Knowing The Word in Matthew 22:34-40

The Great Commandment

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. [The motivation for the coming question is hostile.] 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” [The question if constructed to trap Jesus into putting down some aspect of the law as less important while they are all equally binding.] 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. [Deuteronomy 6:5. This are not different parts of a person but different ways of describing the whole person in loyal relationship with God.] 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. [Leviticus 19:18] 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” [The two stand together on a level all their own in relationship to all the other commandments with these hanging on them and proceeding from them. This statement directs us to understand and apply the other commandments within the context of loving God and neighbor.]