The Greatest Commands -- John, Paul, Moses, God

These composers had been exposed to something, or had become so much like what they wrote, that their words rang with an authenticity previously unheard. Consider the personal history of some of these guys, and you might have had reason to scoff if you’d heard them verbalize “The Greatest Commands” – to love, as if with a godly love. They didn’t really collaborate on the song, as far as we know, but their messages struck a common chord. A single source makes this possible, even for those of us who are multiple millennia beyond their era.

Let’s see how each of the writers arrived at the words he composed. John was the ‘beloved Apostle’, thus he wrote about behavior he’d experienced first-hand. No one might have said his expression of love was very winsome when he and his brother James walked with Jesus. They were the ones who thought they deserved more of His favor than the other Apostles (Matthew 20:20-23), and who’d wanted to call down fire on unfriendly Samaritans (Luke 9:51-54). Yeh, this was a son of thunder, not love, at that time. Yet, when he wrote as a much older man to a group that was attracted to Gnosticism, a false spiritualism, the wizened John told them the basics of true spiritualism – love (1 John 4:7-8). Love sacrificially. John must have seen a lot in that group that showed they’d twisted this love into something immoral. John’s was a message of correction. So was Paul’s, some thirty years before John’s ode to love.  This middle-aged Paul was the same guy who’d chased, persecuted, and had had Christians killed less than two decades earlier (Acts 8:1-3). Whatever happened to him, it must have been radical, right? The Corinthians (1 Corinthians 13) he addressed had lots of issues, not the least of which were squabbles among themselves, a debilitating environment for God-centered folks. Unity was impossible among such a people. Paul said God’s nature was the most perfect, a patient, resilient, trusting devotion (v. 7). But, perhaps the operative word in Paul’s thoughts is ‘all’. This Pharisee among Pharisees had all the answers, once. But the Love-God encompasses everything, not blowing up everything in His path, but swallowing it and transforming it. That rather echoes what preceded these two 1^st Century composers (John and Paul), when a people prepared to enter where God had led them. Moses gave them the words (Deuteronomy 6:4-5), but it was really God’s thoughts he mouthed, and which were repeated some 1,500 years later in the two apostles’ generation. Love Him with everything you have.

Could God be laughed off as insincere, too, in matters of love? After all, He’s the one who killed an army to preserve His chosen people (Exodus 14). A God of love, hah!  But, notice His patience, watch His plan develop, and see if you can fathom how He allowed Jesus to make Himself known, and then be killed. God might seem inscrutable, but for Jesus. He made me in His image, and He didn’t stay distant. Instead, He chose to be human like me. Conquer death, de-fang this most fundamental truth of my being. Love cancels out all the minus signs. Is that great or what!

There is no source for the song story, but for background on the song,  see the New International Version Study Bible, general editor Kenneth Barker, 1985, copyright The Zondervan Corporation, for notes on Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 1-5, and other scriptures therein.