The Greatest Commandment

The Greatest Commandment

Good Morning. Last week, we had an amazing Gospel lesson, which reflects well on today’s lesson. The Pharisees tried to trap Jesus there like they did today, after inviting him to a Sabbath dinner. As they sat to eat, there at the table was a man suffering terribly with dropsy or edema. His legs were filled with fluid, his body puffed up like a balloon. It would have been painful just to sit there.

They sat the man before Jesus like bait in a trap, hoping He would heal him so they could accuse Him of “working” on the Sabbath. And, of course, Jesus healed him. Then He looked them in the eye and asked, Which of you, if your son falls into a pit on the Sabbath, wouldn’t lift him out? Sorry, Sabbath!

The ultimate message is the same as the question at the heart of today’s passage in Matthew 22: What is it to love the Lord your God, and can I do it and refusing to love the person right in front of you?

Today, we find Jesus in the temple courts, teaching. It’s Tuesday, less than 72 hours before the crucifixion, and the Pharisees, Sadducees, lawyers, and priests have been lining up to take their best shot at discrediting Jesus. They’ve tried politics Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar? They’ve tried theology What happens if a woman has seven husbands, whose wife will she be in the resurrection?

We’ll read those stories next month. Each time, Jesus answers so perfectly they walk away embarrassed and humiliated, and eventually plot his death on Wednesday. But before this, one last time, they try to outsmart Jesus with one more question, and this one was thought up from their best legal expert.

“Teacher,” the man asks, “which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

It sounds simple, but it’s a loaded question. The Pharisees counted over 600 commandments in the Law of Moses. To pick one as “the greatest” would risk minimizing others. They hoped they could catch Jesus contradicting or at least minimizing Scripture. But Jesus doesn’t take the bait. He doesn’t pick one law over the others. Instead, He reveals what gives meaning to all of them. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.

Then He adds: And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

All of Scripture — every command, every story, every warning, every promise — hangs on this. Love of God first, and growing out of that, a love of each other reflecting God’s love. The Pharisees thought holiness meant precision, doing every detail correctly, every ritual, every rule. And those things are good. God’s Law is good! But the law can’t make you holy. It can only tell you how much you need the grace of a Holy God.

He’s not saying that learning about God, or doing works of charity aren’t important. He’s saying they matter to God when they come from a heart of love for God. Without that, they are empty habits. You can memorize half the Bible, serve on every church committee, give generously, and still miss the point if your heart isn’t anchored in love for the Lord.

It’s easy to fall into that pattern: Why do we come here on Sunday? Some come to feel uplifted, and that’s good. God does comfort His people. Some come to learn, and we are called to grow in knowledge. But those are not the main reasons God’s people gather.

The primary reason is worship, to love the Lord our God with heart, soul, and mind. That is what makes everything else we do meaningful.

Now, it’s important we don’t misunderstand what Jesus means by love. Our culture tends to think of love as a feeling, a warm emotion, or attraction, even a desire or affection. But biblical love is not passive or emotional. It’s active.

The word Jesus uses is agape, the love of commitment, self giving love. It’s not just about how we feel about God or others, feelings can change for many reasons, including headaches and sleep. It’s about how we choose to act, showing love even when we don’t feel like it, when we would rather just stay home.

It’s a following of God’s love for us. God doesn’t love us because we make Him feel good, but because He chooses to be gracious. He chooses to forgive. He gives Himself for us to redeem us, even when we had first chosen sin.

To “love God with all your heart and soul” means to orient your entire life toward Him: your decisions, your values, your priorities, to let your prayers, and thoughts turn continually toward Him. And to “love Him with all your mind” means to let His truth shape how you think, to study His Word not just to gather facts to support what I want to do, but to seek to know God’s heart. That’s an easy trap to fall into. When you love God like that, loving your neighbor becomes the natural overflow.