Understanding the Greatest Commandments

Angela Diaz
Jul 24
4 min read

When a religious expert tested Jesus with the question, "Which is the greatest commandment?" he likely expected a scholarly debate about the relative importance of various religious laws. Instead, Jesus gave an answer so elegant in its simplicity that it has echoed through centuries: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

But here's what strikes me as remarkable about these greatest commandments: Jesus didn't just give one commandment. He gave two, treating them as inseparable halves of a single truth.

The Deception of Simplicity

We live in an age that mistakes simple statements for simple realities. Because these commandments can be memorized by a child, we assume they can be mastered just as easily. But consider this: is it simple to love someone who has wounded you deeply? Is it straightforward to love with "all your heart, soul, and strength" when our hearts are divided, our souls conflicted, and our strength limited?

The genius of these commandments lies not in their ease, but in their comprehensiveness. They don't reduce the spiritual life to a manageable checklist—they expand it to encompass every thought, every relationship, every moment of our existence.

What Does It Mean to Love God Completely?

When Jesus spoke of loving God with all our heart, soul, and strength, he was calling us to something far more radical than warm feelings during worship services.

To love with all your heart means to desire what God desires—to have your wants and wishes gradually aligned with His character and purposes.

To love with all your soul means to allow your deepest identity to be shaped by your relationship with Him—not just your Sunday morning self, but your Monday morning, traffic-jam, difficult-conversation self.

To love with all your strength means to expend your energy, your talents, your resources in ways that reflect His values and serve His kingdom.

This isn't about perfection; it's about direction. It's the difference between a life that occasionally nods toward God and a life that is fundamentally oriented around Him.

The Inseparable Second

But why did Jesus immediately add the second commandment? Why not let love of God stand alone?

Here's the beautiful truth: you cannot genuinely love someone while despising what they have made and cherish. If I claimed to love you but treated your children with contempt, you'd rightly question the authenticity of my love.

Every person you encounter—the difficult coworker, the annoying neighbor, the family member who pushes your buttons—bears the image of God. They are His workmanship, His concern, His beloved creation. To love God while harboring genuine hatred or indifference toward people is like trying to honor an artist while vandalizing their masterpiece.

Love Your Neighbor as Yourself: The Standard We Carry

This phrase assumes something important: that we have a baseline understanding of proper self-care. Not the narcissistic self-obsession of our culture, nor the self-loathing that tears us down, but the practical, daily care we naturally extend to ourselves.

You feed yourself when hungry, seek warmth when cold, rest when tired. You don't have to work up special feelings to do these things—you just do them because you are you, and your welfare matters to you.

To love your neighbor as yourself means extending that same practical consideration to others. It means their comfort, their dignity, their well-being becomes as natural a concern to you as your own.

Why These Are Called the Greatest Commandments

These two commandments aren't just important—they're foundational. Think of them as the sun from which all other moral light derives.

If you genuinely loved God with your entire being, would you take His name carelessly? Would you worship other gods? If you truly loved your neighbor as yourself, would you steal from them, lie to them, envy what belongs to them?

Every other commandment, every ethical principle, every call to righteousness flows from these two sources. Remove them, and everything else becomes arbitrary rules and cultural preferences.

The Challenge of Integration

Here's what makes these commandments both beautiful and terrifying: they can't be compartmentalized. You can't love God on Sundays and ignore Him during the week. You can't claim love for humanity while treating specific humans poorly.

This integration is precisely what makes the spiritual life so challenging and so transformative. It's far easier to follow a thousand small rules mechanically than to live from a heart that's learning to love truly.

When We Fail (And We Will)

The standard is impossibly high, and if we're honest, we fail at it daily. Our love for God competes with our love for comfort, recognition, and control. Our love for neighbors runs up against our selfishness, prejudices, and fears.

But here's the grace baked into these commandments: the same God who calls us to love Him completely is the God who empowers us to love at all. The transformation these commandments require isn't something we achieve through willpower alone—it's something that happens as we remain connected to the source of love Himself.

The Revolution Hiding in Plain Sight

Jesus took two passages from the Hebrew scriptures that his listeners knew well and showed them something they'd missed: the entire spiritual life has always been about love. Not love as sentiment, but love as the fundamental orientation of a life lived in right relationship with God and others.

This wasn't a new teaching—it was the revelation of what had always been true. Love was never an addendum to religion, tacked on as an afterthought. It was always the point.

Living the Double Love

So how do we live this out practically? Perhaps it begins with recognizing that every interaction is an opportunity to practice both of these greatest commandments simultaneously. When we serve others, we serve God. When we worship God, we're reminded of His love for the people around us.

It means that our spiritual growth can't be separated from our relationships. Our love for God will always be tested and refined in our love for people. Our love for people will always find its source and standard in our love for God.

These two commandments don't make the spiritual life easier, they make it whole. They remind us that we were made for love, by Love, to love. Everything else is just the working out of that fundamental truth.

The beautiful architecture Jesus revealed isn't complicated. But it will spend our lifetime teaching us what it means.