The Greatest Commandment #157

In January’s blogpost, George Orwell’s 1984 was cited: “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” That particular blogpost was in response to the murders committed by masked ICE agents in Minneapolis. The federal officials lied and tried to smear the two who were murdered as “domestic terrorists.” Reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. 

A better commandment comes when Pharisees are trying to trap Jesus. Yet again. Anytime a Pharisee appears in the Bible there is ill intent and this is no exception. So, Jesus gets asked, “what is the greatest commandment?” 

There is a lot to choose from. In the Ten Commandments there are a lot of “thou shall not” and it would make sense to pick one of those. However, if Jesus picked the anti murder, adultery, stealing, or lying commandment an argument could be made that he should have been focusing on “thou shall not covet” because coveting would lead to those other sins. The “trap” was supposed to make him say something that would alienate his followers. 

But Jesus answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind."  And the second is "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 

I would argue that the order is wrong. It seems that the first only applies to Christians (and as Georege Berard Shaw, the Irish playwright said, “Christianity might be a good thing if anyone ever tried it.”)

However, the second command applies to all, the faithful or faithless. It is for everyone and thereby the greatest. 

Either way, what Jesus said is infinitely better than what the Orange cult leader, channeling George Orwell, would command. 

Matthew 22:34–40