In Matthew 22, Jesus is in Jerusalem near the end of his earthly ministry, speaking in the temple courts amid mounting hostility. Different groups question him, not to learn but to “tempt him” and entangle him in controversy. Immediately before Matthew 22:37-38, the Sadducees have tried to discredit him with a puzzle about the resurrection, and Jesus has silenced them. Then “one of them, which was a lawyer,” asks a test question: “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?” This is the setting in which Matthew 22:37-38 appears, and it matters because Jesus’ answer is not a mere opinion about religious priorities; it is given as the decisive summary of what the law is truly aiming at.

The verses read, in the KJV: “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. This is the first and great commandment.” In these words Jesus quotes the language of the law, drawing from what Israel already knew as the core confession of covenant life. He does not set aside the law; he reveals its center. The question is about the “great” commandment, and Jesus answers by placing love to God above every other duty, rule, or ritual. The significance is that the truest obedience is not first a matter of external performance but of inward devotion. The “first and great commandment” establishes the proper order of all religion: God is not a means to some other end, and morality is not a substitute for worship. Everything else depends on whether the creature is rightly oriented toward the Creator.

The command’s force is amplified by its totality: “with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” The KJV’s threefold expression is not inviting a technical dissection of human parts as though the heart, soul, and mind were separate compartments one could satisfy independently. Rather, it is a comprehensive way of saying that love for God must engage the whole person. “Heart” in biblical speech points to the inner center of life, the seat of desire, will, and affection. To love God “with all thy heart” means God is not merely acknowledged; he is preferred, delighted in, and chosen. “Soul” speaks of life itself, the living self, so that love is not occasional or superficial but bound up with one’s very being; it is the devotion of the person in the depth of life, not the performance of a role. “Mind” brings the command into the realm of understanding, thought, intention, and reflection. Love to God is not anti-intellectual sentiment; it includes the submission of one’s thinking, reasoning, and valuing to God’s truth. Taken together, the repeated “all” presses the absolute claim: God is to be loved without remainder, without rival, without holding back a reserved portion of self-rule.

That repeated “all” also exposes the spiritual symbolism of undivided loyalty. In Scripture, idolatry is often not merely the bowing to images but the dividing of the heart, the attempt to serve God while keeping ultimate allegiance for something else. Jesus’ wording makes the command a mirror. It shows what God deserves and what fallen humanity fails to render. The verse therefore functions both as a moral summons and as a spiritual diagnosis: the first duty of man is total love to God, and the tragedy of sin is that this love is fractured, displaced, or cooled. In the immediate context, it also confronts the lawyer and the crowds with a righteousness deeper than legal expertise. A “lawyer” might debate which command is greatest, but Jesus calls for what no mere legal analysis can produce: a heart made true to God.

Calling this commandment “first” speaks of rank and source. It is first in importance because God is first, and it is great because it governs the meaning of all other commands. Without love to God, obedience becomes hollow, either self-justifying or fearful, and even good acts can become a way of avoiding God rather than honoring him. Love, in this sense, is not presented as a vague emotion but as covenant fidelity expressed from the inside out. It is reverence, trust, delight, obedience, and loyalty gathered into one word. When Jesus identifies this as “the first and great commandment,” he is declaring that the law’s ultimate intention is relational: God seeks a people who love him wholly.

The broader significance becomes even clearer by noting what follows immediately in Matthew 22, because Jesus goes on to name a second commandment, “like unto it,” about loving one’s neighbour. Matthew 22:37-38 stands as the fountainhead; love to neighbour is “like” it because true love to God necessarily shapes how one treats people made in God’s image. But even without quoting the next verses, the structure of the passage shows that Jesus is not reducing religion to ethics alone; he anchors everything in the supreme command of devotion to God. The first commandment is vertical in its direct object, “the Lord thy God,” and it establishes the heart of worship, which then becomes the measure by which every other duty is understood.

There is also a Christological significance in the scene. Jesus speaks with the authority to pronounce what is “the great commandment,” and he does so not as a mere commentator but as the one who reads the law from its intended center. The leaders who “tempt” him assume they can catch him; instead, he reveals that the deepest issue is not his ability to answer puzzles but their lack of the very love the law requires. The commandment is thus not only instruction; it is a confrontation. It tells the hearer what God requires, and by its breadth it quietly declares that no one can claim righteousness by selective obedience. Only a whole-hearted love will do.

In summary, Matthew 22:37-38 in the KJV presents the supreme command of the law as total love to God, expressed as an undivided devotion of heart, soul, and mind. Spoken in a setting of testing and controversy, it cuts through legalism and reveals the inner essence of true religion. Its symbolism is the wholeness of allegiance; its theme is the primacy of God; its context is the exposure of shallow righteousness; and its lasting significance is that all genuine obedience and all true worship begin here: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.”