When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them [a scholar of the law] tested him by asking, 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and the first commandment. 39 The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
The Pharisees approach Jesus after He has silenced the Sadducees in their dispute with Him about the resurrection. One of them, a scholar trained in the Law of Moses, asks Jesus, “Which commandment in the law is the greatest?” (v. 36). Although the Ten Commandments formed the foundation of Israel’s moral law, the books of Moses contained many additional commandments concerning worship, justice, family life, ritual observance, and community life. Jewish tradition later counted 613 commandments in the Torah. Teachers of the Law therefore sought ways to identify what lay at the center of all these commandments. Matthew tells us, however, that this particular question was also intended to test Jesus.
Jesus answers by quoting Deuteronomy: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (v. 37; Deuteronomy 6:5). These words belong to the Shema, Israel’s profession of faith and a central part of Jewish prayer. Jesus declares this to be “the greatest and the first commandment” (v. 38).
To love God with heart, soul, and mind means that love of God must involve the whole person. Biblical love is more than an emotion or feeling. It includes a deliberate commitment to God, faithfulness to Him, and a willingness to live according to His will. Jesus therefore places love of God at the center of a life directed toward God.
Although the scholar asks for only one commandment, Jesus immediately adds another: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 39), quoting Leviticus 19:18. Loving our neighbor “as yourself” calls us to care about the good of another person with the same seriousness with which we naturally care about our own needs.
Jesus says that this second commandment “is like” the first because love of God and love of neighbor belong together. The human person is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), meaning that every person has a unique dignity because each is created by God with the capacity to know and love Him. For that reason, genuine love of God leads us to love those whom God has created and loves. Conversely, our treatment of other people gives visible expression to the love of God that we profess. As the First Letter of John later states, “whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20).
Jesus had already shown that this love extends beyond family, friends, and those who treat us well. He commands His disciples, “love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). Love of neighbor therefore seeks and wills the true good of every person, even when affection is absent or the relationship is difficult.
Jesus concludes, “The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments” (v. 40). “The law and the prophets” is a way of referring to the Scriptures of Israel. The image behind the word “depend” is that they “hang” upon these two commandments. Jesus is not abolishing the other commandments or replacing them with a vague idea of love. Rather, He reveals the principle that gives them unity and proper direction.
The Ten Commandments illustrate this relationship. The commandments concerning worship and reverence for God express our duty to love God, while those governing our relationships with other people express our duty to love our neighbor (Exodus 20:2–17). St. Paul later expresses the same principle when he teaches that “love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10).
Jesus therefore brings the many commands of Scripture into a unified vision of human life: love God above all things with our whole being, and because we love God, love the people He has created. The two commandments cannot be separated. Together they summarize the life to which God calls us and the purpose toward which His commandments direct us.
The importance of these words has remained visible in Jewish life through the centuries. Deuteronomy commands that they be written “on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:9). From this command developed the Jewish practice, still common today, of placing a mezuzah on the doorpost of the home. The mezuzah contains passages of Scripture that include the Shema. Thus the command to love God was intended not merely to be remembered, but to accompany the believer in the ordinary life of the home.
Lord, teach us to love You with all our heart, soul, and mind. Help us to show that love by willing the good of every person You place in our lives, including those whom we find difficult to love. Amen.
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Sources and References
- The New American Bible, Revised Edition. Washington, DC: Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 2011. Notes on Matthew 22:34–40.
- Aguilar Chiu, José Enrique, et al., eds. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. New York: Paulist Press, 2018. 953–54.
- Brown, Raymond E., Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy, eds. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990. 666, para. 133.
- Casciaro, José María, gen. ed. The Navarre Bible: New Testament, Expanded Edition. Dublin: Four Courts Press; New York: Scepter Publishers, 2008. 125.
- Collins, John J., Gina Hens-Piazza, Barbara Reid, OP, and Donald Senior, CP, eds. The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century. 3rd fully rev. ed. London: T&T Clark, 2022. 1219.
- Hahn, Scott, and Curtis Mitch. The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2010. 47.
- Mitch, Curtis, and Edward Sri. The Gospel of Matthew. Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010. 288–89.
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