Bible Study series: Matthew 22:34-40. An expert in the law asked which commandment is the greatest. He gave two and ranked them, first and second.
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In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Matthew 22:34-40
34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together in one place, 35 and one of them, an expert in the law, asked him, testing him, 36 “Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the law?” 37 And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’ [Deut. 6:5] 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 The second is like it. ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ [Lev. 19:18] 40 On these two commandments the whole law and prophets depend.” (Matt. 22:34-40)
Comments:
34-36:
The Pharisees were happy that Jesus silenced the Sadducees, but maybe not. Maybe they pulled together to counter this new threat whom they regarded as a revolutionary. (“Pharisees and Sadducees, testing him, approached and requested him to show them a sign from heaven” [Matt. 16:1]). Remember he had already overturned the money tables. The Jerusalem and temple establishment are striking back.
In general terms, the Pharisees and the Sadducees were at odds with each other. Acts 23:6-10 describes a dissension Paul caused when he was arrested and stood before the Jewish council. The passage reads:
6 Paul, knowing that one part was Sadducee and the other was Pharisee, shouted in the High Council: “Men, brothers! I am a Pharisee, son of Pharisees! I am on trial for the hope of the resurrection of the dead!” 7 When he said this, a dispute happened between the Sadducees and Pharisees, and the assembly was divided. 8 For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection nor angels or a spirit; the Pharisees acknowledge all of it. 9 A great shouting match took place, and some teachers of the law from the Pharisee faction stood up and waged a verbal battle: “We find nothing wrong with this man, if a spirit or angel spoke to him!” 10 When the huge dispute happened, the commander, being afraid in case Paul might be torn apart by them, ordered a contingent of troops to come down and whisk him away from the middle of them, to bring him to the barracks. (Acts 23:6-10, my tentative translation)
An expert of the law did exactly as his name says. See v. 15 for their Watchdog function.
Quick Reference to Jewish Groups in Gospels and Acts
“test”: Now the legal expert wants to see what Jesus is made of, and the expert is about to find out. No doubt he wanted to intimidate Jesus, so the expert could win the cultural battle of shame and honor. The expert would get the honor in public with other experts standing around, while Jesus would slink away. But Jesus was not flustered or startled.
Once again, we are about to watch the literal genius and literal anointing of Jesus on full display. As I wrote before in this post, it is stunning (to me at least) that he could come up with such a piercing and clarifying and rich parable immediately after this challenge. (He may have already been challenged on this matter earlier in his ministry; see Luke 10:25-28, but he still speaks with authority and intelligence.) At the end of the discussion the legal expert will be hushed, and Jesus will emerge victorious in public.
“the law”: In this verse, it means the law of Moses. Now was the moment for the expert in the law to shine. Jesus based his entire ministry on Scripture, but he was about to fulfill most of Scripture, at his death, burial, resurrection and ascension. He will fulfill all of it when he returns.
In Luke’s version of the dialogue (10:25-37) the teacher of the law wanted to justify himself and asked who his neighbor was. That’s when Jesus told the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The neighbor is the one in need. The surprise is that the one who answered the call to help the needy neighbor was the despised Samaritan, unexpected by the teacher of the law in the parable.
But caution! Luke’s version may be a different episode since it took place outside of Jerusalem; after all, it is reasonable to believe that teachers of the law, who obsessed over the Torah, would ask which commandment was the greatest or most important more than once in his ministry.
Turner (p. 536) highlights two rabbis who gave summations of the law. Hillel (40 BC to AD 10) said, “Do not do to your neighbor what is hateful to you; this is the whole Torah, the rest is commentary.” Akiba (c. AD 50-135) said: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself … This is the encompassing principle of the law.” A famous passage in the Mishnah says: “The world rests on three things: the Torah, sacrificial worship, and expressions of love.” And recall Jesus’s summation of the law: “Therefore, everything that you want people to do to you, in the same way you also do to them. For this is the law and the prophets” (Matt. 7:12). Paul writes: “for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Rom. 13:8, ESV).
37-40:
Jesus could have quoted verses that talked about law keeping (Deut. 6:6-8). He could have recited all or any one of the Ten Commandments (Deut. 5:6-21). But he talked about the love relationship with God and with his neighbors. That’s what gives us eternal life—loving God—not law keeping. Jesus was in the process of revealing who the Father was and fulfilling all of the Torah (first five books of the Bible, particularly the legal aspects), so that the way to God is less complicated and more streamlined than the way that the Torah prescribes.
“you shall love”: the future tense in these contexts is equivalent to a command: “Love!” It is difficult to sustain love if we define it as a gooey feeling, so it must go deeper.
“love”: it is the verb agapaō (pronounced ah-gah-pah-oh). BDAG says that the verb means, depending on the context: (1) “to have a warm regard for and interest in another, cherish, have affection for, love”; (2) “to have high esteem for or satisfaction with something, take pleasure in; (3) “to practice / express love, prove one’s love.” In most instances this kind love in Scripture is not gooey feelings, though it can be a heart-felt virtue and emotion, as we see in the first definition. Rather, mostly, love is expressed by action.
Further, both the noun agapē (pronounced ah-gah-pay) and the verb mean a total commitment. For example, God is totally committed to his church and to the salvation of humankind. Surprisingly, however, total commitment can be seen in an unusual verse. Men loved darkness rather than light (John 3:19), which just means they are totally committed to the dark path of life. Are we willing to be totally committed to God and to live in his light? Can we match an unbeliever’s commitment to bad things with our commitment to good things?
Agapē and agapaō are demonstrative. This love is not static or still. It moves and acts. We receive it, and then we show it with kind acts and good deeds. It is not an abstraction or a concept. It is real.
It is transferrable. God can pour and lavish it on us. And now we can transfer it to our fellow believers and people caught in the world.
Jesus adds the phrase “with your whole mind”; it could be translated “with your entire mind.” It is perfectly all right to love God with our whole mind. Life in Christ is not only emotional and feelings based. So many big-name preachers don’t emphasize the intelligent side of the kingdom of God, so the people are inadequately trained to handle the challenges from intelligent skeptics. This is especially true of high school and college students. Therefore many of them needlessly fall away from the faith. Training of the mind can fix the problem. So it is possible to love the Lord God with our whole minds.
There is some discussion about the inner being of humankind. Are they two parts (body and soul / spirit, which are just synonyms), or are they three parts (body, soul, and spirit, and the latter two are not synonyms)? As far as I can tell, the vast majority of Renewalists believe in three parts, but it is not as easy a question to solve, as they may think.
Word Study on Spirit, Soul, and Body
In any case, if our love for the Lord does not translate to loving people, then our love for God is merely academic. 1 John 4:7-9 says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him” (ESV). So now the New Covenant Scriptures offers a fuller picture of God’s love. He is love, and when we are born of God, we will love one another. The greatest expression of God’s love is that he sent his Son into the world.
Further, 1 John 4:19 says, “We love because he first loved us” (ESV). Rom. 5:5 says that the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. The NT says therefore that any love we have for him begins first with him. Love flows from him to us and back to him. The NT fills out the picture more than the Torah does.
“whole”: it could be translated as “entire” or “all.” All of the law and prophets is another way of referring to the whole Old Testament. It hangs on or depends on or is clarified by those two greatest commandments.
“mind”: The Septuagint (pronounced sep-TOO-ah-gent) is the third-to-second century translation of the OT from Hebrew into Greek. And it does not have the word for “mind” in Deut. 6:5. Jesus inserted it, though the Hebrew word for “heart” can also be interpreted as “mind” or the seat of thinking.
It may be difficult for members of Renewal Christianity to receive, but we can love the Lord with our minds, and not just our hearts. I belong to the Renewal Movements, and I know this anti-intellectualism from observing things first hand. The mind and thinking are downplayed too often, and people go astray easily, as they take flights of fancy through their revelations and words from the Lord and out-of-bounds interpretations of plain Scriptures. Don’t neglect your love for God with your mind or thinking.
Once again: Word Study on Spirit, Soul, and Body
Yes, be sure your mind is renewed (Rom. 12:2), but live a balanced life, body (strength), soul / mind, and spirit.
In v. 39, Jesus said that we should love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Self-love is natural and assumed. Jesus is telling us that we should learn to love our neighbors as we naturally love ourselves. Love does not necessarily mean we have affection for our neighbors. But we do kind things for them and treat them as if they are made in the image of God (and they are).
This verse comes to mind:
Therefore, everything that you want people to do to you, in the same way you also do to them. For this is the law and the prophets. (Matt. 7:12)
It is the Golden Rule. That verse explains how we love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
GrowApp for Matt. 22:34-40
1. Jesus’s answer is a challenge to us. In Christ, the heart-mind work together to love him. How do you love him with your whole heart and your whole mind?
2. Study Luke 10:29-37. Who is your neighbor? How do you love your neighbor?
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1. Church Fathers and Matthew’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES AND MORE
To see the bibliography, please click on this link and scroll down to the bottom. You will also find a “Summary and Conclusion” for discipleship.
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