There’s the one to cut off a woman’s hand if she touches a man’s genitalia during a fight; the commands to kill men, women, and children; the command to stone disobedient children; the command for wives to submit to their husbands “in everything”…and so on. But there’s one that takes the cake, and it came straight from Jesus’s mouth. In fact, perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this commandment is that it was presented by Jesus as the greatest commandment. In other words, if a Christian is looking through the Bible for the commandment they were to most pay attention to…this is it. This is the one.
When asked what the greatest commandment is, Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Now, liberal Christians will come in here and say that what Jesus meant was the nice, kind God. You know — the God who didn’t command men who had sex with men to be stoned to death, or command the wiping out of entire tribes — men, women, and children. But that doesn’t really seem to hold water here, for one simple reason: Jesus is quoting the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 6:5. In context, it says:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
There is no mistaking this. This is the same God. The commandments that God gave them then, in the Old Testament, were to be followed. And in case you may still be insisting this isn’t the blood-hungry God of the Old Testament, the very next verses are about the most disturbing parts of the Israelite conquest:
When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
In case you need me to spell out the obvious — he’s talking about taking over things that belonged to other people. Plundering them. Why are they able to take the “good things” and the “vineyards and olive groves” that they didn’t plant?
Because the Lord their God, whom they loved, brought them into an occupied land and told them to slaughter all the people there. And they did it because they loved this God with all their heart, soul, and strength.
And then a threat, if they don’t do as they’re told.
Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; for the Lordyour God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land.
Why? Because this is what those who don’t fear this God you need to love deserve. And then, what do they get as their reward? Lots of killing:
Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and take over the good land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors, thrusting out all your enemies before you, as the Lord said.
Now, that’s just the nuts and bolts. This total, complete dedication to God undergirded the entirety of the Old Testament. It was the reason people were to be obsessed with following the horrific law of the Old Testament. It was lauded and praised and led to unspeakable destruction. The other commands are bad, as well — but this one hijacked every part of your being — your emotions, the core of your identity, and the entirety of your intellect is to be devoted to the Old Testament God. And, as Richard Dawkins put it:
The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.
I think this is clear when it comes to the God of the Old Testament because, um…I’ve read about Him. But I realize there may be doubters, so here are thorough references for each charge. I think the evidence is clear.
Why did the Isrealites commit such disturbing crimes in the Old Testament?
Because they loved its God.
And Jesus is saying the GREATEST commandment of all is to love this God. This God did not have them love their neighbors. No. This God had them slaughter their neighbors and anyone who didn’t sign up for his misogynistic, homophobic, homicidal, racist agenda.
Loving this God is the absolute worst thing anyone could do. Let alone sacrificing the entirety of your intellect, your emotions, your very sense of identity to such a being, making you an essential zombie to its fictional whims.
It’s a horrifying commandment.
And the worst thing about it is that, because Jesus said it, it is repeated in church. Constantly.
If you wonder why fundamentalist Christians can be so upsetting so much of the time, this is why. They are commanded to love a God who is far worse than they ever were, as most of them refrain from genocidal rampages.
And not only love this being, but be completely and wholly invested in this being. What this means is that if a conflict in their mind, in their heart, in their sense of identity or instinct even hints that maybe loving this nightmare of a fictional being is a bad idea…they have to disown that part of themselves. They are commanded to be God zombies, and to twist themselves in knots in order to fulfill the definition.
Worst. Verse. Ever. No contest. Nothing else even comes close.
And this total investment in God makes the second commandment a nightmare, as well:
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
A nice, beautiful verse, at first. Except when you ask the question: “How is the Christian expected to love themselves?”
They aren’t really, because they are supposed to love God with all that is in them. The entirety of their being. They’re completely and totally invested. I mean, how do you love someone? With your emotions? Well, ALL your heart is invested in God if you follow the greatest commandment. You have to love them through God — which means that God’s love is the one you’re showing them.
The same God who is the nightmare we were just talking about. That God’s “love.”
Yeah.
And lest there be any mistake, Jesus says of the second commandment, “And the second is like it” — meaning that the love of the neighbor is like the love one has for God. As it would be — if all you are is invested in God, then all your love is done through God. Otherwise — how could the commandments be similar? There is, I submit, nothing loving about committing genocidal acts, or stoning people to death for non-offenses.
Add to this that this “Love your neighbor as yourself” business is also from the horrendous Old Testament law — Leviticus 19:18 — right before a chapter on sexual sin that includes the infamous Leviticus 20:13: “If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.”
Obviously, this definition of “love” has been seriously fucked up by its connection to the first commandment.
Now. It is true that The Great Samaritan story is based on the “neighbor” portion of this verse, in Luke 10:25-37. And yes, the “Love your neighbor” part does get people to do decent things.
But the disturbing aspect of these good-intentioned acts is that they are too often through the eyes of God. And that is how Jesus can say that “Love your neighbor as yourself” is a commandment that “all the law” — in its horrendous detail — can “hang on.” Love for other human beings — the most beautiful thing we have in this world — is effectively hijacked by this commandment, as it commands you to love through a horrendous God.
To use a concrete example..I remember that when I was a fundamentalist Christian, I wanted to do certain things — like celebrate the identities of lgbtq people, or cheer when women took a more active role than Paul prescribed, or stop worrying about people being sinners, or reject, wholesale, the God of the Old Testament. But I couldn’t. God was in the way. I could love them…but up to an extent, because I loved God more.
First I had to love God, then I had to love people. My love for God boxed my love for people in — or, rather, boxed in the ways I could care about people and see them as they were instead of who a nonexistent God said they were. And I don’t think this is just me, or just fundamentalist Christians. When you have the God of the Bible who you have to love as a first priority…that takes or cordons off ways that you could be loving other people who don’t fit in His guidelines.
Eventually, I simplified things. And now I have a new “command” I follow — although it’s not so much a command as a personal choice that I and many others have committed to. It’s worked out better, so far, although sometimes it’s harder than others.
Here it is:
Love people.
Just love people.
Here’s to hoping it catches on.
Thanks for reading.