Deuteronomy 6.4-5.
The reason people say the L
If you haven’t heard of Rabbi Moshe, he’s a big deal in rabbinic Judaism. Jews often refer to him by Rambam (or “the Rambam,” in case you confuse him with another Rambam—it’s an acronym,
Rabbi Moshe also listed the commands in order of importance. To his mind, the most important was the first of
Exodus 20.2 NKJV - “I am the L
ORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”
No really; it’s a command. It identifies which God we’re to follow. There are plenty of other beings which identify themselves, or which others identify for us, as God.
Identifying which God is our God, is actually vitally important. It’s why theology books tend to begin by nailing down which God we follow: The Father of Jesus and the God of Israel. (There’s usually a bit in there about whether God exists and how we know this… which is entirely unnecessary
Okay, so that’s Rabbi Moshe’s number one command. It’s a good one. But now let’s ask God himself—or more specifically
Mark 12.28-31 NKJV - 28 Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?”
- 29 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the L
ORD our God, the LORD is one. 30 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’Dt 6.4-5 This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’Lv 19.18 There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Jesus identifies the most important command as what Jews call the
Deuteronomy 6.4-5 NKJV - 4 “Hear, O Israel: The L
ORD our God, the LORD is one! 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
The first part of this passage actually does the same thing as Rabbi Moshe’s number one verse: It identifies which God we follow, and that’d be the L
More than that, we’re commanded to love the L