The Great Commandment (or Greatest Commandment) is a term used in the New Testament to describe the first of two commandments cited by Jesus in Matthew 22:35–40. The two commandments are also found in Mark 12:28–34 and Luke 10:25–28. These two commandments, taken from the Law of Moses in the Old Testament, are commonly seen as important to Christian ethics.
In Matthew, when asked "which is the great commandment in the law?", the Bible reports that Jesus answered, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind", before also referring to a second commandment, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself". This double reference has given rise to differing views with regard to the relationship that exists between the two commandments, although typically "love thy God" is referred to as "the first and greatest commandment", with "love thy neighbour" being referred to outside the Bible as "the second great commandment".
Read more about Great Commandment: Love The Lord Thy God, Love Thy Neighbour As Thyself
Famous quotes containing the word commandment:
“Ideals possess the strange quality that if they were completely realized they would turn into nonsense. One could easily follow a commandment such as “Thou shalt not kill” to the point of dying of starvation; and I might establish the formula that for the proper functioning of the mesh of our ideals, as in the case of a strainer, the holes are just as important as the mesh.”
—Robert Musil (1880–1942)