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.”
In today's Gospel, Jesus is questioned by a scholar of the Jewish Law after He has answered a challenge from the Sadducees concerning the resurrection. The scholar asks which of God's commandments is the greatest. Although Matthew describes the question as a test, it concerns an important matter in Jewish religious life: understanding the central teaching that gives meaning to God's commandments.
Jesus answers by quoting Deuteronomy 6:5, a passage belonging to the Shema, Israel's central profession of faith. He declares, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (v. 37). This commandment calls for the love of God with one's whole being. The heart represents our desires and decisions, the soul our life, and the mind our understanding. Together, these expressions teach that loving God involves every part of who we are.
The love Jesus describes is more than an emotion or feeling of affection. It is a faithful commitment to God, expressed through trust, obedience, and the choices we make each day. In Israel's Scriptures, love of God is closely connected with faithfulness to His covenant, the enduring relationship He established with His people. To love God is to recognize His goodness, place Him first in our lives, and seek to live according to His will.
Jesus then adds a second commandment from Leviticus 19:18: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 39). The scholar asked for one commandment, but Jesus gives two because love of God and love of neighbor belong together. Every human person is created in God's image and possesses a dignity that calls for respect and concern. We show our love for God by the way we treat other people.
Loving our neighbor as ourselves means seeking another person's good with the same genuine concern we have for our own well-being. We naturally desire to be treated fairly, to receive help when we are in need, and to be treated with patience and compassion. Jesus teaches that this concern must extend to others as well. Earlier in Matthew's Gospel, He extends the commandment of love even to our enemies (Matthew 5:43–48). Love of neighbor therefore reaches beyond personal affection or friendship and calls us to treat everyone with kindness, justice, forgiveness, and mercy.
Jesus concludes, “The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments” (v. 40). The expression “the law and the prophets” refers broadly to the sacred Scriptures of Israel and the teaching they contain. Jesus explains that their moral commandments rest upon love of God and neighbor. The commandments concerning worship and faithfulness to God, together with those governing our responsibilities toward others, receive their meaning and purpose from these two fundamental obligations.
This same understanding appears in the teaching of St. Paul, who writes that “love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10). Love fulfills God's commandments because genuine love seeks what is good and acts accordingly. When we love others as God intends, we seek their good and strive to treat them with honesty, justice, and compassion, even though we sometimes fall short.
Jesus' answer reveals the unity of God's plan for human life. Love of God is the first and greatest commandment because God is the source of all goodness and love. Love of neighbor flows from that relationship because every person is made in His image and precious in His sight. Together, these commandments provide the foundation for a life of faithfulness to God and genuine concern for others.
Lord Jesus, teach us to love God with our whole heart, soul, and mind, and to recognize His image in every person we encounter. Help us express our love through faithfulness, kindness, justice, and mercy. Amen.
______________________
Sources and References
- The New American Bible, Revised Edition. Washington, DC: Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 2011. Matthew 22:34–40 and notes; Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18; Exodus 22:20–26; Matthew 5:43–48; Romans 13:8–10.
- Hahn, Scott, and Curtis Mitch. The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2010. 47.
- Casciaro, Jose Maria, general editor. The Navarre Bible: New Testament, Expanded Edition. Dublin: Four Courts Press; New York: Scepter Publishers, 2008. 125.
- Brown, Raymond E., Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy, editors. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990. 666, §133.
- Mitch, Curtis, and Edward Sri. The Gospel of Matthew. Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010. 288–289.
- Aguilar Chiu, Jose Enrique, et al., editors. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. New York: Paulist Press, 2018. 953–954.
- Collins, John J., Gina Hens-Piazza, Barbara Reid, OP, and Donald Senior, CP, editors. The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century. London: T&T Clark, 2022. 1218–1219.
Comments