On faith: The two great commands: Love G-d, love your neighbor

Brent Emery

guest columnist

When Yeshua (Jesus) is asked what the “greatest” commandment is, He responds by quoting from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 (See Matt 22:37-40; Mark 12:29-31; Luke 10:27).

The first command is “to love G-d” and the second command is “to love your neighbor as yourself.”

There are four things we should notice in Yeshua’s response that are highly significant.

First, the answer Yeshua gives comes from the Hebrew Scripture as this was His “Bible.” The authors of the Apostolic Scripture (New Testament) were primarily Jewish and grew up with the Hebrew Bible as the basis of their faith and practice.

Second, Yeshua’s answer reflects a concern for a vertical relationship with G-d and a horizontal relationship with humanity. All of life should be lived with a focus on our G-d, and on those He has placed in our path.

Third, we should not lose sight that Yeshua’s response comes from the first five books of the Hebrew Scripture known as the Torah. The word “Torah” means teaching, or instruction that is designed to give a quality and quantity to life.

The Torah (first five books) is the foundation for all truth in the Bible. If your teaching isn’t anchored in the Torah, then it will eventually run aground.

Finally, we should note that we are “commanded” to love. For many people, love is a sentimental emotion that comes and goes depending on their mood — or what has recently happened to them. I want to suggest that when we look at the word “love” in the Scripture, we see and hear something very different.

If we understand “love” from a Hebraic perspective, we will understand why it can be commanded.

For a moment, let’s focus on the second of the greatest command, which comes to us in Leviticus 19:18. The command is fairly strait forward: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Many have paid attention to the word “neighbor” and asked the question “who is my neighbor?” In fact, Yeshua himself was asked this question and gave us the parable of the “Good Samaritan.”

The parable of the Good Samaritan tells the story of a man who was on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho and was beaten badly by thieves who left him “half-dead.” Along came a priest, and eventually a Levite, but neither one of them helped the man.

Why they didn’t help will have to wait for another time.

Finally, a Samaritan man came along, picked the man up, bandaged his wounds and provided for his future care. After telling this parable, Yeshua asked, “Who was the neighbor?”

The answer was obvious, as the Samaritan was the only one of the three who took the time to give care to his fellow man.

The next word that needs understanding within Leviticus 19:18 is the word “love.” To many people, love is an emotion or feeling, but is that really what the word “love” means in the phrase “love your neighbor?”

To the Hebraic mind, the word “love” is not an emotion or feeling — although they are involved — but rather a choice to serve.

If we replace the word “love” with the word “serve” in Leviticus 19:18, it would read “you shall serve your neighbor as you serve yourself.” That the word love means “serve” can be demonstrated from both the Hebrew Scripture and the Apostolic Scripture.

In II Chronicles 19:2, we have the Hebrew word “love” used in parallelism with the word for “help.” The verse reads, “Should you help the wicked, and love those who hate the Lord?”

The evidence from the Apostolic Scripture can be found in Galatians 5:13, 14, which reads, “For you brothers have been called to liberty, only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the Torah is fulfilled in one word, even this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Now that we understand that “to love” means “to serve,” we can understand how G-d can command us to love, because He is actually commanding us to serve Him and our fellow man.

So to review, we are called to love one another, which means we are to serve one another. Now the question is, “How will I know if I have loved/served as G-d wants me to love/serve? By what criteria can I know if I have loved Him?”

Remember that this discussion started with the question of the greatest commandment, so we now come full circle and are back to the other commandments in the Torah.

I John 5:2, 3, says: “By this we know that we love the children of G-d, when we love G-d and keep His commandments. For this is the love of G-d, that we keep His commandments.”

The commands of the Torah give us the criteria to know that we have loved both our G-d and our fellow man. I encourage everyone to learn the Torah and its commands, for in doing so, you will be on the path to loving G-d and your fellow man.

Reach Pastor Brent Emery at Congregation Beit Tefillah at torah4today@comcast.net.