What does Matthew 22:38 mean?

A well-educated expert in Old Testament law has asked Jesus to identify the single greatest commandment in all of Scripture (Matthew 22:34–37). Jesus does not often answer questions from Pharisees without conditions or return questions or a challenge of His own. He does this time, though. Without hesitating, Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:5: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

Here, Jesus even adds clarity to His answer. He says emphatically that this is the great and first commandment. Commentators stress that "great and first" are not two separate descriptors, but one thing. This command inseparably has the highest priority of all the commandments because it is the greatest. God's highest priority for His people is to be fully and completely loved by them without holding anything back. Every other act of belief, faith, or obedience depends on this single fundamental idea.