Matthew 22:37-40 records Jesus answering a question about which command in the Law matters most. He names two commandments, love for God with your whole being and love for your neighbor as yourself, and says the rest of the Law and the Prophets hang on them. This passage is a clear, short summary of what God asks of his people.
The setting is Jerusalem during the final week of Jesus’ ministry, in the temple courts. Religious leaders have been trying to trap him with hard questions, and a lawyer steps forward with one more.
37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:37-40 (WEB)
Matthew 22:37-40 Summary
A lawyer, one of the experts in the Jewish law, asks Jesus which commandment is the greatest. The question was a common one in Jesus’ day, and rabbis often debated how to rank the hundreds of commands in the Torah. He is testing Jesus to see whether he will pick a side in a familiar argument.
Jesus answers without hesitation. He first quotes the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:5, calling for total love of God, then joins it to Leviticus 19:18, calling for love of neighbor. He then says that everything else in the Law and the Prophets rests on these two. The answer is direct, and it turns a contest of legal rankings into a question about the heart.
Context of Matthew 22:37-40
Matthew’s Gospel was written for a community that knew the Jewish Scriptures well and needed to see how Jesus fulfilled them. Traditionally the author is identified as Matthew, one of the twelve disciples, though this is a matter of church tradition rather than explicit statement within the book. The first readers were likely Jewish Christians and others familiar with Jewish law and debate.
The surrounding verses, Matthew 22:34-43, show a series of confrontations. The Pharisees and Sadducees have each tried to test Jesus, and he has answered them. After this exchange, Jesus turns the question back on his opponents by asking whose son the Messiah is. The passage is part of a pattern in which Jesus shows that the religious leaders lack the wisdom they claim.
Matthew 22:37-40 Verse by Verse
Deuteronomy 6:5
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
(WEB)
This is the original Shema that Jesus quotes. Reading it in its Old Testament setting shows that love for God was never a new idea but the core of Israel’s covenant life. It frames the total devotion Jesus is calling for.
1 John 4:20-21
20 If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn’t love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother.
(WEB)
John connects love for God with love for others in a sharp way. He argues that someone who claims to love God while hating a fellow believer is not telling the truth. This echoes the close link Jesus draws between the two commands.
A Prayer Based on Matthew 22:37-40
Lord, you are the God who asks for all of me, and you deserve it. Take my heart, my soul, and my mind, and gather up the scattered parts of my attention into devotion to you. Where I have divided my loyalty, draw me back to the center. Teach me to love you more truly than I love my own comfort.
Show me the people you have placed around me and help me love them as I love myself. Give me patience with the difficult, kindness toward the forgotten, and courage to act on what I know to be right. Let my love for you and for others grow together. Amen.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Matthew 22:37-40 mean in simple terms?
Jesus says the most important commands are to love God completely and to love your neighbor as yourself. He adds that the rest of the Law and the Prophets build on these two. The passage reduces many rules to one central truth about love.
Why does Jesus call the first commandment the greatest?
Jesus calls it the first and great commandment because love for God is the foundation for all other obligations. Every other command in Scripture expresses this devotion in a particular area of life. It is the source from which the rest of God’s instruction flows.
How are loving God and loving your neighbor connected?
Jesus says the second command is like the first, which points to a shared source and character. Scripture elsewhere teaches that people bear God’s image, so loving others is one way of honoring him. The two cannot be separated in a life of genuine faith.
