Thus says the LORD:
"You shall not molest or oppress an alien,
for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.
You shall not wrong any widow or orphan.
If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me,
I will surely hear their cry.
My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword;
then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans.”
(Ex 22:22-23)
A scholar of the law tested him by asking,
"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"
He said to him,
"You shall love the Lord, your God.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
(Mt 22:35-39)
I grew up in the Baptist church in the Bible Belt. Scripture was always quoted. In fact, we even had Bible sword drills . . . so that we could practice looking up Bible passages as fast as possible. But I can tell you that this particular passage from Exodus was NEVER quoted, NEVER cited, and was NEVER part of our Bible sword drills. “Love God” is perfectly fine . . . the problem always is the “love neighbor” part. Of course, Jesus was asked the trick question: Which is the greatest commandment? What we generally forget is that “Love neighbor” is the same as “Love God.”
