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Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:38-40
When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was He answered by stating it was to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” He then followed it up with “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Stating that the Law is summed up by these two commandments.
When you look at the Old Testament Law and more specifically the Ten Commandments you can see that the motivation and driving factor is all wrapped up in love. The reason for the Jews to keep the law was not to make them righteous but to express their love for God who had declared them righteous and set them apart from the other nations.
The laws and commandments dealing with our relationships with others illustrates the concept of having love for our neighbor, to treat them as we would want to be treated. If we are of a healthy mind we wouldn’t want others to lie to us, steal from us, hurt us in any way in the long term. The concept of love for our neighbors fulfilling the law is much deeper than this however. When we love our neighbors, we are essentially showing our love for God. John tells us that we cannot love God if we don’t love our brother, and Jesus states that keeping His commandments is how we show our love for Him. In other words to love God with our whole being we first need to love our neighbors. This is why Jesus gave the two commandments when asked about the greatest commandment, because you can’t fulfill the greatest commandment without the other.
