the Two Commandments of Jesus

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” - Mathew. 22:37-40

Jesus’ first and greatest commandment – to love God with our whole hearts – and then His second – to love our neighbors as ourselves – were never meant to be separated. As theologian Meredith Kline said, “The two commandments of Jesus do not distinguish two separable areas of human life but two complementary aspects of human responsibility…” Jesus made it clear through His teaching, and we see now clearly through His Scriptures, that the more we come to know and love Him, the more we should love others. Not separately, but one out of the other. The more we know the love of God, the more that love should be pouring out of us to others.

But how are we to love them? Not, as our modern Christian culture sometimes tells us, by preaching God’s love at them. No – we are called to love them like Christ. Because we are called to be like Christ, we are called to love others like him. “Why are we to love our neighbors? Because we love the God who loves them; and, according to the principle articulated in the Sabbath commandment (Exod. 20:11), the imperative to love God is also a demand to be like Him.” (Kline) We are called to become like Christ and love like He loved, with His love.

And what does that look like? Let’s look at His life: it looks like living out a love to powerful, so heartfelt, so compassionate that it draws people to you. It doesn’t look like preaching at people – it looks like showing God to people and then giving them a reason for your love when it stands out to them so much that they ask you about it. Christ never shied away from sharing Truth – but He lived in such a way that people actually asked to hear the Truth. It means we weep with those who are heartbroken; give to those that have none even, and especially, when we ourselves have none; we eat with those who are most hated and converse with those who could ruin our reputation even by our proximity to them; we do not follow religious tradition or what is culturally accepted but instead question the heart of the matter; we do not look at one as accepted and one as different (or one as American and another as immigrant…) but we look at all as children of God who deserve to be shown grace and pushed towards Something better. In John 4:4-26, Jesus talked to a Samaritan woman – a woman who, simply because she was a Samaritan (a group of people who were only half-Jew) was considered a foreigner and an outcast. She was a woman that no self-respecting man ever would have talked to at that time. Yet Christ approached her, asked her questions, spoke truth, and challenged her towards something better. He looked at her and saw a hurting child of God, and loved her. He saw no color, no race, no religion. He saw a woman created in God’s image and loved her with his actions.

Loving like Christ ultimately means we look to God’s Kingdom purposes and not our own – we love others more than ourselves and our own theology, our own purposes, our own political ideology, our own image. We die in humiliation, as Christ did, if that is what is required of us to accomplish God’s purposes; we love those who hate us to the point of heart-wrenching pain and cultural shame.

Out of God’s love, we are called to love others as He loved us.