The second is like unto it

Two days after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which itself kicked off the final week of his ministry, Jesus was discussing the resurrection with the Sadducees. According to Matthew 22:33, what Jesus had to say on the matter left them “astonished at his doctrine”. Word about this quickly spread, eventually reaching the Pharisees. This prompted one of them, which verse 35 describes as a lawyer (or someone who was an expert in the Law), to ask Jesus a different question.

We have read and heard this passage many times, but I want to explore a few elements that we rarely seem to touch on.

First, let’s start with the framing of the lawyer’s question. In Matthew 22:36, he asks Jesus which is the great commandment. In Mark 12:28, however, he asks him which is the first commandment. Either way, it is clear that this scribe either ranks commandments or is trying to get Jesus to rank them. Or perhaps both.

Ranking commandments can be a problematic pastime, as it can lead us to dismiss certain commandments since they are not as important as the ones we deem to be most important. Many of us do it. We avoid killing people, for example, but we might be less inclined to eat meat sparingly. We avoid committing fraud but we might be less inclined to drive under the maximum posted speed limit. We avoid worshiping other gods above our Heavenly Parents but we might be less inclined to always tell the truth. We rank commandments, this lawyer ranked commandments, and now everyone would see whether Jesus would rank commandments.

There are two things about his response that make it brilliant.

“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.” Mark 12:30 adds “all thy strength”.

The first thing that stands out to me about this response is that Jesus chose an answer that was active. Keeping commandments are easy when they require us to not do something. “Thou shalt not kill” and “thou shalt not steal” demand very little of us. A commandment to love God will all our heart, soul, mind, and strength is a commandment that needs us to do something, to sacrifice something, to give up something.

The second thing I noticed is how he finishes up his answer. In Matthew 22:40, Jesus said that on this commandment “[hung] all the law and the prophets”. This commandment is not the first and great commandment because it is the most important; it is the first and great commandment because it is foundational to all the others. In fact, it is foundational to Jewish scripture—and by extension, Christian scripture. Without loving God with our whole selves, scripture itself collapses.

But there is one more element in Jesus’ answer that I have not discussed yet. Matthew 22:39 states, “And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” It is not just loving God that scripture is built on. Loving others is also critical. 

I find the phrase “like unto it” interesting. In the Greek New Testament, the word that we translate as like is homoia, which means something along the lines of resembling, similar, shared, common, mutual, or even equal. Its root word homo is also the root of words like homogenous, which means a group of things that are all the same, and homonym, which describes words that sound the same.

As such, the commandment to love our neighbour as ourselves resembles, is similar to, or is equal to the commandment to love God with our whole selves. When Jesus calls it the second commandment, he is not saying it is less important, that we should put loving God above loving others. It is more of an addendum to the original request. The lawyer asked him what the first or great commandment was. Jesus answered that. And then he basically said, “But wait. There’s more.” There is no friction between these two commandments: they are equal in importance and influence.

This is more clearly illustrated in the lawyer’s response to Jesus found in Mark 12:33

To love [God] with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

We can see this demonstrated elsewhere in the scriptures.

For example, in Mosiah 2:17—which might seem familiar to those who took seminary—King Benjamin taught “that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God”.

In the parable of the sheep and goats, found in Matthew 25, we discover that when we feed, quench, clothe, and visit the “least of these”, it is as though we are performing that service to the Lord himself.

We read something similar in 1 John 3:17–18.

Whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

This is reiterated in the very next chapter, in 1 John 4:20–21

If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

And finally, there is a parallel in Proverbs 14:31

He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor.

We learn two things from these passages. First, we see that loving others through service is simultaneously loving God. In fact, showing love through service is the only way we can show love. We can’t just “love in word”; our love must manifest “in deed”. Spoken love is hollow, empty, superficial, and meaningless. Telling someone “I love you” only is insufficient.

The second thing we learn from these passages is that we cannot show love to God unless we are showing love to our fellow beings. We cannot claim to love God yet at the same time ignore those all around us who suffer. 

Just two days after declaring the two great commandments, Jesus expounded to his apostles at the Last Supper on the idea of loving our neighbour, when he told them that his commandment is for them to “love one another, as I have loved you” (John 15:12). So, we are not only to love one another as we love ourselves, but also to love one another as Jesus loves us. And that love isn’t just reserved for specific people; Jesus makes it clear that we are to love everyone.

During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reminded the multitude that their teachings up to that point directed them to “love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy” (v. 43). He, however, teaches that this no longer suffices, that we must extend this love to not just those close to us, but also to our enemies:

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? (vv. 44–46)

Loving “them which love” us is easy. Loving those who already love us or who reciprocate that love doesn’t test the limits of our love. It doesn’t allow us to really see whether our love is expansive and inclusive enough to love others as Jesus loves us. Loving those who hate us, who despitefully use us, who persecute us will truly help us discover whether our love mirrors the love Jesus showed to those who crucified him, when he asked God to show mercy on them through forgiveness (Luke 23:34). Despite the trauma, the pain, and the violence inflicted on him by his captors, Jesus was still concerned about them on a personal, spiritual level.

Paul teaches us in Romans 12:18–21 that we should choose peace and service over revenge and anger.

If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all. . . . Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink. . . . Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. (vv. 18, 20–21)

If someone hurts us, our response, according to Paul, shouldn’t be to lash out at them, returning wound for wound. No, the Apostle tells us that we should instead meet their material needs. Are they hungry? Feed them. Are they thirsty? Give them something to drink. Perhaps we can even help them with their family history. 

When Jesus (or Paul) tells us that we should bless those who curse us or persecute us, he means we should bless them through improving their material needs. Blessing our enemies isn’t something nebulous or metaphysical. He isn’t asking us to think good thoughts about them; he’s asking us to serve them in ways that will make a concrete difference in their lives.

In Moroni 7:47, Mormon defines charity as “the pure love of Christ”. In 1 Cor. 16:14, we read, “Let all your things be done with charity”. We must incorporate charity into everything we do. It must become who we are. You see, loving others as Jesus did isn’t something to check off in a long list of items each time we interact with others. Loving others purely was just part of who Jesus was. He didn’t decide what he needed to do and then find a way to jam love in there. Love told him what to do, it guided what he did. It wasn’t an afterthought. If we are still asking ourselves, “Okay. How can I respond in a loving way?” to any situation we face, then we still aren’t showing charity. I mean, don’t get me wrong, that’s a better approach than responding impulsively and retributively. But until love dictates our actions and words automatically, then we’re not showing charity. At least not yet. And we know there is still room to grow before we get there.

But how do we get there?

I think it starts with trying to see all people as having worth. Section 18 of the Doctrine and Covenants—another seminary scripture—teaches us that “the worth of souls is great in the sight of God” (v. 10). Jacob 2:20 tells us that “the one being is as precious in [God’s] sight as the other.” God sees each person as having inherent worth. Not only that, but this worth is great, precious even. When someone cuts us off in traffic during our morning commute and we snap at them in anger, how much do we think their soul is worth? When someone says something unkind to us and we lash out in revenge, how much do we think their soul is worth? When someone inconveniently begs us for money when we head downtown to shop, how much do we think their soul is worth?

Notice that D&C 18:10 doesn’t say that the worth of some souls is great in the sight of God. Nor does it say that the worth of souls is great sometimes in the sight of God. Our worth is not conditional on our behaviour. Nor is it conditional on which group we belong to. To God, we are not of worth—or to put it another way, worthy—because we answer yes or no to the answers on some sort of checklist. Our worthiness in God’s sight does not depend on whether we are part of their chosen people. God does not make our worth contingent on our belonging to a specific ethnic, socioeconomic, or sexual subgroup of the human population. No, our worth in the sight of God is conditional on nothing, not who we are nor what we do. And as such, it must be the same for everyone, or as Jacob tells us, “as precious in his sight as the other”. Not only does God see worth in me, but they see worth in you. In fact, the entire human race—past, present, and future—has worth in God’s sight. We all have worth, and that worth is the same: great and precious. None of us is worth more in the sight of God than any other person. Likewise, none of us is worth less in the sight of God than any other person. We are each of great worth. We are all of great worth.

Until we can see that worth in everyone, we will be unable to love everyone.