Jesus and the Ten Commandments

“I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. “You must not have any other god but me.”

Exodus 20:2

Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37‭-‬40 NLT

You’ve heard it said “God is a jealous God.” I believe this commandment is important because God created human beings to be formed in His image. He created us to worship Him. We are His children. You can equate it to this; imagine you have a child, but that child believes another person to be their parent. You gave birth to them, you raised them with love and care, but they chose someone else to identify as their parent. It would hurt wouldn’t it? That is how God feels when we start to put other things as our god. 

So what does it look like to have another god before Yahweh? Keeping in mind that a god can be anything you put your faith and trust in, or something you devote your life to. 

What are things in your life that have the potential to become a god?

So why does Jesus address this?

Jesus’s purpose on earth was to fulfill the requirements of the law. So he wanted to elaborate on some of the most important pieces of the law. Jesus needed to emphasize that the Jews were slipping into dangerous territory with their customs, rituals, and rules. Some may argue that they were beginning to worship the religion rather than God. So Jesus needed to clear up the water. Put God first. Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. All your being. But don’t forget to love God’s creation too. We were all created to worship Him and we need to show the love He has for us with other people. You can’t properly love if you also hate.

What does Jesus mean when he says “the entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments” and what is “the law”? 

The law of that time was the Ten Commandments and the Mosaic law. All the sacrifices and rules on clean and unclean and all that stuff and the demands of the prophets were all about how the Israelites had strayed from God and had mistreated each other. So when Jesus says they are all based on the two commandments to Love God and Love people he is saying that every aspect of the law had to do with your relationship with God and with people, it wasn’t just a set of rules designed to make you miserable, their purpose was to honor and glorify God and treat others with respect.

What is the main focus? 

Your relationship with God, and your relationship with man. Therefore the whole law and everything the prophets were referring to, can all be boiled down to a relationship problem between God and man.