But when the Pharisees heard that He had put the Sadducees to silence, they gathered themselves together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:34-40 NASB).
In these words Jesus gives to us some very enlightening thoughts concerning the purpose of knowledge. He is asked which of the some 613 commandments in the Old Testament Law is the most important. Jesus informs the inquirer that the greatest commandment concerns love. His answer stressed who we are to love and how we are to love. The who is the Lord God who for our eternal good (cf. Deut. 10:13) has commanded but not forced His creatures in His image to love Him. The how is emphasized by the threefold repetition of the adjective “olh,” which carries the force of whole, entire, and complete (Ardnt and Gingrich, p. 567). The emphasis of the command is not so much on the different parts of man’s immaterial being as on the importance of loving God with the whole of one’s inward self (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, 2:589). Jesus taught elsewhere that love for God involved loyalty and obedience to God (John 14:15, 21). However, here we see that this loyalty is to be complete, and it is to spring from one’s inward self. A mere outward compliance is not condoned by our Lord who spoke of giving “what is within to charity” (Luke 11:4) and also rebuked the church of Ephesus for leaving their first love in the midst of an “obedient” life (Rev. 2:1-7; cf. 1 Cor. 13:1-3).
After giving some assurance to the lawyer that He had answered the questions, Jesus stated a second commandment. It involved a commitment to one’s neighbor that was as great as one’s commitment to oneself. The addition of the second commandment in His response reiterates the biblical idea that a genuine love for God will always overflow into a commitment to the well-being of one’s fellow man (cf. 1 John 4:20-21). Whenever the Spirit of God works in the lives of God’s people to foster a loving devotion to God, a true concern for others that expresses itself in concrete ways will be seen.
The Lord concluded His answer by insisting that on these two foundational commandments the whole Law and the Prophets, or the entire Old Testament hangs. Jesus spoke of the basic design or purpose of the totality of Scripture that had been written at that time. Scripture is designed to motivate and instruct man to love God which will overflow in loving others and viewing oneself properly.
While most of us find Jesus’ words very familiar, there is a constant challenge in keeping this purpose of knowledge before our eyes. Is there a clear-cut motive to gain greater insight into how to love when we read or study the Bible? I remember a professor who was asked the most helpful insight he could give in regard to a personal study of the Scriptures. He replied, “This Bible teaches me about a Person.” In the words of Jesus it is to teach us how to love this Person.
The Apostle Paul believed that two things result when knowledge is not seen as a means to produce genuine love. One is that it produces arrogance or pride (1 Cor. –8:1). The second is that the teacher of truth enters into empty, fruitless talk (1 Tim. 1:6). However, the same Apostle also taught that while one might have knowledge without love (1 Cor. 13:2), one cannot have an abounding, mature love without knowledge and discernment (Phil. 1:9). The more one knows of God and His ways, the greater the motivation and skill in trusting God’s Spirit to love through his life. The river of God’s love will always flow between the banks of knowledge and discernment.
In an address that John Wesley gave before the University of Oxford, he asked of the faculty, “Do you continually remind those under your care that the one rational end of all our studies is to know, love, and serve the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent?” (J. C. Ryle, Christian Leaders of the 18th Century, p. 95). Wesley’s words are helpful in that they do not ask us if we know the rational end or purpose of knowledge. The question is do we continually remind ourselves and those we teach of this purpose?