Bible Commentaries
Luke 10

Verses 25-28

The Great Commandment

(Matthew 22:34-40; Mark 12:28-34; Luke 10:25-28)

The question of the Pharisees is presented by Matthew as a new attempt to embarrass Jesus (compare the slightly different setting in Mark where the questioner seems sincere). The commandment in Deuteronomy 6:4-5 is recited every day by faithful Jews. Tradition brought together the two commandments of love of God and love of neighbor (Leviticus 19:18). Jesus makes no innovation in calling to mind these two commandments, and his adversaries find no basis to counter him, for it is true that the whole Law springs from them. The difference between Jesus and his opponents lies in the fact that "they preach, but do not practice" (Matthew 23:3). They do not see that the absoluteness of the divine demand condemns them. It is this absolute that Jesus has already stressed in the Sermon on the Mount (see ch. 5). Far from abolishing the ancient commandment, Jesus makes it the very center of his teaching. Yet with the same stroke he drives us into the corner of the impossible.

Who of us loves God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind, that is, with his whole being? Who of us does not secretly love himself more than he loves his neighbor? Thus the Law when reduced to these two commandments is more than ever our condemnation. It shuts us up to the mercy of God (Matthew 5:7), to a life entirely renewed which only his Spirit can create in us. It is the Pharisees’ refusal to confess their bankruptcy and impotence which shuts them up to an awkward silence.