love for neighbor

The Bible is full of commands to love God and love others. Jesus called these the two greatest commands.

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:36–40

So, one answer to the first question posed in the title of this post is that they occupy the #1 and #2 spots in a prioritized list of the most important commands in the Old Testament. While that’s true, there’s more to discover about the relationship between loving God and loving neighbor.

But before we suggest other answers, let’s look at how the two greatest commands relate to the Ten Commandments or the Decalog.

Table of Contents

• The Ten Commandments
  • Love God
  • Love Others
• Two Commands or One?
  • Romans 13
  • Galatians 5
  • The Golden Rule
• Relating Love for God and Love for Neighbor
  • 1. Love for Others as Love for God
    • Love for God and Obeying God
      • Old Testament
      • New Testament
    • God’s Command to Love Others
      • John 21:15–17
      • Hebrews 6:10
      • 1 John 5:2–3
      • 2 John 6
  • 2. Hypostatic Union and Union with Christ
    • Hypostatic Union
    • Union with Christ
      • Matthew 25:31–46
      • Acts 9:4 (cf. 22:7; 26:14)
      • Romans 14:13–18
      • 1 Corinthians 8:12
• Conclusion

The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments (referred to as such only in Exod 34:28; Deut 4:13; 10:4) are recorded in Exodus 20:1–17 and Deuteronomy 5:6–21. They were written—twice—on the front and back (Exod 32:15) of two tablets of stone (Exod 31:18; 32:15; 34:1, 4, 29; Deut 4:13; 5:22; 9:10, 11, 15, 17; 10:1, 3; 1 Kings 8:9; 2 Chr 5:10) by the finger of God (Exod 31:18; Deut 9:10).

Opinions vary on (a) how to divide them into ten (e.g., merge 1 and 2, divide 10), (b) how to group them (e.g., 1–4 and 5–10 or 1–5 and 6–10), and (c) how they were recorded on the two stone tablets (e.g., half on each, all on both). I won’t get into those details here, since they’re not relevant to the topic of this post. David Baker’s “Ten Commandments, Two Tablets: The Shape of the Decalogue” (Themelios 30, no. 3) covers the issues well, and I commend it to you.