The Greatest Commandment in the Bible

 

My previous email was about “Laying Up Treasures With God.” Jesus ended the parable with these words:

 

No one can serve two masters;

for either he will hate one and love the other,

or else he will be loyal to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon.

 

This is written in a form called a “parallelism,” which Jesus used to highlight specific points. The following words are highlighted -- “love // loyal” and “hate // despise.” They are sandwiched between “serve and serve.”

 

Those who serve God, love God and are loyal to God.

 

Those who serve mammon, hate and despise God.

 

The Hebrew word “AHAVAH” is translated “love.” In Hebrew, “to love is to give.” This brings us to one of the most important teachings of Jesus. It is found in Matthew 22:34-40.

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Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.  One of them, an expert in the Torah, tested him with this question: 

 

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Torah?”

 

Jesus replied: 

 

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Torah and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

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The answer Jesus gave as the first and greatest commandment is found in Deuteronomy 6:4-5:

 

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.

 

Instead of stopping there, Jesus connected another commandment to it, which is found in Leviticus 19:17-18.

 

You shall not hate your brother in your heart.

You shall surely correct your neighbor,

and not bear sin because of him.

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.

 

His Jewish audience knew the full contexts in which both commandments are found. They were, and still are, two of the most important commandments in Judaism. The point Jesus made was this:

 

The only way you can love God is to give to your neighbor as yourself.

 

In order to understand the last point Jesus made, one must be familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures and language.

 

All the Torah and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

 

The Torah and the Prophets are two sections of the Jewish Scriptures and Hebrew letters “hang from a line” (see graphic above). English letters sit on a line. The point is, if the line is taken away nothing will be supporting them. The line is the foundation that is required for the words to exist.

 

“Loving God and loving people

are the foundation that supports all Scriptures.”

 

God’s vision for all people is that they experience SHALOM -- “a social environment in which lives are complete, healthy, wholesome; relationships are harmonious and mutually beneficial; homes are safe; places are secure and restful; members are loyal and committed to each other and the community.”

 

God blessed and empowered people to make His vision a reality!

 

Bookmark our Bible Study Vocabulary Page.

 

Choose Lives 1^st by Doing TOV,

Jim Myers

 

Helping People Examine Their Beliefs

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Another Salvation Parable by Jesus

 

This salvation parable is found in Matthew 6:19-24. Below is the first part of the parable.

 

Do not store up treasures for yourselves upon earth,

where moths and rust consume,

and where thieves break through and steal.

 

Store up treasures for yourselves in Heaven,

where neither moths nor rust consume,

and where thieves do not break through nor steal.

 

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

 

This parable is about storing up treasures for yourself. This is about your treasures. That makes it personal! There are only two options you have for storing your treasures. For those of us with Christian biblical heritages, we assume earth and heaven are two places – one is we where we live now and the other is where we will spend eternity. But, that was not what Jesus had in mind.

 

His Jewish audience knew exactly what “Heaven” meant. It is a euphemism for the “unspoken name of God,” “YHVH.” Jewish people used euphemisms to “avoid profaning the name of God.” Jesus was referring to God -- not a place. This is what his Jewish audience heard – “You can store your treasures on earth or with God!”

 

Very few people view this parable as a “salvation parable.” But it is important to remember Jesus was an expert teacher of the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament) and that almost everything he taught was a commentary on specific Jewish Scriptures. Once we identify that Scripture, we will understand this parable. It is Malachi 3:16b-4:1.

 

And a Book of Remembrance was written before Yahweh

for those who stand in awe of Yahweh and who value His name.

 

“They shall be Mine,” says Yahweh of hosts.

“On the day I make up My treasure, I will have compassion on them

as a man has compassion on his own son who serves him.”

And you shall return and see the difference

between the innocent and the guilty,

between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.

 

“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a fire-pot;

and all the arrogant and everyone doing wickedness will be stubble.

And on the day which is coming, I will set them ablaze,” says Yahweh of hosts,

“and will not leave them a root or branches.”

 

On that day, “the treasures you laid up with God” will be “the only thing protecting you from being set ablaze by God!” Now you know what the audience knew as they listened to Jesus teach. It is clear that by this time, he had the audience’s attention! So, what kind of treasures does God want? Now let’s continue with the parable in Matthew.

 

The lamp of the body is the eye.

If therefore you have a good eye,

your whole body will be full of light.

But if you have an evil eye,

your whole body will be full of darkness.

If therefore the light that is in you is darkness,

how great is that darkness!

 

“Good eye” and “evil eye” are idioms and their words cannot be taken literally.  This is an English idiom -- “You really put your foot in your mouth this time!” If its words were taken literally, someone would have actually put their own foot in their mouth. But most Americans know that it means – “you said or did something that you should not have said or done.”

 

The way we discover the meanings of idioms Jesus used is find verses in the Jewish Scriptures in which they appear. “Good eye” is found in Proverbs 22:9.

 

He that has a good eye shall be blessed;

for he gives his bread to the poor.

 

The person with a “good eye” is the one that “gave bread to the poor.” “Evil eye” is found in Deuteronomy 15:9:

 

"Beware that there be not a thought in your wicked heart, saying,

`The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and you have an

evil eye against your poor brother, and you give him nothing;

and he cries unto Yahweh against you, and it be sin unto you.’"

 

The person with a “evil eye” is the one “who gave his poor brother nothing.” I bet some of you recognized that this parable teaches the same lessons the Parable of the Great Day of Judgment Jesus taught in Matthew 25:31-46. If you have already started building a Jewish Jesus vocabulary (click here to see) you already know this:

 

The person with a “good eye” did “acts of TZEDAQAH.”

The person with an “evil eye” did “acts of RAH.”

 

Now let’s see how Jesus ends the parable in Matthew:

 

No one can serve two masters;

for either he will hate one and love the other,

or else he will be loyal to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon.

 

Now we know what Malachi meant by “one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.” The only “treasures” people can layup with God are “acts of TZEDAQAH.” This is the core message Jesus repeated throughout his teachings:

 

Do acts of TZEDAQAH and be the Kingdom of God!

 

Choosing Lives 1^st by Doing TOV,

Jim Myers

 

Helping People Examine Their Beliefs

● Adopt Shared Morals & Values ● Network to Make SHALOM

● Donate ● Subscribe ● “Like” on Facebook ● Visit our Bookstore