Every student knows that when your instructor says, “This will be on the test.” you’ve got to understand it. Simple. Maybe not easy, but simple.

In Matthew 22:36-39 we read

“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

And very similarly we read in Luke 10:27-28

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

Ever wonder - why are these called the 2 greatest commandments?

According to some, Jesus gave us at least 6 and some say that the grand total for all commandments in the New Testament is over 8,000. Christianity is a 2,000-ish year old faith and whether there’s 6 or 8,000 - it’s complicated.

I believe these are the two greatest commandments because these tie it all together. Jesus came according to John 3:16 because God loved us. God’s commands teach us to love God too - because this is good for us. They also teach us to love one another - because that’s good for us too. This is not a self-indulgent love - but something genuinely healthy, good, and beneficial. When we love God and our neighbor - we live out all of the seven heavenly virtues (charity, chastity, diligence, humility, kindness, patience, and temperance). The more loving we are - the more we live and walk in the virtues. The more we walk in the virtues - the more loving we are to those around us. If we do not love God or our neighbor - we live and walk in the seven deadly sins (greed, lust, sloth, pride, envy, gluttony, and wrath). These are called deadly sins because they have an addictive quality. They are easy to fall into because at least in the moment they feel good. But they have a dreadful power to harm our souls and make our hearts hard.

These are really, really old ideas, and while theologians, philosophers and the like can complicate them - even a child can understand that when we live lovingly - it feels much better than when we live unlovingly.

So - when we follow these two commandments - we get all the other 6 or 8,000 - or however many you count. And if we try to live by all the others - but not these two - it’s not only extremely complicated - but it feels awful. To me - it feels “legalistic”

So why doesn’t every one live by these? It takes courage to love like that. And that makes sense. I mean - who can read about how Jesus and those who followed Him lived and not see their courage? It also takes an awful lot of humility. Humility can be tricky to define - but the kind of love that loves God and loves our neighbor “to life” (an old Benedictine idea) will love us to life too.

Learning to live by these two commandments takes a whole lifetime at least. But it is a beautiful life. The seven deadly sins - even if you know nothing about Jesus, the Bible and never heard the word sin - will wreck all your most valued relationships. The virtues - are the opposite. You could be the least theological and philosophical person in the world - and yet if you treated those around you according to those virtues - they would feel good. And I believe you’d feel good. Even better - God would recognize you as trying to follow Him.

Simple. But not remotely easy. But definitely a really, really beautifully strong and courageously gracious way to live.