The Most Important Command
The Most Important Command
The Sadducees had nothing more to say. Now the leaders of the Pharisees came to Jesus. One leader was a man who really knew God's law. He asked Jesus which was the most important command. The Pharisees often discussed this. There are 613 commands in the law. They wanted to obey them all. (But often they only obeyed their own ideas about the commands).
Jesus‘ reply was beautiful. He spoke words from the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18).
37 Jesus replied to him, ‘You should love the Lord your God completely: Love him with all your mind. Love him with all that you are. Love him in all that you think. 38 This is the greatest rule and the most important of all God's Laws. 39 The second rule is also important, like the first one. You should love other people as much as you love yourself. 40 All God's Laws that Moses gave us come from these two rules. All the things that the prophets wrote also come from them.’
Matthew 22:37-40 EasyEnglish Bible (EASY)
Jesus was saying what we must do. It is our duty to love God and to love other people. We must love very sincerely. This is the most important thing in our life. Of course, the Pharisees did not like to speak about love. They thought that to obey the law very accurately was more important. When Mark wrote about this conversation, he told us more. He said that the Pharisees liked Jesus‘ answer. After all, his answer was from the law. They would not oppose God's law!
Jesus showed great wisdom in all these conversations. His enemies hoped that he would make a mistake. He did not. But now Jesus asked them a question. He left them without an answer.
