"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"
In other words, how can we set one commandment against another? We want to say that we can't carry out the one because we must carry out the other. And it's hard to blame us. There are so many commandments that to do them all seems impossible. It seems like we always have to choose one thing at the expense of another. We want to feel OK with these omissions. We want to minimize that which is expected of us. But Jesus will have none of it.
He 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 greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Rather than giving us a flow chart of possible choices Jesus instead shows the motivation that must underlie every choice. Rather than allowing the commandments to be divided up and set in opposition he reveals the unifying principle of love that binds them all together. First comes the love of God, and from that we are called to love what he loves. There is no other choice that makes sense when it is put this way. We can choose to love God and to love what he loves or we can choose something less. This means we don't choose between loving aliens and the poor and loving God. These things are one and the same. That is why whatever we do to the least of our brothers and sisters we do to Jesus himself.
This love to which we are called is not a human love. We can't seem to love anything wholeheartedly, let alone follow God in that way. But Jesus wants to show us the way.
And you became imitators of us and of the Lord,
receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit
If we receive the word in this way we become evidence to the world that God is real. We reveal that his promises are solid and true.
but in every place your faith in God has gone forth,
so that we have no need to say anything.
The LORD invites us to love him today. He wants to be our strength. Let us respond with all that we are.
I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
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