David Anderson
2 min readJul 26, 2024

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Thanks for responding. To a couple of points. The Law meant only the Ten Commandments, not the entire Torah. I might go with you on that if he had just said the Law. But he said the Law and the Prophets, two of the three sections of the Hebrew Bible. And to Matthew's community, they were all of scripture.

The one other place Matthew uses that phrase is when Jesus identifies the commandments to love God and love your neighbor as the two most important commandments. The Golden Rule covers the second, but what about the first? I've written another post to answer the question, how do you love God? I found three ways.

1. By loving God, like you would your father, mother, or a leader who inspires you.

2. By obeying God's commandments. I touched on the pitfalls of doing that. Both Jesus and Paul were clear if you want to go that route, you have to obey every single commandment, not just the top ten.

3. By loving the people made in God's image. Matthew 25:34-46 makes it clear that however we treat other people, especially those in need, he will count it as if we did it for (or to) him.

All of these have support from the Bible. I've tried the first two ways, and they almost wrecked my mental health. The third way opens the door to a new understanding. These are not two separate commandments but one. Not love God, THEN love your neighbor. Love God BY loving your neighbor.

You ask do we love God enough to obey God's law. I ask do we love God enough to love the people made in God's image.

I know you probably still disagree with me. Since I was in your position before, I understand why. In the interest of saving you time, this is the one position I will not budge on. The end is love God by loving your neighbor as yourself. Anything else, I am open to debating but not that. I don't care how much scripture you quote or reasons you give to prove i am wrong, i don't care if you think I'm going to hell, I will not budge on this. I am not going back to what almost ruined me psychologically and spiritually.

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David Anderson
David Anderson

Written by David Anderson

David Anderson is a blogger, award-winning author, bible geek, and novice crypto investor. Doubting Thomas is my patron saint.