(This post is a work in progress. Come back later when it's done.)
What is the first commandment?
Here, I'm actually baiting a misdirection, to either the first of the ten commandments ("You shall have no other gods before me"), or the greatest commandment ("Love the Lord your God... "). But the actual "first commandment" I have in mind is the first one that God ever gave humanity, in Genesis 1. It goes as follows:
Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
This commandment must surely be very important. Keeping this commandment is the default purpose of of your life, absent further instructions.
Absent further instructions, keeping it is the default purpose of your life. What does default mean? Jesus didn't obey this command.
(need a section here about nature of commandments?)
In fact I think it holds the solution to many ills that ails our society today. But why? How? Is it not enough to simply love God and love people? Aren't they first and second most important commandments?
Yes, those commandments are the more important. But because of their importance, they can be hard to understand in isolation. Their importance comes from their relationship to other commandments - the fact that they serve as the foundation, crux, and summary to all other commandments. "Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets”. This necessary context is why they're not the first commandments given in the Bible, and not identified as the greatest until the New Testament.
So then, what does that mean for the first commandment, to be fruitful and multiply? This is not the "greatest" commandment, but it is the most basic. It's what we humans most needed to hear, as we rose from among the animals to become spiritual beings.
Here, I think an illustration would be helpful, from the second greatest commandment: to love your neighbor as yourself. Now, note that this commandment makes an assumption: you cannot love your neighbor as yourself unless you love yourself. Therefore, if there were a commandment to "love yourself", it would be more basic than the second greatest commandment, although it would not supersede it in greatness or importance. The "first commandment" is like that: it is the most basic of the commandments, as befitting the first thing that God ever said to humans.
Now, of course, there is no explicit, specific commandment to "love yourself". This is because this is mostly obvious, as we naturally nourish and cherish ourselves. So this doesn't need to exist as its own commandment, because it's already naturally obvious, and the commandment would not be particularly informative. While there are occasional exceptions where one is too harsh or neglectful of themselves, these can be handled with just a reminder to be good to yourself, and do not warrant a full commandment.
So, what does it mean for the "first commandment"? Unlike "love yourself", God thought that this one was actually worth mentioning. It is, in that sense, not obvious, and therefore actually informative. So it it is superior to the hypothetical "love yourself" commandment in that sense, because it has this extra quality. Therefore, the "first commandment" is the most basic and informative thing that humans need to know. It's what we most needed to hear, as we rose from among the animals to become spiritual beings.
This then directly ties in with all the other commandments.
to this that warrant an reminder for us to take care of ourselves, for the most part the fact that w
To understand how these commands interact, Actually, I think the second commandment - to love your neighbor as yourself - is illustrative here,
for our current society, for the ills that ails us today.
many of the issues that our society is facing today.
Not absolute. People have done other things. But you need a special command to overwrite. If you don't know what to do, then do this. Default.
exceptions: singleness, "eunuchs", etc. All fine.
Failure to follow it is to be met with grace, forgiveness, tolerance, allowance, and acceptance, but not with praise, amplification, celebration, or propagation.
the first commandment that God gave humanity. Not the most important, but the most basic one that was worth mentioning.
How it relates to other commandments.
Marriage
best marriage. Polygamy, homosexuality, etc. not as good. Further deviation is worse.
Love God, love people. But what does that mean?
the problems plaguing our society
PvE, not PvP,
Otherwise, you will wither and die in obscurity. Mechanistically.
Your final score in life
basic algebra/calculous: how to optimize
Make it funny
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