Du sollt Gott, deinen Herren, lieben, BWV 77 ""You shall love God, your Lord""

Bach composed the cantata in his first year as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, where he had begun a first annual cycle of cantatas for the occasions of the liturgical year on the first Sunday after Trinity with Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV 75. The cantata text, written by Johann Oswald Knauer, is focused on the prescribed reading for the Sunday, the parable of the Good Samaritan containing the Great Commandment, which is used as the text of the first movement. A pair of recitative and aria deals with the love of God, while a symmetrical pair deals with the love of the neighbour. The text of the closing chorale is lost.