One, All, Every

Intro

Are we asking the right question?

Are our questions of eternal importance or trivial in the moment?

Do our questions seek to give or receive understanding or to cause division?

Is our aim our kingdom or God’s Kingdom?

I’m sure we’ve all hear “There is no dumb question.” On some level, that might be true. But there are questions that miss the point. And there are questions that are spot on. The question for today is “Which commandment is the most important of all?”

Pray

Mark 12:28–34 ESV

28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. 33 And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Consider previous questions:

Mark 11:28 “28 and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?”” in response to His cleaning the temple.

Mark 12:14 “14 … Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?””

And in reference to a hypothetical woman married seven times… Mark 12:23 “23 In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.””

There are the questions leading to the interaction with the sincere scribe. He saw the questions the others had asked, and was impressed with how Jesus answered.

He didn’t want bicker with Jesus like the others, but wanted to ask a question that meant something.

Mark brings these interactions together and orders them in a particular order for a purpose. There is a logic to it.

Seeing the structure will point to the logic. Knowing the logic will reveal the message. Understanding the message will illuminate the importance of this question of the greatest commandment to the scribe, and to us.

Empty Questions Yield Fruitless Answers.

3 previous questions were empty. Empty = lacking sincerity, insight, and desire to understand.

Question of Authority

When Jesus was question about His authority in Mark 11:27-33, there question lacked sincerity. They were offended, threatened, and angry at the loss of their own personal wealth from the racket of money laundering the tithe. Jesus broke up their operation - at least for the moment.

They had the opportunity to understand who Jesus was, but they were more concerned their own position and wealth.

In reality, the question was spot on. And they would have done well to seek to understand Jesus’ authority. Mark begins with a missed opportunity on the question of authority.

Question of Devotion

Next, when the Pharisees and Herodians tried to trap Jesus with a question about paying taxes, not only were they insincere, the question lacked any eternal meaning. It was full of malice and indifferent to the things of God.

But Jesus was wise in not falling into their trap, and in how He answered. Jesus redirected the question toward honoring God, and honoring earthly authorities within their domain.

Mark follows the question of authority with one of devotion.

Question of the Nature of God and Man

Third, Mark tells us of the Sadducees who questioned Jesus about the resurrection of the dead. In trying to catch Jesus in a logical fallacy that would prove their view, they revealed their profound misunderstanding about the nature of God, and the nature of man - made in God’s Image.

They missed the point, but once again, Jesus turned the empty question toward the truth. What’s sad is that even though they asked fruitless questions, Jesus still directed them to the message of truth and life, but they refused to partake.

Ask a Greater Question.

Our sincere scribe we read about today saw the futility of these questions.

Mark 12:28 “28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?””

This doesn’t imply Jesus was bickering and being petty with them. But that they came in an insincere manor, asking questions they didn’t care about getting the answers to. And it’s to this point he wishes to draw a distinction with his cantankerous comrades.

This question is greater because the motivation is purer. He asks what he wants to know, and wants to know the answer to his question.

It’s also a greater question because it is targeted at a subject of profound importance: What pleases God the most?

This greater question gets a greater response. They engage in a dialogue that seems repetitive to us, but then was a way of active listening. Of comparing and contrasting.

Jesus quotes from two sections of scripture. Deut. 6:4-5, and Leviticus 19:18.

Love The One God…

Singular in kind. Unified in persons. Central for all true worship. The two agree on the singularity of God. God is unique. He is not only One as in one entity, He is One as in there is no other.

How do we please the God? Could we obey enough rules, have the right thoughts, help the right people, or express the right attitude? Even if we could do all those things, they would not please God as much as loving Him. A singular God deserves singular love. Worship, honor, and adoration to Him and Him alone.

That love will have results in our lives.

Ephesians 4:1–6 ESV

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

When we are saved, we are all saved into the same body. There can be no difference between us that is greater than the unity found in us as believers.

With ALL Ourselves.

All (9 times) - The entirety of me. Every aspect. Every facet. Every storefront and every junk drawer. We love God with all of it. Will we love Him perfectly? Not remotely! But as we live our lives, we can be on the hunt for areas of our loves not given to loving God. With our time, our resources, our entertainment, our language. With how we worship Him, or ignore Him. How we think of Him clearly and correctly, or try to remake Him in our own design.

Oswald Chambers says in the wonderful book My Utmost For His Highest, “What a person thinks about God is the most important thing about them.” When we think about God with only a part of us, or even just most of us, we are out of necessity thinking too little of God.

To Love Every Neighbor.

We are to love our neighbor. But if we choose to love this neighbor and not love that one, we have not half way fulfilled the command, we have invalidated it. Our neighbor is that person who God places in our path. Our love for them is in response to what God has done in us.

About these two commands…

“Jesus tells him there are two that go together. How you respond to the first (loving God) will determine how you respond to the second (loving your neighbor). When you obey the second, it shows that you have embraced the first.”

If you can’t love people well, it’s because you aren’t loving God well.

It is love for God that produces love for others. It is a love for God that turns His authority from a burden to a shield. It is love for God that turns devotion from a dreary sacrifice to an enticing relationship. It is love for God that is revealed be the nature of His love for us.

And that points to the part where there was disagreement.

The scribe saw the same primacy of loving God and loving others, and expressed a nearly right response.

Mark 12:33 ESV

33 And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

The Needed Sacrifice.

The scribe recognized that love for God was greater than the ritual sacrifices they performed. But loving God was and is insufficient to solve the one major problem we have - sin. Loving God might cause us to sin less, but it wont cover the sin and rebellion that has marred our lives. Because of it, we are guilty.

The ritual sacrifices were insufficient. There’s a sense of that the scribe seems to realize. But those sacrifices weren’t performed as the final solution to sin, only as the placeholder for the final solution.

That thing that kept the scribe from the Kingdom of Heaven was his recognition of the need of a final, conclusive sacrifice. The sacrifice is payment for sin. And it will be payed for every person who has ever lived.

That payment will come from one of two accounts. It will come from Jesus’ perfect sacrifice of His own life on the cross, or it will come from our own account as we suffer an eternal death and punishment for our sins.

What is encouraging is Jesus said the scribe was close, but not there yet. It is my prayer that the scribe did recognise the power of Jesus death, wondered at His resurrection, and believed in that final sacrifice. That he then knew that His love for God and love for others was a response to God’s love and redemption remedy, not the replacement for it.

We can’t be good enough for God either. If we try to depend on our own actions to right our relationship with God, we will fall short.

It is my prayer we all see and know our need for Jesus. We need Him for our salvation. And we need Him IN our salvation.

Call for repentance of not depending on Jesus.

Pray

Notes

One God (6X) - Singular in kind. Unified in persons. Central for all true worship. Eph. 4:1-6

All (9) - The entirety of me. Every aspect. Every facet. Every storefront and every junk drawer. We love God with all of it.

Every - Everyone is our neighbor. We express love to everyone. And we love them as ourselves. But not our rebellious self; as our redeemed self. Maybe even as the self we know we should be, but haven’t gotten there yet. Love everyone that way. Because those interactions with other people (even the ones we don’t want to like, much less love), EVERY one of them is an expression of worship of God. (Luke 10:25-29)

If you can’t love people well, it’s because you aren’t loving God well.

Exalting Jesus in Mark We Are Commanded to Love Others Genuinely (Mark 12:31–34)

As is so often the case, Jesus gives us more than we ask for! The religious lawyer asks which command is the most important. Jesus tells him there are two that go together. How you respond to the first (loving God) will determine how you respond to the second (loving your neighbor). When you obey the second, it shows that you have embraced the first.

Jesus shows us that love actually defines the lawful life, [and] He shows us that the law actually defines the loving life.… When Jesus says all the laws boil down to “love God and neighbor,” He is saying we have not fulfilled a law by simply avoiding what the law prohibits, but we must also do and be what the law is really after—namely love. (Keller, “Mark,” 163; emphasis in original)