Introduction
When Jesus gave the greatest commandment, “You shall love the Lord with all
your heart, and all your soul, and with all your mind” the Sadducees were testing Him.
This commandment came at what seems like the end of a long day of being tested. It
started out with the Pharisees wanting to seize Jesus, but they were afraid of His
followers (Matthew 21:45). The Pharisees instead decided to try to trap Him in His
teachings. They decided to send their disciples to trap Jesus in His own teachings.
Unable to trap Jesus, they left and in moved the Sadducees. The Sadducees asked Jesus
several questions in an attempt to trap Him. Verse 18 says that Jesus knew what they
were doing and even called them hypocrites. Even though He perceived their wicked
ways, Jesus answered all their questions.
What Jesus called the greatest commandment came out of a day of testing. The
Sadducees were asking Jesus about the greatest commandment, because it was of great
debate back then. The teachers of the Law were actually divided over which
commandment was most important to be followed1. While they expected Jesus to pick
one aspect of the Law over the other, He instead defined the Law with Loving God over
everything else2.
There are many versus throughout the gospels that talk about the greatest
commandment; this commandment is very significant, and should be applied into our
daily lives.
Gospels Discuss the First Commandment
Loving God is the first great commandment and there are several versus in the
Gospels that talk about this commandment. The Key verse, of course, is, Matthew_22:37
That says, “you shall love the lord your god with all your heart, and with all your soul,
and with all your mind.” This is repeated in Mark 12:30, and Luke 10:27. If a person
loves God more than all else, they cannot love anything else more than God. “Matthew
6:24 says, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the
other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and
wealth.” As this verse states, a person must love God more than anything else. Anything
a person loves more than God becomes their idol. Jesus says how we can love Him in
John 14:15, when He says those who love Him keep His commandments.
Matthew 4:18 and Mark 1:17 shows the Apostles love Jesus with al their hearts
and souls, because they immediately leave their jobs and lives to follow Jesus. Mark 8:34
Jesus summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to
come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” He then says
one must love Him even than they love their own life, “"For whoever wishes to save his
life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it (Mark
8:35).” This is shown again in Luke 5:27, when Levi the tax collecter leaves everything
behind to follow Jesus.
In John chapter 5, Jesus had just healed a man at the pool of Bethesda. The Jewish
leaders were persecuting Jesus and wanted to Kill Him. They were wanting to kill Jesus
because He was breaking the Sabbath by healing the man, and He was also calling
Himself God. In verse 42 Jesus says they do not have the love of God in themselves. If
they had loved God with all their heart, mind, and soul, then they would have known
1 ICE
2 Guzik commentary on N.T.
Jesus. Jesus makes that clear in John 8:42, when he says, if God were your Father, you
would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come
on My own initiative, but He sent me.” If one is to love God more than anything else, that
must include their own family. Luke 14:25-33 Jesus explains that one musyt love Him
more than their mother, father, and all their possessions. The Gospels talk a lot about how
we must love God, but it also talks about how much He loves us. In John 3:16 Jesus
describes how much the Father loves us by sending His only Son to die for the sins of the
world.
The Significance of the First Great Commandment
