(Laws of God )
Matthew 22:36
“Teacher,
which is the greatest commandment in the law?”
Looking at all the laws of God can
be very overwhelming to take in all of what is right or wrong, what you
should do or not do, and what he requires of you. However, this is not
to say God’s laws are burdensome:
1 John 5:3
"...And his commands are not burdensome"
Yet There are hundreds of Laws in
the Old Covenant that make up God’s righteous foundation for how a
human (especially an Israelite) should correctly live:
But what’s the ultimate meaning of all these laws God commanded? Where
do we even begin if we want to obey all of them? And most importantly
are there some more important than others? As the Jewish people repented from
their idolatry and came back to obeying God’s laws he commanded for
them as a whole, many of the scholars (especially the
religious-political group of pharisees) not only questioned all of
God’s laws but also added more laws that were not commanded: it began
to be an unnecessary burden and source of confusion for all the
faithful Jews who wanted to obey their God’s covenant with
them. During Jesus’s ministry, this is
what inspired a Pharisee to ask Jesus a trick question (they thought)
that he most likely though might trip him up and expose him as a
hypocrite and false prophet:
Matthew 22:35-36 “One of them, an expert in the law,
tested him with this question: ‘Teacher,
which is the greatest
commandment in the Law?’”
Though he did not genuinely ask this in sincerity, despite the hundreds of
laws God commanded Israel to follow; he really did ask a very
revolutionary question to Jesus:
And Jesus gave a very sincere
answer: he told this man the most important command(s) God
gave:
Matthew 22:37-39 “Jesus replied: (Deuteronomy 6:5) ''Love the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your soul and with your entire mind.' This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is like it: (Leviticus 19:18) ‘Love
your neighbor as yourself.’’”
This answer is VERY significant! he answers it fully and very straight forward:
It’s crystal clear:
The MOST
IMPORTANT LAW is to LOVE
GOD WITH ALL YOUR BEING!
Not only was this the first command Moses told Isreal before they entered into the promiseland but its also the very first command and also most important law God ever commaded:
Love God completely and totally:
The command of commands
This command is so important simply because it What it's all about : the whole point of obeying God's commands is to love and show respect to him! That's his whole entire desire: for his human creations (especially Isrealites) to love their creator fully and completley before anything else. It's also very important; because if you are willing to love God completly and genuinlly you will also love what he loves and want to obey what he wants you to:
1 John 5:3
"In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome"
So If you can obey this one rule then all the other laws he commands will fall into place. If you love him everything else will fall into place because you have obeyed the main rule!
However, why loving God is the most important law ; loving your neighbor (other humans) is almost equally as important:
Because God not only desires his human creations to love him above eveything but also desires them to love eachother: Why it might make sence to love your creator it might be harder to love his other creations: especially other humans (especially, if their hard to love or get along with). Yet God desires his human creations to love other humans and care for them and act appropriately towards them: After all, if you loves God you should love what he loves: and he loves his human creations (especially his holy people Isrealites) so you should also love other humans. If you love other humans then you will naturally obey many of the other commadments of the Ten Commadments and many of the other laws God commaded.
This is one of the biggest reasons why Jesus also commanded his disciples to love one another as he loved them; its because it's both his and God's desire for them to love one another.
Paul goes as far as to say to love one another fufills all of God's laws:
Romans 13:8
"...whoever loves others has
fulfilled the law"
Therefore,
love is not only importantbetween humans and God, but its also
important to have love between
other fellow humans as well!
Matthew 22:40
'All the Law
and the Prophets hang
on these two commandments.’
The single most important law that makes up the entire core of God’s laws is this (even the all the prophecies ever given are because of this): Paul also confirms love does fulfill the entire law of God:
Romans 13:8
"...love…has
fufilled the law."
Thus these two commands of
love: is the ultimate summary and revelation of
why God commanded or told a human ever single law/prophecy he did.
All
the other laws that God commanded will be shown to be Literally ALL
about love for God/others in some way, shape, or form.
Thus these two
commands are the greatest laws of God: and this does not mean any
of the other commands of God no longer matter and are therefore no
longer required to be obeyed ,but rather it comfirms the ultimate
purpose of everything God commands it all about these two commands.
This is how extremely important these two laws are and how important
they are to obey!