Two Commandments on Which the Law Hangs
“TEACHER, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” asked one of the Pharisees. Jesus said to him: “‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. The second, like it, is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets.”—Matt. 22:34-40.
Here Jesus pinpointed the requirements that were fundamental to the Law, not merely the Ten Commandments but the entire Law covenant with its more than six hundred God-given laws, and the Prophets. It is noteworthy that the two commandments that Jesus selected as being of greatest importance were not taken from the Decalogue, but they were part of the Law, all of which he said hangs on them.
It is in Deuteronomy 6:5 that this greatest commandment is found, but this is not its only occurrence. The idea is repeated often as being fundamental to the response of Israelites to all the commandments that God had given them. In urging the people to obey all God’s laws, Moses declared: “O Israel, what is Jehovah your God asking of you but to fear Jehovah your God, so as to walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul.”—Deut. 10:12.
Certainly, if the Israelites loved Jehovah their God, they would never turn aside to other gods, they would not give the devotion that was his to a graven image, take up the name of Jehovah in a worthless way, or turn the sabbath day that he had set aside especially for his worship into a day for self-gain. Violation of any of these commands, or any others of God’s righteous regulations, would betray lack of love on their part. Therefore, this may properly be termed the “greatest commandment in the Law.”
So, too, with the commandment to love one’s neighbor. Recorded at Leviticus 19:18, it says: “You must love your fellow as yourself.” But the command is fundamental and is mentioned in connection with other obligations. For example, in the thirty-fourth verse of the same chapter Le 19:34 reference is made to this command in connection with the treatment of temporary residents in the land. The fundamental nature of this requirement of neighbor love is further seen in that one who loves his fellow man would not dishonor his parents, commit murder or adultery, he would not steal things that belonged to his neighbor, injure him by bearing false witness against him, or covet the things that belonged to others. Violation of any of these commandments would constitute a breach of the even more basic obligation to love one’s neighbor. “Love does not work evil to one’s neighbor; therefore love is the law’s fulfillment.”—Rom. 13:8-10.
EVIDENCE OF GOD’S LOVE
The commandments Jesus quoted clearly speak of man’s obligation to love both Jehovah God and one’s neighbor. However, this brings into the picture, and prominently so, the love that Jehovah shows to mankind. Love is not something that originates with men. It is an attribute with which the Creator has endowed men. Our ability to love, therefore, is a result of what God has done for us. His own expressions of love toward us call forth in response a demonstration of our love for him. “As for us, we love, because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) Therefore, when we learn that on the commandments to love God and one’s neighbor hangs all the Law, it moves us to examine the ways in which God himself has demonstrated love in connection with the Law.
To Abraham, forefather of the nation of Israel, Jehovah promised that his descendants would become many and would inhabit the land of Canaan as their own. He further said: “By means of your seed all nations of the earth will certainly bless themselves.”—Gen. 22:18.
About four hundred years later he miraculously delivered the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, and at Mount Sinai he provided the Law covenant as the constitution for his newly formed nation. Concerning that Law it was said: “What great nation is there that has righteous regulations and judicial decisions like all this law that I am putting before you today?”—Deut. 4:8.
Not only were those divinely given laws righteous, properly regulating man’s relationship with his God and with his fellow man, but they held even greater significance. The apostle Paul was inspired to say that “the Law has a shadow of the good things to come.” Jesus himself pointed out that the Law must be fulfilled. (Heb. 10:1; Matt. 5:17, 18) And at Galatians 3:19, 24 the objective of the Law is specifically stated in this way: “Why, then, the Law? It was added [to the Abrahamic covenant] to make transgressions manifest, until the seed should arrive to whom the promise had been made, and it was transmitted through angels by the hand of a mediator. Consequently, the Law has become our tutor leading to Christ, that we might be declared righteous due to faith.” The Law constantly reminded the Jews of their imperfection and impressed upon their minds the need of a perfect sacrifice that could really take away their sins. But it required God to exercise his love further to bring about the fulfillment of the ‘good things that were to come’ and to ‘send forth his Son, who was produced out of a woman and who came to be under law, that he might release by purchase those under law.’ (Gal. 4:4, 5) It is such love that the apostle John refers to, saying: “The love is in this respect, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent forth his Son as a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10) Therefore, the love that underlies the Law, that brought about the fulfillment of its prophetic types, and that called for the Israelites to respond with love for God and for their fellow men, is the love that God himself has shown.
OBEYING THE LAW
It was not enough for those under the Law to make verbal profession of love for God, nor was it sufficient simply to render a token of obedience. Their love for God was to be rendered with all their heart and all their mind and all their soul. Worship that came only from the mouth was not acceptable. “Jehovah says: ‘For the reason that this people have come near with their mouth, and they have glorified me merely with their lips, and they have removed their heart itself far away from me, and their fear toward me becomes men’s commandment that is being taught, therefore . . . the wisdom of their wise men must perish, and the very understanding of their discreet men will conceal itself.’”—Isa. 29:13, 14.
Jesus reproved the religious scribes and Pharisees for their self-righteous attention to certain details of the Law while failing to measure up in matters that would show a right heart condition. He said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you give the tenth of the mint and the dill and the cummin, but you have disregarded the weightier matters of the Law, namely, judgment and mercy and faithfulness. These things it was binding to do, yet not to disregard the other things. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat but gulp down the camel!” (Matt. 23:23, 24) Blinded by their own self-righteousness, they missed the purpose of the Law. They did not have love of God and of righteousness. Considering the common people as beneath them, they did not have love for these neighbors of theirs. They failed to recognize their sinful condition and their need of a Redeemer, and although the prophets had identified him, they rejected the Messiah when he appeared. On the other hand, those who allowed the Law to be a tutor to lead them to Christ were noted as having love: “By this all will know that you are my disciples,” he said, “if you have love among yourselves.”—John 13:35.
THE CHRISTIAN POSITION
While the Law covenant itself has passed away, the fundamental truths and underlying principles on which it was based continue. Jehovah continues to be the only true God, the one to whom his creatures owe exclusive devotion. If the Israelites had reason to love Jehovah in response to the love he had showed them, Christians today do even more so. With the Christian congregation God has made a new covenant. “‘Not one like the covenant that I concluded with their forefathers in the day of my taking hold of their hand to bring them forth out of the land of Egypt, “which covenant of mine they themselves broke, although I myself had husbandly ownership of them,” is the utterance of Jehovah.’ ‘For this is the covenant that I shall conclude with the house of [spiritual] Israel after those days,’ is the utterance of Jehovah. ‘I will put my law into the midst of them, and in their heart I shall write it. And I will become their God, and they themselves will become my people.’ ‘And they will no more teach each one his companion and each one his brother, saying, “Know Jehovah!” for they will all of them know me, from the least one of them even to the greatest one of them,’ is the utterance of Jehovah. ‘For I shall forgive their error, and their sin I shall remember no more.’”—Jer. 31:31-34.
We are now living at the time when the one who gave his life as a sin-removing sacrifice so we might gain life is ruling as King and will soon destroy the author of sin, Satan the Devil. With such glorious prospects, now is the time for us to show our love of God by filling our minds with an accurate knowledge of his will. We must get God’s law on our heart and be motivated to show our love of God by obeying his commandments. Having a clear knowledge of the divine will, along with strong love for God, we will not turn aside from it for any apparent self-gain or even under pressure from those who persecute us. We will be loyal to God because we love him.—1 John 5:3.
And what of the requirement to love one’s neighbor as oneself? After hearing this requirement, one who wanted to prove himself righteous said to Jesus: “Who really is my neighbor?” Jesus answered by an illustration. He told of a man who was beaten up and robbed on the road to Jericho. A priest who passed by, and later a Levite, failed to stop to help the half-dead man lying by the roadside. But a Samaritan, moved with pity, gave him first aid, took him to an inn and paid for his keep until he should recover. It is obvious who proved himself to be neighbor to the man who had fallen among robbers. Said Jesus: “Go your way and be doing the same yourself.”—Luke 10:29-37.
Nothing is gained by trying to dodge the issue and trying to persuade ourselves that there are only a few of mankind that are worthy of our mercy and help. Jesus drove the point home when he said: “You heard that it was said: ‘You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ However, I say to you: Continue to love your enemies and to pray for those persecuting you; that you may prove yourselves sons of your Father who is in the heavens, since he makes his sun rise upon wicked people and good and makes it rain upon righteous people and unrighteous. For if you love those loving you, what reward do you have? are not also the tax collectors doing the same thing? And if you greet your brothers only, what extraordinary thing are you doing? Are not also the people of the nations doing the same thing?” (Matt. 5:43-47) “Really, then,” said Paul, “as long as we have time favorable for it, let us work what is good toward all, but especially toward those related to us in the faith.”—Gal. 6:10.
This does not require a Christian to gullibly believe the professions of every charity that takes up collections, and give his money for them to use. In the parable of the good Samaritan, the one commended did not simply go into town and pay someone else to go out and take care of the man who needed help. Since he was on the scene, he rendered that help personally and himself paid the man’s bill at the inn.
When it comes to the material necessities of life, Christians know that their verbal expressions of love must be backed up by deeds to the extent of their ability. As James said: “If a brother or a sister is in a naked state and lacking the food sufficient for the day, yet a certain one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, keep warm and well fed,’ but you do not give them the necessities for their body, of what benefit is it?”—Jas. 2:15, 16.
However, there are other things of even more importance and that show even greater love. Jesus reminded us not to be overly anxious about the material things of life. “For your heavenly Father knows you need all these things. Keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you.” (Matt. 6:32, 33) The greater love can be shown for our neighbor by directing his attention to God’s kingdom and his righteousness. Those who are weak and sickly from a spiritual standpoint, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, need to be fed on the strengthening truths of God’s Word. They need someone to show a loving interest in their spiritual welfare. This Jesus instructed us to do when he said: “Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations.”—Matt. 28:19.
Yes, love is just as fundamental to the way of life of a Christian as it was to the Israelites’ obedience to the Law. We are not under the Law, but we are under obligation to love Jehovah our God with all our heart and mind and soul, and our neighbor as ourselves.
If I have all the faith so as to transplant mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.—1 Cor. 13:2.