“The second is like it” – Loving God, loving neighbour – Brad Jersak

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Matthew 22:35-40 “… and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ He 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 neighbour as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

This teaching of Jesus is remarkable on several significant fronts! For example, we are actually hearing Jesus’ own assessment of the greatest commandment in the Law: loving God wholeheartedly. And we’re seeing how Jesus tied together loving God and loving one’s neighbour… indeed, his disciple John argued later that they are indivisible. And third, Jesus surprises the lawyer (as he would even more so today) be saying that the entire law AND the prophets all ‘hang on’ these two commandments. That is, loving God and neighbour summarizes the whole Jewish legal and prophetic tradition into a perfect distillation of love. But also, ‘hanging on’ these commandments indicates that if you don’t love God and neighbour, then the entire tradition crashes to the ground as so much Christless religion. Certainly it was Jesus’ love for God the Father and and all humanity as his neighbour that he did not abolish the law and prophets but fulfilled them (Matthew 5).

That said, I am also fascinated by the phrase, “like it.” The second law, loving your neighbour, is LIKE the first law, loving God. How is it like it? Obviously, there is the overlap of love. But I think John was onto something that he picked up from Jesus here: that loving your neighbour is HOW we demonstrate our love for God. It’s not about long we pray, how much we read the Bible, how deeply we meditate, or how passionately we sing, or how eloquently we speak, or how meticulously we devote ourselves to spiritual practices or religious rituals. These activities can be done in the Spirit for God or in the flesh for ego, they can be done to express devotion or as leverage to earn salvation. Our spiritual practices can be helpful or harmful and who even knows their own motives.

But for Jesus, love of neighbour is like loving God because … why? Maybe because love moves me beyond self-centredness into a self-giving, other-centered orientation that emulates Jesus. Maybe it moves me toward a life of grace that looks like God the Father and is empowered by the Spirit. Maybe it’s because I embody Jesus most when I’m acting on the inner impulses of unselfish love rather than external motivations or egoistic triggers. In any case, ‘why is love of neighbour like love of God?’ is a question worth pondering. What do you think? I’ll leave it with readers for further meditation.

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