Why the Bible Finally Makes Sense

understanding the great commandment is the key to the entire Bible many people talk about loving God and loving others but few understand the biblical depth of the great commandment what did Yeshua mean when he said love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength my name is Lex and welcome to un learn Yeshua said that all of God's Commandments hinge on this one truth but what does that really mean and how does it shape our daily walk with God then one of them a lawyer asked him a question testing him and saying teacher which is the great command in the law Yeshua said to him you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind this is the first and great commandment and the second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two Commandments hang all the law and the prophets Yeshua has asked what is the great commandment and he responded by quoting two Commandments effectively treating them as a single great principle the term great commandment is different from greatest commandment the phrase great commandment suggests that the command to love God and the command to love one's neighbor are not two separate Commandments in competition but rather one great foundational principle that encompasses the entire Torah the word great in this context means foundational and overarching in contrast the phrase greatest commandment implies ranking suggesting that one commandment is more important than all the others however Yeshua emphasizes that these two Commandments together summarize the entire Torah on these two two Commandments hang all the law and the prophets the Commandments are not in competition for first place they work together teaching us how to love God and how to love our neighbor following the great commandment naturally leads to keeping all of The Commandments in the Torah because every law in the Torah is an expression of either our love to God or our love for others here's how it works the two Commandments loving God and loving your neighbor are not isolated laws but rather summarized statements of the entire Torah in Matthew 2240 Yeshua States on these two Commandments hang all the law and the prophets this means that every other commandment in the Torah is an application or extension of these two foundational principles making these two principles The Guiding framework for obeying and interpreting the Torah loving God means that we will desire to do his will this love manifests in obedience as Yeshua said if you love me keep my commandments so let's examine how loving God is an overarching theme of The Commandments the first four of the Ten Commandments relate to loving God you shall have no other gods before me you shall not make for yourself a carved image any likeness of anything for I the Lord your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me but showing Mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my Commandments you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain for the Lord will not hold him Guiltless who takes his name in vain remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy notice that verse 6 says but showing Mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my Commandments here we see that loving God is linked with keeping his Commandments these first four Commandments are explicitly about showing love to God we show love to God when we make him our only God and we have no other gods before him we should love to God when we abstain from idol worship we should love to God by not taking his name in vain and we should love to God by remembering to keep the Sabbath day these Commandments guide our relationship with God showing us how to worship obey and honor him likewise laws about sacrifices Purity and Holiness also fall under this category because they express worship to God these laws deepen our devotion and help us express love to God through our obedience laws concerning sacrifices deal with our worship of God feast days are set apart days for worship that reflect our love for God the dietary laws concerning clean and unclean Foods reflects the desire to be holy as he is Holy instead of just giving us general principles God gave us specific Commandments telling us how to love him think about it he didn't just tell us to love him he gave us instructions about how he wants us to love him for example the Bible doesn't just say worship God it commands us to keep the Sabbath and feast days in our worship to God the feasts of the Lord which you shall Proclaim to be holy convocations these are my feasts six days shall work be done but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest a holy convocation you shall do no work on it it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings these are the feasts of the Lord holy convocations which you shall Proclaim at their appointed times on the 14th day of the first month at Twilight is the Lord's Passover and on the 15th day of the same month is the Feast of UNL bread to the Lord in addition to Passover this chapter goes on to explain the day of first fruits Pentecost trumpets atonement and Tabernacles these feast days are called holy convocations meaning set aart times of assembly and worship the Commandment to love God compels us to obey all of The Commandments related to honoring worshiping and serving him unfortunately most of these Commandments have been categorized as ceremonial laws by the majority of Christians and we are taught that these laws have been done away with how can we say that Commandments that explicitly show love to God have been done away with how can we claim to love God if we aren't keeping these specific Commandments the Bible defines love for God as obedience devotion and wholehearted commitment to Him scripture consistently teaches that loving God is demonstrated through obeying his Commandments therefore you shall love the Lord your God and keep his charge his statutes his judgments and his Commandments always oh that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep all of my Commandments that it might be well with them and with their children forever for this is the love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Comm Commandments are not burdensome the Commandment to love God comes from a passage called the shamama which is found in Deuteronomy 64-6 here o Israel the Lord Our God the Lord is one you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength and these words which I command you today shall be in your heart this commandment emphasizes exclusive devotion and love to God alone immediately after the shama Moses says these words which I command you today shall be upon your heart indicating that loving God is the motivation behind obeying his Commandments loving God means giving him our entire being heart soul mind and strength loving God means remaining faithful to him just as a bride remains faithful to her husband this means that idolatry and unfaithfulness to God are like spiritual adultery adulterers and adulteresses do you not know that friendship with the world is enity with God whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God true love for God means we don't compromise our faith with worldly desires false worship or Disobedience do not love the world or the things of the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the father but is of the world and the world is passing away and the lust of it but he he who does the will of God abides forever according to the Bible to love God is to obey him if we claim to love him but reject his Commandments our love is not genuine this is love that we walk according to his Commandments loving God is also expressed by how we treat others this is why Yeshua linked loving God with loving our neighbor in the great commandment John said it this way if someone says I love God and hates his brother he's a liar for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen how can he love God whom he has not seen the Bible defines love for others as selfless action righteousness and obedience to God's Commandments biblical love is not just a feeling but a commitment to seek the good of others even at personal cost the Commandments that deal with loving our neighbor are sometimes classified as moral or ethical laws we see examples of this in the last six of the Ten Commandments honor your father and mother that your days May belong upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you you shall not murder you shall not commit adultery you shall not steal you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor you shall not covet your neighbor's house you shall not covet your neighbor's wife nor his male servant nor his female servant nor his Ox nor his donkey nor anything that is your neighbors we are commanded to honor our parents showing love to them by how we treat them we shall love to others by not murdering them we shall love to our wife or our husband Husband by not committing adultery we show love to others by not stealing from them we show Love by not being a false witness who tells lies about others and we show Love by not coveting things that someone else has owe no one anything except to love one another for he who loves another has fulfilled the law for the Commandments you shall not commit adultery you shall not murder you shall not steal you shall not bear false witness you shall not covet and if there's any other commandment all are some up in this saying namely you shall love your neighbor as yourself love does no harm to a neighbor therefore love is the Fulfillment of the law this means if you aren't loving others then you aren't obeying the Torah loving others is equated with action not emotion it's about how you treat other people for example we are commanded to love our enemies but I say to you love your enemies bless those who curse you do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use and persecute you we can't be commanded to have an emotional feeling of Love towards someone who hates us and persecutes US however we can be commanded to treat them with love and kindness blessing them and praying for them this shows us that biblical love is concerned with how we treat other people if your enemy is hungry give him bread to eat and if he is thirsty give him water to drink loving others does not depend on how they treat us it's an act of obedience to God loving your enemy means showing love love to those who are difficult to love Yeshua explained that we are to treat others the same way we want to be treated therefore whatever you want men to do to you do also to them for this is the law and the prophets once again Yeshua is explaining that loving your neighbor as yourself is the summary of the Torah John shows us that loving others is connected to helping those in need but whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him how does the love of God abide in him my little children let us not love in word or in tongue but in deed and in truth love is more than just saying kind words it's demonstrated through our actions when we love others we are loving God and we can't say we love God if we don't love others and the Bible explains that the way we love others is by keeping the Commandments of God by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commands ments the Torah provides practical instructions on how to love others in areas such as honesty Justice charity and kindness and when we genuinely love others we will naturally fulfill every ethical commandment in the Torah showing that the Torah is written in our hearts for when Gentiles who do not have the law by Nature do the things in the law these although not having the law are a law to themselves who show the work of the law written in their hearts biblical love is not passive it includes holding others accountable to righteousness and truth you shall not hate your brother in your heart you shall surely rebuke your neighbor and not bear sin because of him you shall not take Vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people but you shall love your neighbor as yourself I am the Lord people might not always appreciate it but a Biblical rebuke is an act of love when you show someone their sin and tell them to repent you are showing them love biblical love means correcting others when they're in sin to help them return to righteousness love also means we must be willing to forgive others when they do us wrong and be kind to one another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave you brotherly love means letting go of grudges and offering forgiveness and restoration all of The Commandments can be categorized under the great commandment they either teach us how to love God through worship obedience and devotion or how to love others through Justice kindness and integrity and if all the Torah hangs on these two Commandments that means we're expected to keep the entire Torah when we truly love God we will naturally keep his laws regarding worship and Holiness when we truly love others we will naturally keep his laws regarding Justice kindness and morality thus following the great commandment leads us to obey all of God's instructions in the Torah if we love God and love others we won't see the Torah as a burden but as a Joyful Way to express our love true obedience flows from a heart transformed by love not legalism