The Most Important Commandment

A man approached Jesus and said, "Teacher, which is the most important commandment?"

Jesus replied, saying, "This above all others, thou shalt love thy lord, thy God, with all thy heart, all thy soul, and with all thy might (all of thy mind in another place in the New Testament), and thy neighbor as thyself. All the rest hang from this."


I have meditated on this teaching for years. It seems to be demanding that one love God with every single atom of one's being since it explicitly says "...with all thy heart, all thy soul, and all thy might..." and I take it to mean just that. One must love the Creator with every particle of one's being. This commandment says that nothing comes before loving the Creator absolutely and unequivocally. In fact, the appended statement by Jesus, "All the rest hang from this," means exactly what I've suggested. The first act of awareness one must commit to is loving the Creator and not loving anything else to the same degree or, at least, not to any degree more. This seems to be overly demanding, or impossible, or both. But it is neither. We are being asked to understand a deeper principle here.


What is that principle?

Thinking about it, it seems impossible to love anything else if one loves the Creator absolutely—meaning there can be no restrictions, no limits. Maybe the impossibility arises in the mind because of the manner in which we view the existence of what we call God. In thinking of All-Powerful, All-Knowing, and All-Present Being, we cannot conceive of such without placing some type of mental limitations on it. For example: most Christians will blithely tell you that God lives in Heaven. But, if God "lives" in Heaven yet It lives everywhere at all times, then where is this Heaven? Is it not here with us then if God is everywhere at all times and lives in Heaven, or does God leave Heaven everyday to do Its work then return to Heaven to rest at the end of Its work day and on the Sabbath? If God does this, then this strongly implies that God is not everywhere at all times since He/It leaves Heaven to take care of those things It deems necessary to oversee, which raises another complication. If God is All Powerful, why must It leave Heaven to do anything?


Again, what is the Principle?


Jesus, if you’ve never noticed, taught by asking questions, by telling stories, and by saying things which seem contradictory on the surface. But he said, “Let him who has ears hear and him who has eyes see. Jesus wasn’t trying to win converts; he was speaking to those people who truly wanted to understand. He had no time for anyone who blindly followed religious strictures, but he had all of the time necessary for people who were truly looking for understanding. His words here meant, “These words are for you who want to understand.”


How do we come to understand the quoted passage?


We have to understand that, according to Christian teaching, God is everywhere at all times. If God, the Creator, is everywhere at all times, then he/she/it must be in every single particle of the Universe, no matter how minute, no matter how enormous. This, consequently, means that the Creator is part of every single atom of all matter and energy of any kind, discovered and still unknown. It means that the energy I call the Creator, the Jews and Christians call God, and which Islam calls Allah, has to be part of every atom of every human who lives or has ever lived. It means that the Creator is part of all of us and that mankind is part of the Creator. So loving the creation unreservedly would entail loving the Creator with all of one’s heart, soul, and mind. This includes loving oneself and one’s neighbor with the same intensity and forgiveness as well.


I hope you understand. I can’t say it any better.


Walk in Peace, Love, and Harmony.


Quietwalker