Time and time again, Jesus emphasizes humility as a necessary ingredient of not merely living a life that God wishes His people to live, but also as a means of better understanding the scriptures with which the same spirit and intentions of the authors originally mirrored that of humility. With this said, the briefest interpretation of this passage is that the lawyer is asking Jesus which is the greatest commandment, to try to trick Him into stating something inaccurate. But Jesus uses this as an opportunity to make a point about what the very commandments mean and 'why' they were written in the first place; which is to convey the message of God's love for His people and His wish...

We found that some elements of context are not useful; as in the case of the debate between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. However, we did find that the context of the author, Matthew, and the context of the events leading up to this passage as relevant. With the employment of hermeneutical standards of context of piece, author and characters within the story, a greater understanding of this text, as well as any text, can be achieved.