of God by showing love for all who are your neighbor. My prayer for you is that you also will find ways to build your neighbor up, encouraging them to make good choices, and so lead them always back to God’s Law, and back to God.

We are all called to love God. We are all called to love each other as we love ourselves.

If we do not love each other as we love ourselves, we do not truly love God. Yet if we do not love God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind, we can never love each other or ourselves.