But when the Pharisee heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher which is the great commandment in the law?” And 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 great and first commandment. And a second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:34-40)
The Pharisees were intent on tangling Jesus in His own words. When the young lawyer was confronting Jesus about the greatest commandment, he did not want the truth. Instead, he wanted to make our Lord stumble in His own teachings.
When Jesus was found in the Temple engaging the learned men of His time, He was not just a child jabbering about things beyond His understanding. He was teaching them that the Lord God of Israel was one God. This was the theme of His entire ministry. He taught that God the Father should be the primary love and devotion of all men for all times.
Secondly, man should look to his neighbor with the love and concern that he desires for himself—“love your neighbor as yourself.” Loving our neighbors is to realize that our neighbors are as we were at one time—lost, without God and without hope in this world and in the next.
Just as someone gently, patiently and lovingly taught us about the Christ and all He means to all men, we have the same responsibility to lead our neighbors in exploring the life of joy and peace in Jesus Christ that we have found. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. That life is the life by which we now show honor and glory to our Lord and Savior.
Dear Friend, God so loved us that He gave His only Son to redeem us from the punishment for all our sins. The greatest commandment is love God first and foremost. The second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love your neighbor enough to bring him or her the same message that Jesus has given to us all. Your field of harvest for the Master is right here in your own neighborhood. Go and do your best to bring in the sheaves. Bring the wandering ones to Jesus.
