Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.
Jesus reduces the entire law to two commands — and both are about love.
The episode in a glance.
- 01'All your heart, soul, and mind' — every part of you.
- 02'Love your neighbor as yourself' — the horizontal command.
- 03Jesus says all the law hangs on these two.
- 04Love for God and love for neighbor are inseparable.
Read along.
Matthew 22:37-39 — 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' A lawyer asked Jesus for the greatest commandment. Jesus gave him two.
'All your heart, soul, and mind.' Heart is desire. Soul is identity. Mind is attention. Jesus isn't asking for a slice of religious activity. He's asking for the whole person. Every compartment. Every category. All of it aimed at God.
And then the second: love your neighbor as yourself. Not instead of loving God. Like it. Connected to it. Vertical love and horizontal love are inseparable. You can't love God while hating your neighbor. And you can't truly love your neighbor without loving God.
Jesus says all the law and the prophets hang on these two. The whole Bible, summarized in two commands. Both are love. Not rules first, then love. Love first, and everything else follows.
If your faith feels like a list of rules, come back to this. The first command is love. The second command is love. Everything else is commentary.