The Problem with "Love" in the Greatest Commandment
Matthew 22:36-40 is a key teaching from Jesus, where he explains the two most important commandments:
One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him. “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Several of the key words in this translation sound familiar but are actually difficult for modern readers to understand concretely. What does it mean to “love” God? What does it mean to “love” your neighbor? And what exactly are “heart, soul, and mind”?
The biggest challenge is the word “love.” In the Greek text, Jesus uses the same verb in both commands: ἀγαπήσεις (agapēseis), usually translated “you shall love.” In modern English, however, “love” is often heard mainly as an emotion or feeling. In the biblical context, it describes something more practical: the way a person directs their loyalty, trust, and actions.
The difficulty is that this same posture takes a different form depending on who it is directed toward.
When the object is God, loving God means loyalty and trust — allowing God to guide your life rather than treating your own judgment as final. The phrase “with all your heart, soul, and mind” is not describing three separate spiritual parts of a person, but in Hebrew speech it was simply a way of saying “in every part of your life” — the whole of your inner life.
When the object is your neighbor, the same posture becomes the practical treatment of other people. It means taking another person’s well-being as seriously as you take your own. The phrase “as yourself” encourages you to project your own baseline desire for safety, respect, and care onto the person next to you. You simply imagine the roles reversed and act accordingly.
The two commands are closely connected. Trusting God means you do not have to treat life as a competition where you must secure everything for yourself. When you trust that reality is ultimately governed by God, you are freed from the fear that drives selfishness. That makes it possible to look at your neighbor and genuinely treat them the way you would want them to treat you.
Because the concrete action differs in the two cases, simply repeating the same English word “love” can make the teaching sound clear while leaving its actual meaning vague. For this reason, this retranslation expresses the practical meaning of each command rather than preserving the same English verb in both places:
One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him. “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘Trust God, in every part of your life.’ This is the first and greatest command. A second likewise is this: ‘Treat your neighbor the way you would want them to treat you.’ The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”