The Bible is one book, and yet many books. It is a collected library of books and letters from God’s inspired writers. Among all that is written in its pages, what is most important? A similar question was posed to Jesus, and His answer focused on relationships.
One of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that He answered them well, asked Him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:28-31)
God made us for relationships. Our first and highest relationship is with Him. For many people, however, relationships are casual, shallow and short-lived. They “fall in love” then “fall out of love.” Not so with God. For Him, relationships are matters of care and commitment, depth and durability, love and loyalty. That is why the Bible emphasizes “covenant”—formal and binding agreement—as the basis for relationship with God. In Mark 12, Jesus quotes from the covenant God made with Israel. The passage about loving God supremely is from Deuteronomy 6:4-5. The setting for that passage begins in Deuteronomy 5.
And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Not with our fathers did the LORD make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today.” (Deuteronomy 5:1-3)
The greatest command comes in the context of “covenant.” The same is true of the second greatest, “Love your neighbor,” from Leviticus 19:18. These two commands are from “the Law” (Matthew 22:36-40; Luke 10:25-27), which relates to the covenant given through Moses. Indeed, Jesus says, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:40).