Our Lord was no stranger to tests. He was met with many in His life, and continually proved His love for His Father, and showed His depth of wisdom. It was no different when one day His enemies came before Him with questions designed to trap. The Pharisees failed to find Jesus in contradiction when He answered their question concerning taxes (cf. Matthew 22:15-22). The Sadducees’ ignorance was exposed as they asked Jesus a question about marriage that was sure to jolt the logic behind the resurrection (cf. Matthew 22:23-33). And when the Pharisees learned of their opposition’s failure to trap the Son of God, they gathered together in further conspiracy to place Jesus on the horns of a dilemma.

“Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?’” (Matthew 22:35-36). Surely no man could answer such a question with the same specificity and confidence as Jesus had answered the previous ones. Such a question had long been pondered by the Pharisees. Which of the 613 commandments was the greatest, and why? Would Jesus undermine any commands in the process of overvaluing another? Would His answer belittle the tradition of the elders once again, which they thought to be of binding importance (cf. Matthew 15:1-20)? Surely such a question would prove to be a stumbling block even to Jesus! Yet, such a mind which in infinite wisdom authored the very law which they inquired about could not possibly be trumped.

As He did with the other questions, Jesus did not become provoked, nor did He stoop to the politician’s way of answering, but He used the situation as an opportunity to teach. “Jesus said to him, ‘ ”You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40). He did not suggest the obvious weighty negative command, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). Nor did He emphasize the positive command He knew the Pharisees to neglect, “Honor your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12; cf. Matthew 15:1-20). He did not reference the ten commandments. Instead, Jesus quoted from the Old Testament what the Jews referred to as the Shema (from the Hebrew word, šâma‘, meaning “hear”) – “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). And for the second He quoted from Leviticus, “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord” (19:18).

In choosing the Shema as the greatest commandment, Jesus included all other commandments. The love of God is the very basis of His Law. There is no pleasing God without loving Him, and there is no loving Him without keeping His commandments – “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). The second is like it. For, we cannot love God if we do not love our fellow man created in His image (cf. 1 John 4:20-21). In loving our neighbor, we are doing that which is necessary to love God. One command takes care of humanity’s horizontal relationships with each other, while the other focuses on the vertical relationship with the Divine. Yet, the vertical relationship cannot exist without the proper horizontal, and the horizontal relationship cannot be truly fulfilled without the existence and guidance of the vertical. Every command given from God has at its core the love of God, and when it has to do with the horizontal interactions, our neighbor – “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

The Pharisees believed some commands to be lesser than others, even to the point of being insignificant. Jesus put this erroneous thought to rest with His answer. God desires and requires our love for Him. This is accomplished with the sincere obedience to whatever He commands.

Furthermore, contrary to what the majority thinks today, Jesus did not by His answer suggest the keeping of the rest of the Law was unimportant. Rather, He sought to unveil for the Pharisees the true meaning of the Law – loving God. He later reproved the Pharisees by saying, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone” (Matthew 23:23).

The same is true for the law of Christ. The command to love God transcends all else. Yet, it includes all else! Men will teach tolerance, explaining that the law of Christ is one of liberty. They ignore Paul’s plea, “only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 6:13). They do not understand that the law of Christ makes us free from the law of sin and death (cf. Romans 8:2), and as a law it contains principles to be obeyed! Jesus was not the author of newfound theology which boasts “relationship over religion,” but “became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (Hebrews 5:9).

Contrary to what the denominations teach, the tone of the New Testament concerning the Law of Moses is not an indictment on any and all law. It is not even an indictment on the Law of Moses, for “the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good” (Romans 7:12). The Law of Moses was not weak on account of its intended purpose, but “weak through the flesh” (Romans 8:3) and could not present man blameless before God, for man sinned. Its job was to serve as a “tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). And when Christ came, He nailed that Law – which was not able to save because it was never intended to perform that service – to the cross (cf. Colossians 2:14). Having been nailed to the cross, the Law of Moses is no longer binding, but all are under Christ (cf. Matthew 20:18). Those who bind the Law of Moses bind that which God has loosed, and are in direct contradiction to Him. In what way? In the way which seeks to follow a dead law instead of following a law which is alive and binding – the law of Christ! Freedom from the Law of Moses, any other law, and certainly the law of sin and death, does not mean God no longer requires obedience.

Jesus is not only the Savior, but has been made “both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). Hear Him: “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46) – “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15).