Can the Ten Commandments and Jesus' Two Great Commandments be reconciled like this?

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I’m new here so ‘Hi’. I’m not Catholic but I have a deep interest in Christian theology. I hope my question isn’t too absurd.

In Matthew 22, Jesus says that there are Two Commandments:
  1. Love God with all your heart, soul and mind
  2. Love your neighbour as yourself
He then says that upon these commandments hang the law and the prophets.

I’ve not been able to find an explanation to join these two commandments with the ‘law’.

It got me to thinking. If the ‘law’ is the Ten Commandments, then isn’t the net result of Jesus’ commandments the same thing?

For example, by following Jesus’ first commandment you can’t break the God related commandments. While loving our neighbour, we can’t steal or kill or bare false witness or commit adultery or covet.

Jesus then appears to give examples to clarify ambiguities. Keeping the Sabbath holy could be seen as falling under Jesus’ first commandment to Love God. However, Jesus heals on the Sabbath and so loves his neighbour. Jesus saves the adulteress from stoning by applying Love Your Neighbour. In Mark 7 he tells disgruntled parents to consider their children as a gift from God and listen to them, rather than condemn them under the Honour Your Mother and Father commandment.

Does this make sense?

I would appreciate your thoughts.
 
Yes, they can be linked like that. St. Paul the Apostle actually made that connection for “Love your neighbor as yourself” in Romans 13:
9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this saying, [namely] “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.
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The answer is given gradually over the Pauline letters and personally I still don’t feel like I understand it.
 
I’m not sure either, but I think it has something to do with 2 Corinthians 3-6
He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

A covenant is a legal construct based on law. There is the letter of the law and there is the intent behind it, the spirit of the law. The letter of the law is open to abuse. A judge should therefore also take into consideration the intent, or spirit, of the law to ensure this does not happen. Isaiah 28:6 refers to the “Spirit of judgement”. I think Paul is saying that, while the letter of God’s law can be used to kill, the spirit of God’s law can’t.

This makes me think that Jesus’ commandments and actions actually define the spirit of God’s law which takes precedence over the letter of God’s law. This might explain how Jesus fulfils the law. He adds the spirit to the letter.

It’s just an idea.
 
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Yes, you have right idea. Loving God and loving our neighbor is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. Jesus was the ultimate example of living a perfect life.
 
adgloriam said:
Elsewhere in scripture it is said :“God will confuse the wise.” So, even if you had a lot of wisdom and knowledge you would be faced “by life” with overwhelming situations that defied any rationality and would challenge all your analyses.
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Solomon seemed to do OK. He used the mother’s human nature to protect her baby’s life to identify the true parent. Isn’t experience of “Life” a valuable source of wisdom and isn’t the Spirit about life?
adgloriam said:
let’s not forget the “theology of the cross” that is a field in itself. Meaning, you should forgive and forgive, even if your wife is betraying you continuously and with a humble and meek heart take the Lord’s burden upon you.
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Or you could apply “Let him without sin cast the first stone” to yourself and consider you might be the reason for her behaviour?
 
Jezra said:
Solomon seemed to do OK.
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Our Lord Jesus seemed to have been crucified, accused and abandoned.
Jezra said:
and consider you might be the reason for her behaviour?
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Implicit, (or explicit?) accusation. What does scripture say about “the accuser”? Or Karol Wojtyla for that matter in “love and responsibility”?
 
We went from discussions on mapping two commandments to ten, and now we’re talking about Spiritism, and I’m not entirely sure how we got here. :confused:
Jezra said:
Solomon seemed to do OK.
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He also ended up suffering from depression for a lot of his failings and wrote an entire book about it.
 
10 commandments; 2 tablets

The first tablet containing commandments 1-3, dealing with man’s relationship with God.

The second tablet containing commandments 4-10, dealings man’s relationship with other men.

So, the two commandments Jesus spoke of can be summed up as how we are to relate to God, and how we are to relate with each other…and, as Christ warned in the Gospels, if we break one, we have broke all of them.

And, don’t forget, that since these commandments were written in stone by the finger of God, they constitute the first written word of God, predating Sacred Scripture.

Pax et Bonum!
 
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When Jesus spent his time on Earth, he would have lived by the greatest commandments, he could do nothing greater. But how did Jesus hold out his hands on the cross and love the man with the hammer?

We know Jesus prayed forgive them Father for they know not what they do. But Jesus did more than forgive, he continued to love as he loves himself.

The power of the love of Jesus gives us hope, because it is also our sins that led Jesus to the cross.
 
As I have stated a few times before, Hillel the Elder, from whom the Pharisaic tradition derives, and who lived prior to Jesus, summed up the Law as love of G-d and neighbor. Jesus added to that love of enemy. With regard to the letter of the law and the spirit of the law, the spirit is already contained within the letter of the law, much as mercy is contained within justice. The “problem” is that the Written Law (Torah) is incomplete in the sense that there are omissions, ellipses, (cultural) assumptions, literary devices as well as complexities of text, context, and language, all of which require further explanation and interpretation. In Judaism, this is provided by means of the codified Oral Torah, consisting of the Mishna and Talmud. The reconciliation–as well as the seeming contradictions, for we are talking about Jewish law–are all inherent in the Law itself and subject to its diverse interpretations.
 
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IMHO, the Ten Commandments given to us through Moses and the Two Commandments given to us by Jesus can best be summed up in one word. That word is Love, or Charity, which is one of the three cardinal virtues (Faith, Hope & Charity).

Often times I hear people speak about how much God loves us, but I wonder how often we really consider what that actually means for us as individuals, or whether or not we truly love Him as much as we should. If we truly love God, then we should always try our best to never do anything that would hurt Him. The 10 Commandments are simple reminders of all the things that offend God, because those things contradict the law of Love. Or, to look at it from a different perspective, they remind us of all that things that we can do in our daily lives to please God and show Him that we really do love Him.

We all like the idea that God loves us, and some people like to believe that means He would never “send us to Hell”, even if we continue to commit many sins. But, avoiding any kind of sin is the best way to please God, because God hates sin. He knows that sin destroys our lives in so many ways that we might never fully understand as long as we are in this world. He gave us our life and wants us to live with Him forever, in Heaven, when this ‘temporary’ life on earth comes to an end. But, sin is a real obstacle to our ability to enter Heaven (nothing defiled can enter Heaven). That is why God gave us the 10 Commandments, to remind us what types of actions we should try our best to avoid, because they’re the ones that really can separate us from Him, forever.

Ultimately, it’s our own choices that decide where we will spend our eternity. Will we choose to continue to live a sinful life and risk separating ourselves from the Love of God, or do we truly love God enough to want do everything we can to be with Him, forever? Do we really love God? Or, do we love our sins more than God? We must choose, wisely, because Hell is real possibility if we make the wrong choices.
 
Between the time of Adam and Moses, there were no laws, so when Cain killed Able, he was not breaking any law. From the beginning of time, it seems that it was always God’s intention that we should just love God and love our neighbour, and there would be no need for any other laws.

To love God and our neighbour is sacrificial, we put God first, our neighbour second and ourselves last. Modern living probably puts that order in reverse, we look after ourselves first.
 
I use the term ‘Spiritist’ to refer to the Spirit of God’s Law which is a living, breathing thing, in my view, and something I deeply respect.

I have no interest in the dead or death and certainly not in invoking dead souls. Life is rich enough and is certainly not an easily solved mystery. I’m still learning, like a child, about life. Isaiah 28:9-10 comes to mind:

"Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
“For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little”

How can one dabble in the supernatural without a full understanding of the natural?
 
‘Love fulfills the Law’ Rom 13:10. Love, the kind of love meant by the Greatest Commandments which is the fruit of grace/communion with God, is the only right way to fulfill the Law. This is the New Covenant way-as opposed to attempting to fulfill it on our own as a matter of proving our holiness, or performed out of fear of punishment, or for some sort of reward.

"The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." Rom 13:9-10
 
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To answer your question, First Century Jews did not limit the law to the Ten Commandments. They had multiple uses for the word law. Sometimes it referred to the books of the law (Genesis through Deuteronomy), sometimes it referred exclusively to the Ten Commandments although often these were called the Commandments rather than the law, but frequently it referred to the entire body of the Jewish law provided in Exodus through Deuteronomy. Similarly, the word used for commandment is frequently used either for the Ten Commandments or any of the laws contained within these books.

The two greatest commandments that Jesus was referring to actually come from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. Hence there is no contradiction when Jesus calls them the law.

And in this context, Jesus is telling us that these two statements sum up the entire purpose of the law. Hope that answers your question.
 
This is exactly how the Catechism of the Catholic Church is laid out, actually, so your answer is YES:

SECTION TWO THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
IN BRIEF

CHAPTER ONE YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND
Article 1 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT
I. “You Shall Worship the Lord Your God and Him Only Shall You Serve”
II. “Him Only Shall You Serve”
III. “You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me”
IV. “You Shall Not Make For Yourself a Graven Image . . .”
IN BRIEF

Article 2 THE SECOND COMMANDMENT
I. The Name of the Lord is Holy
II. Taking the Name of the Lord in Vain
III. The Christian Name
IN BRIEF

Article 3 THE THIRD COMMANDMENT
I. The Sabbath Day
II. The Lord’s Day
IN BRIEF

CHAPTER TWO YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF
ARTICLE 4 THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT
I. The Family in God’s Plan
II. The Family and Society
III. The Duties of Family Members
IV. The Family and the Kingdom
V. The Authorities In Civil Society
IN BRIEF

Article 5 THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT
I. Respect for Human Life
II. Respect for the Dignity of Persons
III. Safeguarding Peace
IN BRIEF

Article 6 THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT
I. “Male and Female He Created Them . . .”
II. The Vocation to Chastity
III. The Love of Husband and Wife
IV. Offenses Against the Dignity of Marriage
IN BRIEF

Article 7 THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT
I. The Universal Destination and the Private Ownership of Goods
II. Respect for Persons and Their Goods
III. The Social Doctrine of the Church
IV. Economic Activity and Social Justice
V. Justice and Solidarity Among Nations
VI. Love For the Poor
IN BRIEF

Article 8 THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT
I. Living in the Truth
II. To Bear Witness to the Truth
III. Offenses Against Truth
IV. Respect for the Truth
V. The Use of the Social Communications Media
VI. Truth, Beauty, and Sacred Art
IN BRIEF

Article 9 THE NINTH COMMANDMENT
I. Purification of the Heart
II. The Battle for Purity
IN BRIEF

Article 10 THE TENTH COMMANDMENT
I. The Disorder of Covetous Desires
II. The Desires of the Spirit
III. Poverty of Heart
IV. “I Want to See God”
IN BRIEF
 
Did the greatest commandments have a greatest meaning for God first?

Imagine the Father, Son and Holy Spirit looking out over the vast empty void of space. They say, we have the power to create anything we want, what is the greatest good thing we can create?

We can create stars and planets, and be the best builder. We can create plants and be the best gardener. We can create animals and be the best farmer. We can create children in our own image and be the best Father, can we create anything greater than children in our own image?

We can love each and everyone of our children as we love ourselves, can we love them more than we love ourselves?

Just a collection of words top challenge the mind to think, I make no claims for truth, just search for something greater.
 
If a person were to obey Christ’s two commands to love God and love your fellowman he would also be obeying ALL of the Ten Commandments. However whereas the Ten Commandments if it were a college course could basically be called “An Introduction to Theology”, Christ’s commands would be called “Advanced Theology”.

For the most part the 10 Commandments were a series of what NOT to do; they were commands of INACTION. If you didn’t do those things you were covered. You could be obeying the 10 Commandments by sitting at home and watching TV all day everyday. Christ’s commands however were commands of ACTION. We have to get off our butts and actively love. In the story of the “Good Samaritan” the priest and the rabbi who passed the man who had been attacked would not have been breaking any of the 10 Commandments. They would have been breaking Christ’s commands of love.

Christianity is an active religion, not a passive one.
 
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