Mark 12:28-34

Background

Jesus had just come into Jerusalem, this is during his final week alive.

He has cleaned out the temple and is now sitting in the temple teaching.

Jesus is then tested by the pharisees and scribes, ultimately to the point of challenging Jesus’ authority.

A scribe then comes up and asks Him in Mark 12:28

Mark 12:28 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?”

There were so many different camps surrounding this belief that schools were formed around specific “doctrinal points” such as the schools of Hillel and Shemmel. This scribe already had some preconceived notion of what he thought, we see that at the end of this passage, but also in Matthew 22 where it says he tested or tempted Jesus.

So what was Jesus’ answer?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Mark 12:29–30 ESV

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.’

What Jesus quotes from here is called the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4-5. It was something quoted by the Jewish people twice a day, everyday. It was so important that they would also quote this extra times on their Holy days and sabbath. Why wouldn’t it be this? Why wouldn’t loving the Lord with everything you have be the most important commandment? What does it mean?

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 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. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Heart

Psalm 119:1–3 ESV

1 Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord! 2 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, 3 who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways!

Why do I follow God? Is it because I am afraid of Him? Am I just so scared of going to Hell to the point that I will do anything to avoid punishment? There is a healthy dose of fear, but I don’t follow God just because I am scared of Him, but because I love Him.

When Henry starts learning right from wrong, he’s going to initially learn from the point of view of “I don’t want to get in trouble,” but I want him to get the point of view of “I love my dad enough to do what he says.” Some of us just don’t want to get in trouble, and that’s fine, but it’s not sincere. That is coercion not your heart, because the second you can get out of doing right, you will take it.

1 Samuel 15:17–21 ESV

17 And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. 18 And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?” 20 And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. 21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”

Saul had specific commands to devote everything to destruction, yet he let some things alone to the point of blaming the people and saying we were going to sacrifice these to the Lord.

1 Samuel 15:22–23 ESV

22 And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”

God doesn’t care about sacrifice if your intentions are not there. God doesn’t just want lip service, which is what Saul was offering, He want’s your whole heart, He wants your desire towards him.

Soul

Psalm 42:1–2 ESV

1 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

The idea of loving the Lord with all your soul means that you are entrusting the Lord with your soul. This is the most precious thing, or should be, to a person. Will I continue in this world knowing my soul is in His hands? Or do I put my soul in the hands of this world?

Matthew 10:28 ESV

28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Nothing in this world can touch it? So why would I not want to entrust this precious thing to the very one who gave it to me in Genesis 2:7 “7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” ?

Ezekiel 18:4 ESV

4 Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.

In this passage, God is fed up with the way Israel is. They’ve played the harlot, turned to false gods, and lived a life of immorality. So He starts talking about the souls of fathers and sons. If a father lives a righteous life, as seen in verses 5-9, his soul is saved. If he fathers a son who does not live a righteous life, it is because the father failed to live a righteous life, and both souls die. If a son sees his father’s sin and lives a righteous life, the son’s soul is saved but the father’s dies. Why? Because the son loved the Lord with all his soul to the point of entrusting his soul into the hands of a living God.

1 Peter 4:19 ESV

19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

Mind

Colossians 3:1–3 ESV

1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

It begins with your mind. Many of us have probably caught ourselves just going through the motions in life, in school, and even in church. When we put ourselves on autopilot, our minds just shutoff.

Ya’ll ever drive down the road the realize that you don’t remember the last 5-10 miles? Many times we do this when it comes to God. We shut our minds off to the point that we don’t even remember where we are supposed to be and what we are supposed to be doing.

If you stop paying attention in class, what happens? You miss important info, you fail a test, you fail the class. Everything begins falling apart to the point of crashing and burning. And that’s just by taking your mind off of things.

Romans 8:7 ESV

7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

You ever meet people that claim Christ yet they seem so far from God? That is the carnal, or fleshly mind. A carnal mind has no desire to submit to God. It chooses itself every time. Even people that go to church every Sunday, some go just to maintain appearances, not because they love God. They go so they can be seen, acknowledged, and praised. When we say “Thank you for being here” at our assemblies, we are certainly thankful, but if you are the church, you were expected. You’re not doing me, the elders, the deacon’s, or God a service. It is an expectation of the church to gather, just as much as it is an expectation of the church to be different from this world. Romans 12:1

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Strength

Colossians 3:17 ESV

17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

The idea is that everything that you do, do it in the name of Christ. It’s being an ambassador. It’s who you represent. When people see you working, do they see someone who is Christ focused or someone who is just trying to get by.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 ESV

10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might

Live to your fullest strength. Connect these two verses and you will find everything you do to do it for the Lord and then do it with every bit of effort that you can muster. Don’t hold back just because it’s difficult or you’re uncomfortable

Love Your Neighbor as yourself

Mark 12:31 ESV

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

When a first century Jew hears “love your neighbor as yourself” which is a quote from Leviticus 19:18, guess what pops in their mind. They see their fellow Israelite. They see the man across the street, the baker down the road, the priest in the other town. What do they not see? Gentiles, samaritans, anyone not an Israelite.

Matthew 5:43–47 ESV

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

I am no stranger to having difficult people in my life, but does that mean show them any less amount of respect? Our world says you earn respect. Our God says giving the utmost respect is our default setting. Our neighbor is everyone around us. It’s our annoying roommate, that obnoxious classmate, and the very people in this room.

In Matthew 22, Jesus says that on these two commandments depend all the Law and the prophets. Why? Because these are the foundational truths of living a Godly life. Without loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself, no amount of work, no amount of sacrifice, and no amount of trying can get you closer to Him.