Meeting guide · command 68

Love God and Love Your Neighbor

Love the one God with your whole being and love your neighbor as yourself.

Read

Read the complete passage aloud.

Primary passage

Matthew 22:34–40

34 But the Pharisees, when they heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, gathered themselves together. 35 One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him. 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

World English Bible

Mark

Mark 12:28–31

28 One of the scribes came and heard them questioning together, and knowing that he had answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the greatest of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The greatest is: ‘Hear, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 31 The second is like this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

World English Bible

Asked to identify the greatest command, Jesus joins wholehearted covenant love for God to active neighbor-love as the framework of the Law and Prophets.

Discuss

Listen carefully to what Jesus says.

  1. What does Jesus command?
  2. What does this passage reveal about Him?
  3. Where do we resist this command?
  4. What is difficult or unclear?
  5. Where do love for God and love for neighbor become separated in your life, and what does Jesus join back together?

Practice

Choose one specific act of obedience.

Choose one practice of attention toward God and one concrete act for a neighbor's good; complete both as expressions of the same love.

Return

Come back and discuss what happened.

How did loving God reshape your care for a neighbor, or loving a neighbor deepen your worship?

Close together

Pray. Then prepare to teach.

Pray

One God, gather our whole hearts, souls, minds, and strength into love for you, and teach us to love our neighbors faithfully.

Teach

Teach the two commandments together; devotion that neglects neighbors and activism detached from love of God both become distorted.