Love for God as the First Commandment in the Bible

Abstract

The word love abounds with various meanings, recalls various
experiences including thousands of shades and thousands of
variations, depending on the culture and time. The reader of the
Bible, the Old and New Testament, encounters the word love in
different life situations, especially in the first commandment –
according to the expression coined in the New Testament (Mt 22,
36; Mk 12, 28). To modern man, connection of the word “love”
with the word “commandment” poses a certain difficulty, since
love is connected with freedom and not with an obligation. This
alone remark reveals the distance that separates our sensitivity from the biblical world. Is it really possible to command that one should love God? Can love that is commanded be real and honest love? To get closer to the right answer, we will first try to see the difference in our perception of love, starting from the time of romanticism and the time of ancient world. Then, we will try to show the background of biblical commandment of love.
Key words: love, God’s love, command, covenant, marriage

Ovaj rad želi pružiti jedan povijesni presjek misli i ideja o
ljubavi. Pritom se ne donosi iscrpan kronološki red misli o ljubavi, nego se fokusira na relevantne etape i ocrtava se geneza
modernog shvaćanja ljubavi kao slobodnog čina i biblijskog shva-ćanja ljubavi kao zapovijedi. Na taj se način želi pokazati da se
dva shvaćanja ne sukobljavaju, nego nadopunjuju te da biblijsko
shvaćanje ljubavi kao zapovijedi nije antropološki ili teološki problem. Stoga se u radu donose neki ključni starozavjetni tekstovi
koji su ili oblikovali shvaćanje ljubavi ili su plod shvaćanja ljubavi
nekog povijesnog razdoblja, te se tako osvjetljava pozadina biblijske zapovijedi ljubavi prema Bogu.

Ključne riječi: ljubav; Božja ljubav; zapovijed; savez; brak