THE GREATEST LOVE OF ALL
MARK: THE SERVANT WHO WAS OUR SAVIOR • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 39:08
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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?”
Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
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.’
The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
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.
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.”
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.
Here’s the setting. It’s the last week of Jesus’ life. On Monday he cleared out the temple. His behavior incited the religious establishment against him.
On Tuesday these enemies of Jesus began an onslaught of questions attempting to discredit the person and ministry of Jesus. In Mark 11:27-33 the chief priests, scribes, and elders questioned Him concerning His authority. In Mark 12:13-17 the Pharisees and Herodians questioned Him concerning taxes. In Mark 12:18-27 the Sadducees question him concerning the afterlife. And in today’s text a single scribe questions him concerning the greatest commandment.
He wants to know which one has the most weight. This was an often-debated question among the religious leaders. They liked to count and categorize the commands, arguing about which ones could be blown off and which had to be kept. We generally think of there being 10 Commandments but the Pharisees actually added up all of them and came up with 613 – 248 were positive: “do this” or “do that” and 365 were negative: “don’t do this, don’t do that.” For them, a “don’t a day” kept the devil away!
The answer Jesus gives summarizes the entire teaching of Scripture:
WE OBEY THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT BECAUSE GOD IS THE GREATEST AND BY DOING SO WE MEET OUR NEIGHBORS GREATEST NEED.
WE OBEY THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT BECAUSE GOD IS THE GREATEST AND BY DOING SO WE MEET OUR NEIGHBORS GREATEST NEED.
I want us to learn how to love God and our neighbor by examining the scribes compelling question, Jesus’ concise answer, and everyone’s close proximity.
A COMPELLING QUESTION
A COMPELLING QUESTION
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?”
BECAUSE OF ITS SOURCE
BECAUSE OF ITS SOURCE
A scribe was a teacher of the law. This man spent his life debating the weightiness of the 613 commandment. He genuinely and sincerely wanted to know which commandment must be kept above all else.
This was not the first lawyer to ask such a question. Luke 10:25:28 records Jesus encounter without a lawyer who was not seeking an answer but to test Jesus. He did not want to know what the greatest commandment was but what was required to have eternal life. Jesus answered this lawyer by saying
And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
BECAUSE OF ITS SUBSTANCE
BECAUSE OF ITS SUBSTANCE
It’s a compelling question because of its substance. If there is an order of importance. If something is greater than all else then knowing what that is become life’s most important pursuit.
Jesus doesn’t give them new information. He simply reminds them of what they already know. Jesus’ answer is found in Deuteronomy 6 and 15 and Leviticus 19. Deuteronomy 6 and 15 speaks of loving the Lord with heart, soul, mind, and strength. Leviticus 19 speaks of loving neighbor as yourself. Here Jesus connects the dots and says that they are not two commandments but one and the greatest of all.
The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
BECAUSE IT’S THE SAVIOR
BECAUSE IT’S THE SAVIOR
It’s a compelling question because it’s the Savior. No one better to ask which of the laws is the greatest than the law giver himself. There is no one better to make clear what is cloudy in so many minds.
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?”
A CONCISE ANSWER
A CONCISE ANSWER
CONCISE: COVERING MUCH IN A FEW WORDS.
CONCISE: COVERING MUCH IN A FEW WORDS.
Jesus takes 613 commandments a says Love God and Love People and you will keep all the law. When God gave the 10 commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai He gave them on two tablets expressing this teaching. The first four on tablet one all focused on loving God. The second tablet containing commandment 5-10 focused on loving our neighbor.
In the commandments the Lord was teaching His people if they loved Him in the way His commandments taught (1-4) they would love their neighbor (5-10).
Remember, the law was not given because he saved them from Egypt but afterwards. This reminds us that obedience to God’s commands is not our pathway to salvation but our way of expressing our love and gratitude to the Lord for our salvation.
It is not our words that express love for God but our ways.
It is not our words that express love for God but our ways.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.
A CLOSE PROXIMITY
A CLOSE PROXIMITY
Jesus is teaching us that by
LOVING GOD SUPREMELY WE WILL BE ABLE TO LOVE OTHERS GENUINELY.
LOVING GOD SUPREMELY WE WILL BE ABLE TO LOVE OTHERS GENUINELY.
If we love God, we will experience His love within and will express that love to others. We do not live by rules but by relationships, a loving relationship to God that enables us to have a loving relationship with others.
Earlier this sermon I mentioned the lawyer who questioned Jesus in Luke 10. Jesus used the parable of the good Samaritan to answer his question because he asked the question; who is my neighbor?
The parable of the Good Samaritan used the teaching of Leviticus 19 to answer the question of neighbor that Leviticus 19 had already answered. To ask “Who is my neighbor?” is to look for a loophole by focusing on what claim others have on my time and energy and resources.
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
“Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.
Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves any gods of cast metal: I am the Lord your God.
“When you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted.
It shall be eaten the same day you offer it or on the day after, and anything left over until the third day shall be burned up with fire.
If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is tainted; it will not be accepted,
and everyone who eats it shall bear his iniquity, because he has profaned what is holy to the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from his people.
“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest.
And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.
“You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another.
You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.
“You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning.
You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
“You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.
You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord.
“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.
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.
The Lord is saying you should do this because I am the Lord. We should do this because we are the Lord’s.
A neighbor is anyone in need who God brings in front of me.
A neighbor is anyone in need who God brings in front of me.
The command to “love your neighbor as yourself” is essentially telling us to treat other people as well as we treat ourselves. Scripture never commands us to love ourselves; it assumes we already do.
To love my neighbor as myself means I will serve the needs of others with all the energy, passion and zeal with which I serve and attempt to meet my own needs.
Love the person outside your window like you love the person you see in the mirror.
If we love God with everything we have and love others as much as we love ourselves, we will engage in evangelism. We won’t be able to stop.
Many, most, if not all of us who claim to be soldiers in Christ army have gone AWOL during these last two years. Jesus is calling us back to a life of loving our neighbor as ourself.
Those who are truly in God’s kingdom will love God and thereby love those who God brings in front of them. However, the scribe in our story according to Jesus
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.
Notice his proximity - not far and notice His standing - not in. Jesus said He was not far because he answered wisely.
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.
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.”
Remember,
It’s not our words that express love for God but our ways.
It’s not our words that express love for God but our ways.
Citizenship in heaven is not based on information obtained but information obeyed.