The Greatest Commandment

February 28

An expert in the Jewish Law sought to trap Jesus by asking Him which was the greatest commandment. He may have been thinking along the lines of the “Big Ten” recorded in Exodus 20. At this point, however, Jewish Rabbis had added over seven hundred laws of their own in an effort to prevent people from accidentally breaking God’s Law. They called these “fence laws”—the idea being to erect a fence farther from the line, so that people never came close.

For example, the Fourth Commandment stated that the Sabbath was to be treated as a special day: no work would be done. To prevent people from working on the Sabbath, rabbis added laws that stated how far someone could walk before becoming a “traveler” on the Sabbath. It worked out to be about two-thirds of a mile. Later, when we read Mark 2 on March 12, we’ll see an encounter with Jesus over the real purpose of the Sabbath.

But to which commandment would Jesus turn? Surely, He would say that the first commandment is the most important: “You shall have only one God.” The second commandment was a good candidate also: “You shall not create an idol and bow down to worship it.”

Surprisingly, though, to the lawyer and the crowd, Jesus didn’t point to any of the Ten Commandments. Instead, He went straight to Deuteronomy 6, a passage every Hebrew child knew by heart: Love God with everything you are and everything you have. (Matthew 22:37) He added that the second greatest command was similar: Love others as you love yourself. (v. 39; Leviticus 19:18) A hush must have fallen over the crowd, however, when Jesus finished His answer by saying that the entire Old Covenant hung on these two commands!

The Lord’s breakdown, though, can also be seen within the Ten Commandments. As we look at Exodus 20, notice that the first four commandments related to God, while the last six related to others. The Ten Commandments are based on the Two Greatest Commandments. Jesus simplified things for us, revealing that if we truly seek to love God with all that we are and our neighbor as ourselves, then the Ten Commandments, the Law’s 613 total commandments, the Rabbi’s other seven hundred… all will fall into line.

Application

Unfortunately, no one has ever kept the Two Greatest Commandments. In fact, no one has ever kept the Great Commandment, except Jesus. He fulfilled all of God’s Law. (Matthew 5:17)

The purpose of the Law, however, was never to give us a list of commands. Its purpose was to reveal to us that we could never measure up to God’s righteous standards. Paul said that all of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. (Romans 3:23) None of us has ever measured up. We stand convicted as lawbreakers. Even our greatest works to please and serve God are counted as worthless. (Isaiah 64:6) God’s relationship with humanity was severed by an act of treason by our first parents, and the rest of us have only followed in mom’s and dad’s footsteps ever since.

But there’s good news! If we put our faith in Jesus Christ, trusting His once-for-all payment to cover our sin, we will never be condemned. (Romans 8:1)

© Copyright 2026 Craig Beaman