The Greatest Commandment
by Dennis Peacocke
"'Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?' 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.'" (Matthew 22:36-38 )
Jesus Christ's genius in answering the above "loaded" but critical question was based upon an unparalleled comprehension of the essence of the vast amounts of biblical ordinances, principles, and commandments. In linking together Deuteronomy 6:5 with Leviticus 19:18, He congealed and connected the only dimensions of both life and ethics: the individual and his relationship to the extended human community. How we know and relate to God totally affects our relationship to all others. Loving God totally affects our relationship to all others. Loving God both equals and enables our loving of our "neighbors." Therefore, not knowing or relating properly to God produces all forms of both personal and social neuroses.
It would be comforting and convenient if Christians could content themselves with the assurance that "knowing" the true God made them superior in every way to the unbelievers. Unfortunately for us, such is not the case. Indeed, if we love God solely in a self-focused way without loving our neighbor, our spirituality has no extended human value. Conversely, if our passion is primarily for social justice and the extended welfare of mankind, without a personal centering in our relationship with God, we will damage all we touch out of ignorance of God's love and principles of true empowerment. My own experience tells me that many "unsaved" in the world are far more concerned for their neighbors than those of the faith, however misguided their ability to truly help their neighbors.
A wholistic, balanced, maturing spiritual life is exactly as Jesus said. It is grounded in God and extended to man. As in virtually all human affairs, the great Christian "Reformation" has both upsides and downsides. It gave both Catholics and Protestants a powerful admonition of the centrality of scripture and faith to the life of the believer and the church. It carried with it an unprecedented release of energy into the affairs of men, and established the foundations of capital creation and stewardship underpinning undreamed of prosperity for the masses. It connected the scriptures to all of life.
In its "downside," it so emphasized personal piety that it helped disconnect the Protestant world from its surrounding community in unintended ways. Today, the "church-state" separation issues in the United States reflect this "disconnect" in startling clarity. The "church-state" issue is, at its root level, a disaffected secular community saying to the Christian community, "We see little value you bring to our lives beyond your questionable single-issue moralizing." As Jesus pointed out, "loving our neighbor" is "like unto" loving our God. Both are essential and sequential. When we don't center on God, we center on self, and when we center on others without God at our center, we spread the disease of deranged "love." Our current crisis both within the church and outside the church establishes this central issue as one of enormous importance that necessitates major and immediate discussion and attention, and that is . . .
the bottom line.
