📖 Biblical Definition
In Mark 12:28-31, a scribe asked Christ which is the first commandment of all. He answered with two combined commandments: Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. The first is from Deuteronomy 6 (the Shema); the second from Leviticus 19.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
GREAT COMMANDM, n.
expand to see more
A scriptural teaching of Christ; the two greatest commandments combined.
📖 Key Scripture
Mark 12:30 — "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment."
Mark 12:31 — "And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these."
Deuteronomy 6:5 — "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."
Leviticus 19:18 — "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern Christianity collapses two commandments into one; the order matters.
expand to see more
Christ's combined answer is structurally precise. The first commandment is love the Lord; the second is like it: love the neighbor. The order is not arbitrary — vertical love comes before horizontal love. The man who loves his neighbor without loving the Lord first has invented humanism; the man who claims to love the Lord without loving his neighbor has invented hypocrisy (1 John 4:20).
Modern Christianity sometimes collapses the two into one (just love your neighbor; that is all that matters) or separates them entirely (love God; the neighbor is optional). Christ tied them in proper order: first the Lord with all your heart, then the neighbor as yourself. Both are commanded; the second flows from the first; neither replaces the other.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Greek roots below.
expand to see more
Usage
"Modern Christianity collapses two commandments into one; the order matters."
"Vertical love comes before horizontal love; humanism inverts the order."
"Both commanded; the second flows from the first; neither replaces the other."