When religious teachers pressed Jesus with hard questions in Jerusalem, one scribe asked something more earnest: which commandment is the most important of all? Jesus did not invent a new rule. He gathered the whole Law into love—love for God, and love for neighbor.
One simple fact
In Mark's Gospel, a scribe who had heard Jesus answer well asked which commandment is first. Jesus began with the Shema of Israel from Deuteronomy 6:4-5—"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one"—and then joined it to Leviticus 19:18: love your neighbor as yourself. The scribe agreed that this love is greater than burnt offerings and sacrifices, and Jesus told him he was not far from the kingdom of God. (Commentary on Mark 12:28-34, Working Preacher)
Jesus' words
"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: "Love your neighbor as yourself." There is no commandment greater than these.
— Mark 12:30–31 (NIV, Bible Gateway)
See today's daily quote: Love God, love your neighbor.
Historical reference: wearing the Shema
The words Jesus cited were not abstract. Deuteronomy 6:8–9 tells Israel to bind these words on hand and forehead and write them on the doorposts. Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, archaeologists recovered ancient leather tefillin (phylactery) cases from caves in the Judean Desert—small boxes that held parchment slips with Torah passages including the Shema. A 2024 study in PLOS ONE examined seventeen of these cases, confirming that Jews in the late Second Temple period really did practice this embodied remembrance of God's oneness and love. (Adler et al., PLOS ONE, 2024)
When Jesus recited the Shema, He stood inside a living tradition His hearers already knew by heart—and by the straps on their arms.
A firsthand account: love for God and neighbor
Odell H, whose account is published by the Near Death Experience Research Foundation, nearly drowned as a boy in the Brazos River around 1951. He reported rising above his body, seeing a brilliant light, and then standing before Jesus, who said in effect, "Fear not. Be at peace," took his hand, and reviewed scenes from his life. Afterward Odell wrote that the experience changed what mattered most:
"I now know that God and Jesus are real and the most important thing in life is LOVE for God, for our parents and family and for our neighbors. ... I know He is real because I have SEEN Him. I have touched Him. I have talked to Him. I have held His hand. I have felt His love."
(Odell H NDE 6339/5003, NDERF)
This is the experiencer's own report, shared as he gave it.
Take it with you
The Greatest Commandment is not a slogan. It is Jesus' summary of the Law: give God your whole self, and let that love spill toward the person next to you. Start there today.