I would like to take a week or two off from the World View discussion to go deeper into the topic of love and the Greatest Commandment. In reality, this won't be so much of a week off as an opportunity to cover one of the major aspects of God's World View. Thanks to James for a well directed post.
The Great Commandment
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
~Mark 12:28-34~
This week I'm soliciting your thoughts and reaction to this passage. Take a minute or two to read through the passage and type that, adding any comments you may have. Additional scripture is always welcome. Here is the rest of the chapter for context.
2 comments:
This scripture's context is a discussion between the teachers of the law (Pharisees, Herodians, and Saducees) and Jesus. The teachers were questioning Jesus with the intent to trap in his words or catch him over any debatable point. Basically, anything to trip him up and cause him to lose credibility.
After several rounds of questioning (which Jesus flawlessly answered) from the different groups of teachers, one of them approached the debate with a question. I don't know whether the question was intended to trip Jesus up or whether honest curiosity prompted it, but the question was one that could have resulted in a legalistic argument with no resolution.
Jewish spiritual leaders had identified 613 individual laws and statutes that had to be followed, and the ranking of these was a source of great debate among them.
Jesus' response was all encompassing. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." Okay, so I stand humbled. Nothing is greater. And the second commandment is the foundation for the golden rule, "Love your neighbor as yourself." As MGySgt Dalhouse pointed out last week, I find myself sadly lacking in this area.
It looks like this scribe's question is genuine, not a trick. Christ certainly treats it as such. After the scribe acknowledges that Christ has spoken the truth, Christ replies that he has spoken wisely and is not far from the kingdom of heaven.
One thing I noticed for the first time in re-reading this is how the Greatest Commandment starts out: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
The precondition to truly loving God is acknowledging Him as the only God. If we don't confess that the Lord our God is the only God, we won't be able to love him or anyone else.
While there are many "little gods" people place over their lives, perhaps the biggest obstacle to confessing God as the one God is the god of our own selves. If I want to learn how to love my neighbor, I need to love God. If I want to learn how to love God, I need to acknowledge that I am not God. Until I recognize God, I cannot love him.
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