It is interesting how Jesus broke down the 10 commandments in 2 halves when he was asked of which was the greatest commandment.
If you read the first 4 commandments as one passage, they basically say
1. Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength
The second half (remaining 6) sum up one commandment
2. Love thy neighbor as thyself
Matt. 22:36-40
- Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
- Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
- This is the first and great commandment.
- And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
- On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Mark 12:28-31
- And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?
- And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
- And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
- And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
Jesus was basically saying, if you truly Love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself, the rest of the law will come easy to you.
The Ten Commandments are found in: Exodus 20:1-17
NightWatch 
It’s interesting that many Christians today think Jesus was saying something new with His statement that this was “a new commandment.” He was really telling them that it was a new concept for “them.” This was already information at their disposal that they left out of their theology.
Deut 6:5- “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”
Lev 19:18- “Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the Lord.”
Also, we have to be careful about making God “general” rather than “specific” with His instructions. One example that comes to mind is marriage.
Thoughts?
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Yes! As Matthew 22:40 says, “on these 2 commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
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Like me, you’ve probably heard Christians read Matthew 22:40 as “on these 2 commandments Jesus abolished all the need of the law and the prophets” … 🙂
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Hi Brandon, I believe Jesus’ thought was not to minimize or eliminate the need for all the commandments, but rather to reinforce them into 2, easy to remember, principals. If we truly love God and our neighbor, all the other commandments will easily fall into place. As Jesus said in Matthew 5:17: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.”
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