Jesus said unto him,
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
All Commentaries on Matthew 22:37 Go To Matthew 22
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Jesus saith to him, &c. Moses, in Deuteronomy 6:5, and from thence Mark and Luke add, with all thy strength. The Persian has, with the utmost power of thy mind. This answers to the Hebrew meodecha of Deuteronomy.
Observe, as against Calvin, that this precept is in every one"s power as possible to keep. For the complete and highest love of God, in its utmost extent, is not that which is here spoken of, but that only which is to be understood comparatively. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and soul, and mind, is the same thing as to say, Thou shalt love God with thy whole will, namely, 1st. Comparatively, that thou shalt give no portion of thy love to an idol, or to anything whatsoever that is contrary to God2d. Finally, that altogether thou shouldst wish God to be the final object of all thy thoughts, actions, and thy love; and that thou shouldst choose Him as thy chief good and Last End, before all things whatsoever3d. Appreciatively, that thou shouldst esteem nothing as of so much worth as God, in such manner that thou shouldst apply thy whole heart, that Isaiah , thy will, to fulfil all His precepts, and to be obedient to Him in all things. What is here spoken of as the whole heart, is called in other passages an entire and perfect heart. Hence the expression so often repeated, His heart was perfect with God. (See 1 Kings 14:8, &c.) This is what S. Bernard says in his Treatise on the love of God "The measure of loving God is to love without measure."
