Matthew 22:36-40

36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

 

We are instructed to love God first, because that is the necessary first step to understanding God’s ‘system’ – that is we must first acknowledge that God is loving towards us, well-intended, doing His best etc.

The second commandment reinforces that that this is a system in which love is primary – and we must understand our situation in that light.

In sum – the two great commandments describe the ‘metaphysics’ of Life: the basic organization and principles of reality.

 

The two great commandments are a great simplicity at the heart of Christianity: comprehensible by almost anyone.

Once grasped, they are of great value in discerning the specifics of what is true theology or doctrine, and what is false or mistaken . Even when errors of teaching or interpretation are backed-up by power, knowledge and/ or logic; when something violates the two great commandments, this tells us that we should reject it.

The two commandments are, indeed, not intended as rules; but intended to be absorbed into the heart – to allow us to move spontaneously and surely through the complexities of life; directed by an inner guidance system that will err in specifics and temporarily – but over time, and in general, will keep us moving in the right direction.

 

From: http://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/the-two-great-commandments.html

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When I describe how the Two Great Commandments allow us to navigate through complexities; I had in mind the way that Joseph Smith worked on the doctrines of the church, and the interpretation of scripture – (it seems to me) in the direction of bringing them into conformity with the Two Great Commandments – that is, a system of love.

For instance, that would be my interpretation of a change such as the introduction of Baptism for the Dead – the understanding that out Loving Father (in a system of love) would do everything possible to ensure nobody was excluded from salvation and exaltation (except by their own choice).

The King Follett discourse is probably another example of the Prophet trying to bring this warm-hearted guidance to bear upon interpreting some other knotty problems of theology.

I believe this has continued through the history of the CJCLDS – it is as if the church is implicitly seeking an ever-greater consistency with the heart of the Two Great Commandments.


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