I remember sitting in Life and Teachings of Jesus in college, and a guest professor for the day asked the question to a group of students "What is the most important command in all of scripture?" There were several different responses from everything including the first commandment to the "Great Commission" to the "Greatest Commands". Ultimately, one of these is really the correct answer, but which one is that? The answer is correctly named "The Greatest Commands", "'Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' The second is like it, 'love your neighbor as yourself.'" The problem isn't necessarily that we don't follow it, but that we don't actually understand what it means to be the greatest command.
There's a story recorded in the Talmuds about two Rabbinical schools, a Roman centurion came to the first school and demanded "Teach me your Torah (the Law) while I stand here on one foot." The rabbi in charge hew him out without saying anything. So he went across town and said the same thing to the other school. The rabbi there said to him "Love God with your whole being and Love your neighbor as yourself. The rest is commentary." THEN he threw him out. When Jesus is asked "What is the greatest command?" he is being asked the same question as the centurion in the story, my professor is asking our class, and the meaning behind this would have been understood by the Jewish audience present to hear Jesus' answer. Our western idea of commands is very rigid and set, we see it as a list of do's and don'ts that all have all hold equal weight, but the problem is that that isn't how this would have been understood to it's first audience. It was understood sort of like a hierarchy, some laws were more important than others laws, and different rabbis would answer differently. Everyone agreed the highest commandment was Love the Lord your God, and how you loved God (besides the laws directly against God: idolatry, blasphemy, and apostasy) was about how you follow his commands (if you love me, keep my commandments).
We all know that Christ answers "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' The second is like it, 'love your neighbor as yourself'. All of the law and the prophets hang on those two commandments." What essentially Jesus is saying here is that you love God by loving your neighbor as yourself. Several passages I've found people don't often talk about are by Paul, John, and James. First, Paul after building an argument " Paul, after building an argument in Romans about law, grace, and sin says "Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet'; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law" is saying the same thing, and in fact, actually explaining it to his partially Gentile audience. The writer of James says the same thing "But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law." The writer 1 John says again explains that it all comes down to loving your neighbor and blatantly explains how it connects to loving God as it says that you can't love God if you don't love your neighbor since you don't know God. He explains a bit plainly than Paul and James what Jesus meant by "ALL of the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.
Love is the commandment, by which all other commandments follow, not "be kind to each other, and also don't do this, that, and all of these other things." That comes from our understanding of how commandments works as sort of a set of rigid, cold rules, not from scripture. What scripture is meaning by You love God by loving your neighbor as yourself is that if you focus on loving your neighbor as yourself, it will all fall into place and you cannot go wrong. John even takes it a step further and says if you do not love, you do not even know God because God is love.
God, like us (anyone honest will admit that rigid rules are not always best to define right and wrong), also knows that mere rules and regulations are not always sufficient to actually define sin, the specifics make a huge difference. That's why God's law does not work like human law in that it is simply a list of do's and don'ts. God's law is based upon principles, and that these principles are the things that actually matter over following the letter of the law. This is one of the most repeated messages of Jesus throughout the gospels and the main point of the Sermon on the Mount: the purpose and principle of the law is more important than the letter of the law. In fact, Jesus even takes it one step further and says that these principles actually hold us to a higher standard.
One of the most common counter arguments I always hear "this is a license/excuse to sin!". No, it means that all sins are inherently unloving acts and always produce bad fruit. he question "is this a sin?" should be synonymous with asking "Is this a loving act?". If you loved your spouse, you don't cheat on someone. If you loved the poor, you wouldn't act greedy towards them. If you love someone, you don't covet what they have you, you are happy good things have come their way. This can be done for every single one of God's commandments. That's where the principle holds us to a higher standard, if we turn scripture into a list of do's and don'ts, we're not truly loving our neighbor, we're just following a list of rules.
There's a story recorded in the Talmuds about two Rabbinical schools, a Roman centurion came to the first school and demanded "Teach me your Torah (the Law) while I stand here on one foot." The rabbi in charge hew him out without saying anything. So he went across town and said the same thing to the other school. The rabbi there said to him "Love God with your whole being and Love your neighbor as yourself. The rest is commentary." THEN he threw him out. When Jesus is asked "What is the greatest command?" he is being asked the same question as the centurion in the story, my professor is asking our class, and the meaning behind this would have been understood by the Jewish audience present to hear Jesus' answer. Our western idea of commands is very rigid and set, we see it as a list of do's and don'ts that all have all hold equal weight, but the problem is that that isn't how this would have been understood to it's first audience. It was understood sort of like a hierarchy, some laws were more important than others laws, and different rabbis would answer differently. Everyone agreed the highest commandment was Love the Lord your God, and how you loved God (besides the laws directly against God: idolatry, blasphemy, and apostasy) was about how you follow his commands (if you love me, keep my commandments).
We all know that Christ answers "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' The second is like it, 'love your neighbor as yourself'. All of the law and the prophets hang on those two commandments." What essentially Jesus is saying here is that you love God by loving your neighbor as yourself. Several passages I've found people don't often talk about are by Paul, John, and James. First, Paul after building an argument " Paul, after building an argument in Romans about law, grace, and sin says "Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet'; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law" is saying the same thing, and in fact, actually explaining it to his partially Gentile audience. The writer of James says the same thing "But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law." The writer 1 John says again explains that it all comes down to loving your neighbor and blatantly explains how it connects to loving God as it says that you can't love God if you don't love your neighbor since you don't know God. He explains a bit plainly than Paul and James what Jesus meant by "ALL of the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.
Love is the commandment, by which all other commandments follow, not "be kind to each other, and also don't do this, that, and all of these other things." That comes from our understanding of how commandments works as sort of a set of rigid, cold rules, not from scripture. What scripture is meaning by You love God by loving your neighbor as yourself is that if you focus on loving your neighbor as yourself, it will all fall into place and you cannot go wrong. John even takes it a step further and says if you do not love, you do not even know God because God is love.
God, like us (anyone honest will admit that rigid rules are not always best to define right and wrong), also knows that mere rules and regulations are not always sufficient to actually define sin, the specifics make a huge difference. That's why God's law does not work like human law in that it is simply a list of do's and don'ts. God's law is based upon principles, and that these principles are the things that actually matter over following the letter of the law. This is one of the most repeated messages of Jesus throughout the gospels and the main point of the Sermon on the Mount: the purpose and principle of the law is more important than the letter of the law. In fact, Jesus even takes it one step further and says that these principles actually hold us to a higher standard.
One of the most common counter arguments I always hear "this is a license/excuse to sin!". No, it means that all sins are inherently unloving acts and always produce bad fruit. he question "is this a sin?" should be synonymous with asking "Is this a loving act?". If you loved your spouse, you don't cheat on someone. If you loved the poor, you wouldn't act greedy towards them. If you love someone, you don't covet what they have you, you are happy good things have come their way. This can be done for every single one of God's commandments. That's where the principle holds us to a higher standard, if we turn scripture into a list of do's and don'ts, we're not truly loving our neighbor, we're just following a list of rules.
