What Is the Great Commandment and the Great Commission?
The verses commonly referred to as the Great Commandment are in Matthew 22:37-40. He said, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” What is the Great Commandment and the Great Commission, and how do they apply to us today?
The Context Behind the Great Commandment
In the Great Commandment passage, Jesus was talking to some experts in the Law of Moses. They attempted to trap Jesus by asking him where His authority came from and about His stance on paying taxes to Rome. Then someone asked Jesus, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” (Matthew 22:36). In other words, which law was most weighty? Little did these men know that they were asking questions of the Creator of the Universe! He was there when God gave the law.
Scholars note that this moment carried tremendous weight — the questioner hoped to catch Jesus in a theological conflict, yet the answer He gave unified all of Scripture around a single, foundational principle of love. According to Christianity Today, most Christian traditions view the Great Commandment as the very core of the faith, summarizing the whole ethical direction of the Law and the Prophets.
Jesus’ answer comes directly from Deuteronomy 6:5, which says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
“God wants His people first and above all to love Him with every part of their being. The heart and soul and mind may describe the centers of emotion, action, and thought. The point of the command is not to separate them, though, but to join them together with every aspect of a person fully committed to loving God. A pure, uninterrupted commitment to God and His will is the very basis of a proper relationship with Him,” explains Bible commentary BibleRef.[1]
When we understand that this love is meant to engage every dimension of who we are — thought, emotion, and will — it becomes clear that Jesus was not merely giving an answer. He was describing the foundation on which all of life and ministry must rest.
The Vertical and Horizontal Dimensions of Love
The relationship between the great commandment and the great commission can be understood through two dimensions: a vertical love directed toward God and a horizontal love expressed toward others. As Asia Missions Association describes it, the first commandment concerns our relationship with God, while the second concerns life in community — and one without the other leaves something incomplete.
These two dimensions are not in competition. They reinforce one another, so that genuine love for God naturally overflows into compassion for the people around us. Ministry that is rooted in this love does not seek to accomplish an agenda — it simply responds to the needs it encounters, moved by the same care that God has for every human being.
The Great Commission as Love in Action
The Great Commission, on the other hand, is a working out of the Great Commandment. In the Great Commission, found in Matthew 28, Jesus is tasking His followers with the outworking of that love. Our love for God compels us to share about Him to the ends of the earth.
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
The phrase teaching them to obey — found at the heart of the Great Commission — reveals that discipleship is not simply about sharing a message. It is about walking alongside people in a way that demonstrates what a life shaped by God’s love actually looks like. This is why the Great Commandment and the Great Commission cannot be separated: one without the other produces an incomplete picture of what it means to follow jesus christ with wholehearted devotion.
Campus Fellowship puts it plainly: the Great Commission is dependent on the Great Commandment, because we cannot truly go and make disciples unless love for God is the driving force behind the going. When love is at the center, service to others becomes a natural and joyful expression of faith — not a duty performed out of obligation.
How Love and Service Work Together
Those who seek to fulfill the great commission find that the two mandates function as one. Sharing the Good News with those who have never heard it is itself an act of love — it flows from caring deeply about the lives and hopes of the people being served. As Walking With Giants observes, if we truly love our neighbor, we will not stop at providing for physical needs — we will share the Good News as well, because both matter to the whole person.
When we love the great commandment and the great commission together as an integrated calling, care for the poor, the sick, and the marginalized becomes inseparable from the ministry of sharing hope. GFA World missionaries serve communities in Africa and Asia by meeting practical needs — providing clean water, care for widows and orphans, and support for those living with leprosy — all as expressions of a love that sees the whole person.
A Life of Love That Endures
Scholars and theologians across generations have noted that love is not simply the motivation for ministry — it is the very character of God expressed through those who serve. The Great Commandment calls believers into a way of living that is oriented entirely around caring relationship: with God first, and then with every person they encounter. This orientation shapes not only what a person does, but why and how they do it.
GFA World’s national missionaries in Africa and Asia embody this integrated calling daily. They do not arrive in communities with a list of transactions to complete. Instead, they build genuine relationships over time — sitting with families in grief, rejoicing with those who find new hope, and providing practical help where it is most needed. When love is the foundation, ministry takes on a quality of patience, humility, and lasting care that no program or strategy alone can produce.
The Gospel Coalition writes that the Great Commission is hindered when the Great Commandment is disregarded — a reminder that faithful, compassionate love is not optional for those who seek to serve others well. Genuine care for people, expressed through consistent presence and honest relationship, opens doors that no method or message alone can open.
Joining the Work of Love and Hope
You can join with GFA World to support our national missionary program. For just $45 per month, you can support one of our national missionaries as they go into communities which have never before been reached with the Good News of God’s love. These missionaries bring hope to the hopeless and comfort to the hurting. Won’t you consider financially and prayerfully supporting one of our national missionaries?
Every gift given to support a national missionary is a way of participating in both mandates — loving God by honoring His call, and loving neighbors by ensuring that communities across Africa and Asia have someone present to serve them with compassion and care.[2]
What is the Great Commission? Find out how GFA World is fulfilling it today.[1] “What Does Matthew 23:37 Mean?” BibleRef. Accessed July 27, 2023. https://www.bibleref.com/Matthew/22/Matthew-22-37.html.