The Greatest Commandment in the Bible

Most people can spout out the “10 Commandments” from the Bible, also known as the “thou shalt not’s.” You are probably recalling the dramatic display from Cecil B DeMille’s, movie, The Ten Commandments. With consideration to these ten, which is the most important? What if I throw another wrench into the equation and tell you that the Bible in its entirety has closer to 3300 commandments? Which do you feel is the most important?

This has been an age old question, which commandment is the most important to follow. I wonder why that is. I guess if people can find out which commandment God thinks is the most awesome, they can stick to that one and avoid the rest. Maybe God will be ok with the covetousness as long as you don’t kill anybody in the process. Well before going about trying to see how close to the edge you can live without upseting your score-card in heaven, let me show you how Jesus personally answered the question.

In the book of Matthew chapter 22 verse 36 thru 40, a man comes to Jesus and asks him which is the greatest commandment in the law. Jesus answers the man and says, ” Love the Lord thy God with all your heart, soul and mind” and then he goes on to say, the second greatest is like it, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus ends the conversation summing it up saying, “On these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets.”

Straight from the lips of Jesus, he tells us that by keeping these 2 commandments you have kept all the others. How can this be? Time for a brief history lesson. Recall when God gave Moses the 10 commandments. Moses brought the ten commandments God spoke to him directly to the people. But later Moses had to add clarification to these ten, breaking down what those 10 meant. He amplified what thou shalt not kill means, and all the others. This brought the number to a little over 2000 commandments. Jesus came and narrowed those 2000 and neatly fit those ten into 2 commandments. I’ll prove it.

The first 4 commandments have to do with loving God with all your heart. 1. No other gods before me 2.Make no graven images 3. Not taking the name of the Lord in vain 4. Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy

The last 6 deal with loving people: 5. Honor your parents 6. Do not kill 7. No adultery 8. No stealing 9. No lying 10. No coveting.

So, when you meet the Maker and you explain, Lord, I just couldn’t keep all those commandments, He can look at you and say… “There were only two.”

Now that you know that God only requires that you keep two commandments you can begin to make some adjustments in life and stop trying to justify living outside of God’s best. The next step is to clearly define what it means to love God and what it means to love people. Don’t be so sure you know what it means. Tune in next time to discover more. Thanks for reading

-Live Intentionally, Die Empty

Beau