The Great Commandment

This week I studied Matthew 22:35-40.

35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,

36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

37 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.

38 This is the first great commandment.

39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

I love this scripture! While the lawyer's intent is obviously not very good, I don't think the question he asked was inherently bad.  When asked from the proper, righteous perspective, it's a really significant question: Which commandment is the most important?  What do I need to focus on?  When I'm feeling overwhelmed with everything that is required of me, where do I need to start?

Christ's answer is, of course, perfect.  The great commandment is that we love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind, and that we love our neighbor.  This comes with the assurance that if we will keep these two great commandments, everything else will fall into place.  Every other commandment given stems from these two.

What does it mean to love God with all of our heart, mind, and soul?  Looking up the word "love" in True to the Fatih and the Oxford English Dictionary, I came to the conclusion that love is about our desires.  If we truly love God with all of our heart, we will desire to do those things that please Him.  He will be our focus and the center of our thoughts and our desires.  We will make decisions based on that love for Him.  We will obey His commandments.  And if we love God, we will love His children by extension.

Of course, all of this is easier said than done.  But the beautiful part is that all we really have to do is try.  Elder Holland taught this doctrine beautifully in his April 2016 conference talk "Tomorrow the Lord Will Do Wonders Among You."

"The great thing about the gospel is we get credit for trying, even if we don't always succeed. ...We are going to be blessed for our desire to do good, even as we actually strive to be so."

I know that if we desire to love God - even if we can only desire to desire to love Him - if we let that desire work in us, He will work with what we have to give and we will ultimately be able to make it back to Him.