01/11/2025
This is the first and greatest commandment, and the one which comprehends all the others. It is the summing up of all whole law, for we read that the first and great commandment is, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37). “And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 39). It is not separate from the first, but is included in it, since “love is of God,” and only as the love of God is shed abroad in one’s heart can one love his neighbor as himself. So to love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind,—that is, to have no other gods before Him,—is the sum of human duty. “There is no other God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live” (1 Cor. 8:4–6). Therefore, “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” (Deut. 6:4–5