THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT

Mark 12:28-37 / Keywords 12:30

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

 

12:28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[e] 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[f] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[g] There is no commandment greater than these.”

32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

Whose Son Is the Messiah?

35 While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, “Why do the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the son of David? 36 David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared:

“‘The Lord said to my Lord:

    “Sit at my right hand

until I put your enemies

    under your feet.”’[h]

37 David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?”

The large crowd listened to him with delight.

Footnotes

e. Mark 12:29 Or The Lord our God is one Lord

f. Mark 12:30 Deut. 6:4,5

g. Mark 12:31 Lev. 19:18

h. Mark 12:36 Psalm 110:1

1. One teacher of the law came to Jesus and asked him. “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Jesus answered, “The most important one is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 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: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

 

2. Our life must reflect our love for God. We should love God with all our soul, mind and strength. That is how God made us and wants us to be.

 

3. Jesus asked, “Why do the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the son of David? David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’” “The Lord said to my Lord” means that God said this to Jesus. David calls Jesus as his Lord. Jesus is a physical descendant of David and he is also the promised Savior, God himself who came through the line of David as God promised.

 

4. Jesus is God himself. He is not a mere human, but God himself who came down to earth. We should revere and worship Jesus because he is God.

 

Prayer Lord, help us to accept Jesus as our God, the true king.

One Word Love Jesus with all your heart, soul and mind