“[Jesus said to him], ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'” Matthew 22:37-39
Perhaps it is just how I am wired, but when I read this text the word ‘second’ leaves me thinking that Jesus is talking about two laws. The first and greatest is to love God. The second, and, therefore, in my mind, subordinate, is to love my neighbor as myself.
Both important. Both great. But I always want to think of the first one Jesus mentions as the greatest and the second as somehow not quite as important. Afterall, in my human heart, like all other human hearts, well-trained in assigning values to things and measuring the importance of things, there can only be one greatest thing. In this case that is to love God, and then love my neighbor as myself.
Depending on your translation, the text also seems to support this notion of the second law being, well, secondary. Many translations of this text read: “The second is like it.” But notice the subtle difference in the updated NRSV translation that I have used above. The article ‘the’ does not appear. It reads simply, “a second is like it.”
Not second greatest, but a second that is greatest like the first.
Like it or not, loving God with all your heart and soul and mind IS the same as loving your neighbor as yourself. You cannot do either one separately! They are indistinguishable in practice. The first is the second and the second is the first. This is the greatest commandment of all.
To love God is to love your neighbor is to love God. The greatest challenge in all of this, however, may be loving yourself the way God loves you.
