Matthew 22:34-40
The Greatest Commandment
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
John 14:5-7
The Way, The Truth, and The Life
5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
John 17:1-5
Jesus Prays to Be Glorified
1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
As one reads the above verses, the verses seem to have little controversy as Jesus explains about the Greatest Commandment...The Greatest Commandment according to Jesus is, " 'Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'...This is the first and greatest commandment."...But later Jesus makes the statement to His Disciples that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life...How interesting these verses are when we look at them together...When Jesus adds the words that no one gets to God, except through Him, we now see the controversy...Had He just told us about the Greatest Commandment, we could live with that statement and there would be little controversy in that statement about God...How can we love God with all our hearts, all our souls, and all our minds -and then learn that the only Way to God is through Him?...Jesus, in His teachings, regularly saw Himself equal to or very close to being right up there with the One Who Is Most Blessed...He seems to see Himself as having a most special relationship with God...
Together these statements make Jesus controversial...Jesus is a controversial Person...But He doesn't mind being controversial...He was never afraid to make a controversial statement...Because His statements are all statements of Truth, because He always spoke the Truth...He testified to the Truth...And Truth matters...So one might think that there would be little controversy in His teachings, since all His statements are True...But we see that there is controversy in Truth and the many things He said and did...Especially, when we read the four gospels, we see controversy between the other religious leaders and Himself...
There is little controversy, if Jesus just gave us this Greatest Commandment statement...Jesus tells us that in seeking and learning about God, we should seek and love Him with all our hearts, our souls, and our minds...Jesus did not say just to love God or find God with our hearts...Nor did He say to find God and love Him with just the intellect of our minds...No, Jesus made this multi-dimensional statement and command and said the Greatest Commandment is to love God with all your heart, your soul, and your mind...So we can use our souls to find and love God...We can use the emotions of our hearts to find and love Him...Or we can use the intellect of our minds, to seek Him and love Him...But regardless of which Way we choose to find and love God, no one comes to the Father except through Him...And once we know Him, then we also know the Father, who is God...What powerful statements and controversial statements these are -if one does not believe Him...
When Jesus prays His High Priestly Prayer about being glorified, we can see the special relationship He has with God and has had with God...He says, "Father, the hour has come...Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify You...For You granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those You have given Him...Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the Only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent...I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work You gave Me to do...And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world began."...So eternal life is this: that we may know God, the Only true God, and also know Jesus Christ, whom God has sent...The Greatest Commandment, LOVE, Eternal Life, Truth all seem to center around God and His Son...
Maybe Jesus gives us three ways about God in the Greatest Commandment, because these are the best three ways to find God...And we can see that as we search and do our best to find God, that Jesus puts Himself right in the middle of the Greatest Commandment statement, and all other statements about God...He is our Mediator to God...And He does this by saying that we can reach God only through Him and nobody else...When He says, I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no one comes to God except through Me -we are sort of stuck with believing that He is our Mediator with God and no one else is...If we believe in Jesus, then Truth is a Person...So we learn that Jesus is the Way to God or we choose not to believe Him...But embedded in these statements, we also learn from Jesus that we are to love God with all our hearts, our minds and our souls...And I must believe is God is to be loved by us, and also then Jesus is also to be loved by us...They are Together, working as One...So we are to love God with our mind, soul, and heart...And yet Jesus has put Himself into these verses by saying what He says...How interesting these verses are when we look at them together...How interesting the gospels are as we include all the things He both says and does and about His relationship with His Father...If we believe Jesus, then we can see why He calls Himself the Son of God...If we believe both of the above statements then we can see that Jesus is the Messiah, the One that the Old Testament said would come...The Messiah, being from God, would be a most Unique Character ever to be...The Messiah might even be controversial to us, without even trying...Truth is Exclusive and that is the Way He Is...