The First and Second Commands

God’s first commandment is to love God. God’s second command is to love people. I have speculated before that those are God’s priorities.

What if someone says “Some people are terrible. So, I won’t show love to them. But I will still love God.” This could be the rich, the poor, other ethnicities, other religions, other branches of Christianity, criminals, or other segments of society, or cultures.

For a true follower of Jesus, there are a few problems with that. One, Jesus said to love your enemies. Which would seem to imply that everyone is under the same umbrella. Jesus’ followers should love everyone.

But, a bigger problem is that Jesus said that if you love God, you will obey his commandments. So, you can’t keep the first commandment, if you don’t keep the second commandment. And Scripture further says if a person keeps these two commandments, that person is keeping the whole Law.

A follower of Jesus cannot obey the first command, if they are not patient, or kind to other people. If he/she looks down on other people, expects only bad from them, or for them, they are not obeying the first commandment.

The first and second commandments walk together hand in hand. They cannot be separated. To practice one, one must practice both.