Commandment
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ἐντολή is the standard Greek word for commandment or authoritative instruction. In the New Testament it appears in three distinct but related registers: the commandments of the Mosaic law (which Jesus engages throughout the Gospels), the specific commandments Jesus gives to his disciples, and the summary command — love — that Jesus identifies as the heart of the whole law.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἐντολή (G1785) · Open the biblical lexicon
ἐντολή is the standard Greek word for commandment or authoritative instruction. In the New Testament it appears in three distinct but related registers: the commandments of the Mosaic law (which Jesus engages throughout the Gospels), the specific commandments Jesus gives to his disciples, and the summary command — love — that Jesus identifies as the heart.
The BSB source-word alignment has 67 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include commandment (26), commandments (21), command (4), instructions (2), [one] (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 5:19. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 John (14), John (10), Romans (7), Mark (6).
This entry includes 3 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
ἐντολή is the standard Greek word for commandment or authoritative instruction. In the New Testament it appears in three distinct but related registers: the commandments of the Mosaic law (which Jesus engages throughout the Gospels), the specific commandments Jesus gives to his disciples, and the summary command — love — that Jesus identifies as the heart of the whole law. Each register is important, and the pastoral confusion that arises around commandments usually comes from blurring them.
Jesus does not abolish the commandments; he fulfills them and intensifies them toward their inner intent (Matt 5:17-20). He summarizes the Mosaic commandment structure in two: love God with everything you are, and love your neighbor as yourself. These are not replacements for the detailed commands — they are the inner logic that the detailed commands express. Paul makes the same move in Romans 13: the commandments against adultery, murder, and theft are all summed up in the command to love your neighbor. The commandments are not arbitrary regulations — they are the specific shape that love takes in concrete situations.
John gives ἐντολή its most penetrating treatment. The new commandment — love one another as I have loved you (John 13:34) — is simultaneously old (love was already central) and new (the standard is now Christ's own self-giving love, not the general principle). Keeping Jesus' commandments is the evidence of love for Jesus (John 14:15); abiding in his love is inseparable from keeping his commandments (John 15:9-10). For John, the commandment is not external law — it is part of part of the relational structure of life with Christ. Obedience is not performance; it is the shape that love takes in a disciple's daily life.
The local NT index currently counts about 66 uses of this commandment noun. The Synoptics often use it for commandments of the law and Jesus' summary of the law. John's Gospel gives focused attention on the 'new commandment' of love. The Johannine letters emphasize the connection between commandment-keeping and genuine love for God. Paul uses it for specific Mosaic commandments while arguing for their fulfillment in love.
This is the first and greatest commandment.
Jesus identifies the great commandment as love for God with the whole person — the Shema (Deut 6:5). By calling this 'the first and great commandment' he is not reducing the law to one rule; he is identifying its organizing center. The second commandment (love neighbor) is 'like it' (homoios) — structurally analogous. The law and prophets hang on these two.
A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another.
The newness of this commandment is the standard — 'as I have loved you.' The command to love was ancient; the new element is its measure: the self-giving, cross-shaped love of Jesus himself. This is not a lower bar than the Mosaic law — it is a higher one, grounded in a model that required the incarnation to provide.
If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
This verse establishes the inseparability of love and obedience in John's theology. Obedience is not the basis of the relationship; love is. But love, if genuine, expresses itself in obedience. The order matters: love comes first and produces commandment-keeping; commandment-keeping does not produce love.
The commandments “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and any other commandments, are summed up in this one decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Paul's argument is that love is not a replacement for the specific commandments but their inner logic. Each commandment defines a specific dimension of love — what love does and does not do in particular situations. The summary does not eliminate the specifics; it illuminates why they exist.
For this is loving God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.
John's counter-intuitive claim: the commandments are not burdensome. This pushes back against both the legalistic reading (commandments as onerous obligations) and the antinomian reading (commandments as optional). For those who love God, obedience is the natural expression of that love — not a burden to be managed but a pattern to be lived.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Authoritative directive from God or Christ requiring obedience; often religious precepts or moral rules.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 71 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
an ordinance, injunction, command
Read versean ordinance, injunction, command
Read versean ordinance, injunction, command
Read versean ordinance, injunction, command
Read versean ordinance, injunction, command
Read versean ordinance, injunction, command
Read versean ordinance, injunction, command
Read versean ordinance, injunction, command
Read versean ordinance, injunction, command
Read versean ordinance, injunction, command
Read versean ordinance, injunction, command
Read versean ordinance, injunction, command
Read versean ordinance, injunction, command
Read versean ordinance, injunction, command
Read versean ordinance, injunction, command
Read versean ordinance, injunction, command
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 7 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 8 selected witnesses from 66 lexical occurrence verses.
ἐντολή is built from this root:
The commandment reveals sin but is not itself sinful. 1 John 2:3-6
Father's directive resulting in eternal life. 1 John 2:7-11
Highlights continuity between the foundational gospel message and the ethical demand of love. 1 John 3:19-24
Summarized as faith in Jesus and love for one another, uniting belief and practice. 1 John 5:1-5
Obedience demonstrates love for God and evidences genuine regeneration.
Obedience to God’s revealed will is the concrete evidence of genuine faith, not an optional extra for advanced believers.
Love is not optional sentiment but divine mandate, inseparable from true obedience.
John condenses God’s will into faith in Christ and love, uniting doctrine and ethics.
Obedience is the practical expression of love for God.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
ἐντολή occupies the fault line in Christian pastoral life: the tension between grace and obedience, between the freedom of the gospel and the binding claims of God's commands. Most congregations are confused about this on one side or the other. Some feel that commandments are what separates Christianity from grace — as if talking about obedience is a return to legalism. Others feel that without strong commandment language, the gospel becomes moral indifference.
The Johannine synthesis is the pastoral key: the commandment and love belong together, and neither makes sense without the other. Jesus' commandments are not external regulations imposed on people who do not yet love him — they are the shape that love takes when you know and follow him. The person who says they love Jesus while caring nothing about his commands is self-deceived (1 John 2:4). The person who keeps commandments as a means of earning acceptance has not understood that love, not performance, is the foundation.
For preaching, the order of John 14:15 is essential: 'If you love me, keep my commandments.' Love is the motivation; commandments are the expression. This allows preachers to call for genuine obedience without producing either legalism or despair. The question is not 'Are you keeping the rules?' but 'Is love for Christ shaping how you live?'
John.13.34
ἐντολή comes from the verb ἐντέλλομαι (to give orders, to command) with the -ή noun suffix. It is the standard LXX translation of the Hebrew H4687 מִצְוָה (mitsvah — commandment). The LXX usage gives ἐντολή its Mosaic-legal freight in NT contexts. When Jesus speaks of 'the commandments,' Greek-speaking Jewish readers would immediately hear the connection to the mitsvah tradition. John's 'new commandment' is new not because the word itself is new but because its standard — Christ's own love — has now been revealed.
The OT establishes commandment-keeping as the covenantal response to grace, not the means of earning it. Deuteronomy repeatedly structures the covenant relationship this way: first, God's redeeming acts (Exodus); then, the commandments as the shape of grateful covenant life. The prophets critique commandment-keeping divorced from love (Isa 29:13 — lips honor, hearts distant).
Jesus picks up the prophetic critique and focuses it precisely: commandment-keeping divorced from love is empty. The new covenant does not abolish commandments — it writes them on the heart (Jer 31:33), which means they are now the spontaneous expression of a renewed inner person rather than external obligations. The NT's commandment ethic is the fulfillment of the Mosaic pattern, not its rejection.
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