Mark 12:28-34; The Greatest Command

Sermon in a sentence: Our knowledge of God requires us to love Him and others.

The Greatness of God

Jesus’ answer begins with the character of God as one (Deuteronomy 6:4).

God is perfectly unified and whole, with no shadow of turning or change (Malachi 3:6, James 1:16).

Our love for God must begin with our knowledge of him, namely the Triune God.

R.C. Sproul’s story of Mary and John being engaged.

The Greatest Command

Jesus tells us that there is no greater command than loving God with our whole person. (Deut 10:12-11:11)

Deuteronomy 10:12–11:1 ESV

12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? 14 Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. 15 Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. 19 Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 20 You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. 21 He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. 22 Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven. 1 “You shall therefore love the Lord your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always.

We are to love God with our emotions/affections, our minds, and efforts.

We can love God because he first loved us!

How can we do this? Through the spiritual disciplines and walking with the Lord.

Loving our neighbors must follow our love of God. (Lev 19:18 , James 2:8)

Leviticus 19:18 ESV

18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

James 2:8 ESV

8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.

Love requires action.

Love must be intentional.

Love is positive as well as negative.

The rabbis also made attempts to formulate great principles from which the rest of the law could be deduced. The most famous example comes from Hillel, who when challenged by a Gentile, “Make me a proselyte on condition that you teach me the whole law while I stand on one foot,” replied, “What you hate for yourself, do not do to your neighbor: this is the whole law, the rest is commentary; go and learn” (b Shabbath 31a). The question arose out of a works-righteousness understanding of the law and the keeping of its commandments.

Walter W. Wessel, “Mark,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 736–737.

God determines love not us!