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Friday Focus, 21 August 2026

The Greatest Commandment

(Matthew 22.34-40)

At the time of Jesus there were considered to be 613 commandments in the Jewish Law. In theory all the commandments were to be observed with equal diligence but, in practice, it was recognized that some commandments were more important than others.

According to today’s gospel reading, the question that the Pharisees put to Jesus, ‘Which is the greatest commandment of the Law?’ was intended to put Jesus to the test. It was asked in the hope that Jesus would make some damaging statement. However, Jesus’ reply could hardly be faulted.  When you get to the heart of the matter, the whole of the law rests on one simple word:  love.

First, we are to love God with our whole being.  God does not want part of us, but all of us.

Yes, God must come first, but Jesus insists there is no true love of God without love of neighbour. We cannot claim to be honouring God if we dishonour another human being in any way, no matter how different he or she might be from us. Jesus brings together these two commandments from different parts of the Bible, in a way no one else had done before him. He shows us very clearly that the way to God always passes through other people. Elsewhere in Matthew’s gospel Jesus identifies himself with our neighbour, especially the vulnerable and broken neighbour. Our love of neighbour is to be a reflection of God’s love of us. In loving God with all our being we are caught up into God’s love of us all. In going towards God in love, we go from God in love towards others.

But we are not simply to love our neighbours; we are to love ourselves as well—just as God has loved us.  It is a great tragedy that too many of us are not able to love ourselves—we feel unworthy and inadequate, burdened by guilt and shame, and we forget that God loves us, warts and all.  Of course, if one cannot love oneself, it is hard to love others—including God.  Rather than a loving parent, God becomes an angry judge to be feared and our neighbours become rivals to be guarded against. 

Christians and the Church often make things far more complicated than they need to be.  When all is said and done, our faith can be summed up in one simple word:  love.  God, who is love, loves us and so we are called to love God, our neighbours, and ourselves.

Norman+

 

 

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