The Second Greatest Commandment: To Judge

In Matthew chapter 26, we find an unnamed lawyer testing Yeshua (Jesus) by asking Him the following question:

Matthew 26:36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Torah?” 

Most believers are very familiar with Yeshua’s answer:

Matthew 26:37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love Adonai 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, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire Torah and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Most Bible believers are even familiar with the verse from Deuteronomy that Yeshua quotes from when answering what is the first and greatest commandment. In order understand the full context of the verse Yeshua quoted as the greatest commandment here, we need to begin in Deuteronomy 6:4, and read through verse 9:

Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one . 5 Love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 

6 These words, which I am commanding you today, are to be on your heart. 7 You are to teach them diligently to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. 

8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, they are to be as frontlets between your eyes, 9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

But, Yeshua, when answering the lawyer, didn’t just give one commandment; He provided a second commandment. He included the commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself...” These words are found in Leviticus 19. Again, in order for us to understand why Yeshua quoted this verse from Leviticus, we need to read them in their full context. 

Leviticus 19:15 “You are to do no injustice in judgment. You are not to be partial toward the poor nor show favoritism toward the great, but you are to judge your neighbor with fairness. 16 “You are not to go up and down as a talebearer among your people. You are not to endanger the life of your neighbor. I am Adonai. 17 “You are not to hate your brother in your heart. Instead, you are to firmly rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him. 18 You are not to take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am Adonai.

Yeshua completes His answer to the lawyer in Matthew 26:40 with the words: “The entire Torah and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Yeshua wasn’t using hyperbolic language here. He actually believed that these two statements understood in their original context expressed the entirety of the Torah. In fact, the rabbis teach that when G-D spoke the first ten commandments to all Israel from mount Sinai, the first five of the commandments dealt with loving G-D, and the second five dealt with loving our neighbor. This is why we find Deuteronomy 6:4-9 telling parents to teach their children to love G-D, because it is by truly loving G-D that children can honor their parents.

The second five commandments are what I want to focus on. These commandments deal with loving our neighbors as ourselves. Yet, when we read these words in their original context, they come at the very end of the series of verses in which they are found. If we actually read these words the way they are found in the Torah, they express that loving our neighbor requires us to judge them. Now, I know that what I just said is contrary to traditional teaching, especially among Christians who have heard the words “Judge not that you be not judged,” quoted ad nausium. But, that doesn’t make my statement above false. 

Just look at the words used in Leviticus 19: judgement, partiality, fairness, favoritism. These are all words used when judging our brothers and sisters. As a matter of fact, within these verses, we are commanded not only to judge our neighbor, but also to firmly rebuke them. In the context of these verses, which Yeshua quoted as the second greatest of the commandments, we are told that when we don’t judge our neighbors, it is because we hate them.  

One of the weaknesses of the body of Messiah is the false teaching that we are not to judge one another. The result of this lack of judging one another is an ineffective and hypocritical Body of Believers who pretends to be holy, while actually being white sepulchers filled with dead men’s bones. This is why the news is filled with believers who have fallen so deep into sin that, instead of the Body of Messiah judging them and bringing correction to them, the world judges them, and, in doing so, judges us also. 

Yeshua knew exactly what He was saying when He answered the lawyer’s question by saying love G-D with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself - by lovingly judging them and firmly rebuking them. So, remember the second greatest commandment doesn’t judge us for judging; it judges us for not judging.

This doesn’t mean we are hateful or mean. It means that we lovingly look after one another, so that we all stay on the straight and narrow. When we truly love our neighbor, we don’t put blinders on and pretend that they or we never do anything wrong. We don’t ignore sinful actions and behaviours. We firmly rebuke, while encouraging repentance and restoration. Because if it is true that if we love, we will judge, as we read in Leviticus 19, then what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 is also true:

1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not brag, it is not puffed up, 5 it does not behave inappropriately, it does not seek its own way, it is not provoked, it keeps no account of wrong, 6 it does not rejoice over injustice but rejoices in the truth; 7 it bears all things, it believes all things, it hopes all things, it endures all things.