Love is like a door that swings on two hinges. What?! I must have missed that class in Sunday School. No problems, Jesus explains how this is so.
Jesus taught that love was the essence of a relationship with God and with people. A Pharisee challenged Jesus on the Law. “One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And He said to him, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and Prophets’” (Matt.
Jesus’ response to the lawyer’s question was in total accord with Mosaic Law and Jewish custom. The command, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might,” is part of the Shema (Hebrew word for “hear”) given by Moses. The Shema comprised the texts of Deut. 6:4-9;
The command to love God with one’s heart, soul, and mind was a demand of total commitment to God. “Aheb, the Hebrew word for love used in Deut. 6:5, refers primarily to an act of mind and will, the determined care for the welfare of something or someone. It might well include strong emotion, but its distinguishing characteristics were the dedication and commitment of choice. It is the love that recognizes and chooses to follow that which is righteous, noble, and true, regardless of what one’s feelings in a matter might be. It is the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek agapaō in the New Testament, the verb of intelligent, purposeful, and committed love that is an act of the will. This love is in contrast to the emotion and tender affection of phileō and the physical, sensual love of eros (which is not used in the New Testament).” [The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Matthew 16-23.].
Jesus declared that the great and foremost commandment was to, “love God.” How do you love God? Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me” (John
Jesus continued, quoting Lev. 19:18, “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” “Genuine love for one’s neighbor is of the same kind as genuine love for God. It is by choice purposeful, intentional, and active, not merely sentimental and emotional.” A simple but concise definition of agapē love is, “To choose to do what is best for the one loved.”
Jesus said, “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and Prophets.” The word “depend” literally means to “hang.” The whole OT hangs on these two commands as a door hangs on its hinges. This powerful word picture helps one to understand how God intended the Law to be implemented—with love for God and love for people. If a door comes off of one or both of its hinges, it does not swing open or closed as intended. “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this is the commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also” (1 John
The essence of Christ’s motivation was love. “But God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (
The entire Bible "hinges" or "swings" on these two commands: love for God and love for your neighbor. How's your swing?
