The Greatest Commandment

Mark 12:28-31:

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked [Jesus], "Which commandment is the most important of all?" Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

Isn't it odd that love is the single greatest commandment in all of Scripture? The Tawrat, Prophets, Zabur and Injil are filled with commandments from God. Yet none of them surpass the commandment to love Allah.

Futhermore, we are not to simply love the Lord with our words and deeds. We are to love Him with everything we are. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."

This means that we can pray five times a day, give alms to the poor, fast from sunrise to sunset, memorize thousands of verses, keep the strictest guidelines of religion - and yet still be disobeying the greatest commandment of Allah. The apostle Paul puts it like this:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

If we have not love, we gain nothing. It is essential that we continue to seek Allah and love Him with all that we are. Isa al Masih has given us the greatest commandment and he longs for us to obey it. Once again, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'"

So how can we truly live this out? By obeying the commandments of Allah. "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome" (1 John 5:2-3).

The commandments of God are not burdensome. He doesn't require us to jump through a bunch of hoops, complete a series of tests or try to merit our own salvation. He wants our hearts, our souls, our minds and our strength to love Him with all that we are. This indeed is the greatest commandment.