Mark 12 - The Great Commandment

Intro

Students!

Easter season is over, but we aren’t done in the book of Mark!

So for the next few weeks I want to look at some of the passage / sections in the book that we didn’t get a chance to talk about!

Things that I think will be super helpful for you

So today I want to look at a passage that may actually be pretty familiar to you, but I want us to understand it

Scripture

Mark 12:28–31 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.”

This is one of the most famous verses in the New Testament and one of Jesus’ most well known teachings

A Scribe came up to Jesus asking Him this question

One thats main goal was to trick Jesus into blaspheming so that they could cart Him off and get rid of Him

He asks Him, “which law is the most important”

Essentially which one should I focus on and ignore the others

Yet Jesus goes back to the Old Testament for his answer

This is what is called the Shama

It comes from Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Deuteronomy 6:4–5 ESV

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Jesus to answer the Scribe’s question quotes Scripture to help explain a complex question

But this is a question that I am sure we have all asked at one time or another as well

So tonight I want us to be able to walk away understanding what it means to Love God and Love others in this manner

Heart

The first thing Jesus says is that we are to

Love God with all our heart

To love God with all our heart means that we want to spend time with God

Seeking to be with Him and show Him the save love that He has for us

Think about what kind of love God has for us — He sent His son to die for us, to be forgive us of our sins

He offers a love that is full of forgiveness and mercy

This is the type of way we are to respond when it comes to loving God with all our heart

We should want to spend time with Him

I think about loving God with all my heart the same way I think about Kase

I love Kase with my whole heart

I talk about her constantly, even to the point where sometimes its nauseating for some

Yet if I didn’t spend anytime with her, would I actually love her?

If you don’t spend time with something can you actually love it?

Thats what it’s like when Jesus says to love God with all your heart — you should be actively seeking to spend time with God

Think about Jesus — every moment He had he went off to spend time with the father

Mark 1:35 ESV

35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.

If we are to properly love God we must do it with our heart — spending time with the Lord

Soul

The second way Jesus says we are to love God is

Love God with all your soul

Jesus tells us that to love God we not only need to love Him with our heart, but also with our soul

Our soul can be a hard one to understand, its something we don’t always get

But it’s really not that difficult

Our soul is our passions and desires

It is what we want and strive to make happen

Our soul is the desire you have to do things

What Jesus then is telling us is that if we are to love God with all your soul that means that our passions and desires will start to change

We will start to believe and and pray like he tells us to in Matthew 6 when he says

Matthew 6:10 ESV

10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

We will start to pray for God’s kingdom and not Jamie’s kingdom

My desires will not be to build up Jamie and make him look good

Instead I will seek to build up the Lord and make Him famous

I will do everything in my power to make the Lord the center of everything I do

It is being moved by what moves God

And what moves God? That people that are lost find Jesus

I again think about Kase

If I love her, my desire and passion will start to mold into what she wants

As her husband I will want her passion to become the most important thing

I will be driven to do things that I know she likes

The same is true with the Lord

If you don’t strive to make His kingdom come, do you actually love Him?

Mind

The third thing Jesus says when it comes to loving the Lord is that

Love the Lord with all our mind

We are to love with our mind

This is maybe the easiest one for us to understand, and for me, my favorite one

It’s the academic side of love

To love God with your mind is to spend time learning about Him

It’s studying scripture and memorizing it, it is learning about His nature

It’s learning what He calls you to

It’s having knowledge about who God is

For me and Kase

I cannot love her if I don’t know her

If I don’t know anything about her, how can I love her?

How can I care for her if I don’t know her?

The same is true for God

Colossians 1:10 ESV

10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

We must know God if we are to love Him

Otherwise we are making up things that just aren’t true

Strength

The last thing Jesus said is that we are to love the Lord

Love the Lord with all our strength

This is also another easy one to understand

It is closely connected to the soul, but goes a little deeper

The soul is all about our passion and reasons for doing things

When it comes to loving the Lord with all our strength it is quite literally doing things

It is the actions that we do to serve God

It is making our actions line up with the teachings

Loving God with our strength is taking the other three ways and then actually doing them

If I say I love Kasey my actions will show it

I’ll do things that prove my love for her

For the Lord our actions in life will change

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

We will do what Jesus tells us to do

We will go and make disciples

Share the Gospel

Our life will be dedicated to going to the world

Love neighbor

But Jesus didn’t end there

Listen to verse 31 again

Mark 12:31 ESV

31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Not only are we to love God, but we are also called

Love your neighbor

Jesus tells us that we are also called to love our neighbor

Loving our neighbor is actually a lot more simple than we think

To love our neighbor very simply means that we are sharing the Gospel with them

That we are introducing them to Jesus, the one who can save them and change their life

One thing that is key is understanding that you cannot have one without the other

You cannot love God without also loving your neighbor

You cannot love God and have your desires be His, your actions be for Him, know about Him, and spend time with Him without going and sharing the Gospel with those who need Jesus

You cannot love your neighbor well without also loving God

So when Jesus answers this question He is telling the Scribe and us that we are to love God with everything, and love our neighbor

Conclusion

We are called to love God and love others

This is the Greatest commandment

And it is something that I think we break all the time

We must love the Lord with all our heart — spending time with Him

Love the Lord with all our soul — letting our desires become His desires

Love the Lord with all our mind — knowledge about God

Love the Lord with all our strength — doing things

And loving our neighbor

Discussion Questions

How can we practically spend time with God daily to demonstrate our love for Him?

In what ways can you align your passions and desires to reflect God's will in your life?

What specific actions can you take this week to show love to your neighbor?

How can understanding God's nature help you share the Gospel with your friends?

What does it mean to love God with your mind, and how can you deepen your knowledge of Him?