In Deuteronomy, the command to love God is presented as central and
constant.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all
your soul, and all your might” and these words “shall be upon your heart… you
shall speak of them…” (Deut. 6:5–7)
This is part of the Shema, which
the Torah explicitly commands Israel to recite, teach, bind, and remember
continually. So the text itself gives “love God” a uniquely pervasive,
covenantal role.
By contrast, “love your neighbor as yourself” appears
in Leviticus 19:18 as one command among many ethical laws. The Torah does not
surround it with the same ritual repetition language (“speak of it day and
night,” “bind it on your hand,” etc.). It is treated as if it is no more
important than the other commands. The Torah text gives a different kind
of prominence to love of God than to love of neighbor.
At the same
time, later Jewish interpretation often connected the two very tightly. Hillel
the Elder famously summarized the Torah ethically through the neighbor
principle, while Rabbi Akiva called “love your neighbor as yourself” a “great
principle of the Torah.” In Christianity, Jesus of Nazareth explicitly paired
the two commandments together as the greatest commandments.
The elevation of the love of neighbour command is thin. Why? It
merely says love your neighbour as yourself. It does not say how much
you should love yourself or them. In practice most people suffer from
loving themselves and others too little or they really think that this low
level of love is realistic and thus wise. But on the other hand the
command to love God is very clear that the love must be total and
self-sacrificing.
Textually, the Torah itself gives stronger liturgical
and covenantal emphasis to loving God. Later traditions often elevate love of
neighbor to near-equal importance because they see ethics toward humans as
inseparable from devotion to God. This elevation is heresy. And the Torah
explicitly banned love for adulterers etc as ex-neighbours.
God says in Exodus 22:21 “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt” (NIV). There is Exodus 23:9 "Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt." Then there is Deuteronomy 10:19: "So you, too, must show love to foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt" (NLT). Similar teachings arise in Leviticus 19:33-34.
Issues: Exodus has a selective view of what fair treatment means. The foreigners were murdered for alleged adultery as were the Hebrews and their getting battered by slave masters was regulated.
And the command comes across as mere advice. If it is wrong to maltreat a
foreigner, then your own past as a foreigner in Egypt is irrelevant. The
reason given for respecting them is very weak. And the following
generation will not remember the oppression of its ancestors well. In
time, that reason will mean very little. The reason given looks insincere and
pragmatic - it will not have a binding force.
Do you
know any believer who is an example in action and speech of how to focus on
and preach the need to love God? . The command expressly forbids the kind of
religion we see today A faith that endorses public and tender affection for
God and does not practice it is a failure and probably man-made. The command
forbids private love for God – Jesus himself hinted that such private love was
a sin for he said that whoever is ashamed of the son of man of him the son of
man will be ashamed.