The Most Important Command

Mark 12:28-34.  This sermon was preached on August 23, 2020.

Our story today completes the attempts to trap Jesus with his answers, or debate with him.  However, it is worth noting that the man questioning Jesus in this passage does not seem to be trying to trap him.  He seems honestly to have an answer to his question from Jesus. 

What is the most important command of all the commands given by God through Moses?  Another way of putting this is to ask, “Just what is God trying to accomplish through these commands?”  Is it just mere domination?  Is it perfection?  What is it?  This question reveals that even people under the Law of Moses understood that there was more to Judaism then the sacrificial system.  Jesus makes it clear that God wants relationship with you and with me.  He wants a relationship with us that is marked by a reciprocal love.  In a world that has little time for “loving God,” I appeal to us to soften our hearts and listen to the heart of God in this passage.

Which is the first commandment of all?

Whether we call it the first commandment of all, or as Matthew 22 describes it, the greatest commandment of all, the heart of this question is to find the unifying principle that ties all the other commands together.  It recognizes that sometimes two laws can be at odds with one another.  In such cases, a sense of the “spirit of the law” must be understood in deciding which should be obeyed, or at least, how to solve the dilemma.  A case in point, the Law stipulated that a newborn male was to be circumcised on the eighth day following its birth, but what if the eighth day was a Sabbath?  What should an Israelite who wants to be obedient do?  Other such cases existed and had to be dealt by their communities.  Of course over time, any legal system becomes a long list of situational decisions.  Just imagine the complex maze of laws and regulations that are like a web surrounding each citizen of the United States of America.  What is the most important law of our land?  What are we trying to accomplish as a people?  Clearly, there would be different answers to that question based upon who you ask.

We are told by Mark that the man who poses this question is a scribe.  In Matthew 22:35, he is described as a lawyer.  This is a man who has spent his life studying the Law of Moses, copying it, and most likely teaching it.  What is interesting is the way he is described.  The man is impressed with the way Jesus answered the Sadducees in the previous section.  He decides to ask Jesus a controversial question in order to see what he will say.  He doesn’t seem to be trying to trap Jesus, but rather, he is curious to see what Jesus will say.

The condition of our heart in asking questions of God is important.  If I am questioning God with an accusatory heart, or a hardened heart that wants to trap the reasoning of the Bible, then I am unable to hear the truth of what God wants to say to me.  However, if I ask questions with a humble heart and with a desire to learn then I will be able to hear the truth of God.

Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:4-5.  This is called the Shema Israel, which is Hebrew for, “Hear Israel!”  It is interesting that the coming command is prefaced by a statement that, “YHWH our God, YHWH is one.”  In light of the polytheism that was going on in those days, this is an important distinction.  It emphasizes that their allegiance is to be singular and is therefore much simpler than those whose allegiance is divided among many gods or things.  This is going to be important later because the One God is also the One Creator of all people, but more on that later.

The actual command is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  They (we) were to love God with every part of their being.  Notice that though these divisions within us tend to be internal concepts, they all beg an external expression.  If you love someone with all of your heart then it cannot but create external expressions.

It is interesting that this answer is not one of the 10 commands per se.  However, it can be seen as a positive expression of the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me.”  All negative commands seek to protect or accomplish a positive thing.  At the least, this commandment calls for faithfulness to the One True God.  Yet, faithfulness is best when it is an expression of an underlying love.

It may seem odd to command love.  However, in the context, Israel had not only become physical slaves in Egypt, but in that condition, they had begun to worship the false gods of Egypt.  This really is a faithful God calling His people back to faithfulness, and a loving God calling them back to a relationship of love.  Our world is steadily casting off any love or faithfulness to our Creator. 

It is important for believers to recognize the power of loving God, not because we have been commanded, but because he first loved us!  It was God who delivered Israel from the armies of Pharaoh and led them to Sinai.  It was there in the context of His great salvation of them that He calls back to a relationship of love.  It is also the Lord Jesus who died on the cross for the sins of the world who calls us into a relationship of love with the Father through him.  He has loved us with so great a love, but will we respond with love in return?  That is what this is all about.

Now, Jesus refers to a second most important commandment.  Although the question doesn’t ask for the second, the connection between the two is so strong that it should not be left off.  Jesus tells the man, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  At the heart of sin, there is me loving myself.  Loving myself doesn’t always lead to sinning against my neighbor, but it is at the root when I do.  This command tells us that we should not only place boundaries on our attempts to love ourselves, but that we should take care to love our neighbor too.  Yes, it is noble not to steal from my neighbor, or give false testimony about him, but what does it mean to love him?  Instead of stealing, I would be a protector of his things, and instead of lying about him, I would be a protector of his reputation do the degree that aligns with truth, or rather God.

Love is wanting and acting for the well being of another.  Malachi 2:10 says, “Have we not all one Father?  Has not one God created us?  Why do we deal treacherously with one another by profaning the covenant of our fathers?”  If I love God then I will recognize that He made other humans (my neighbor) too.  He loves them, or at least wants a relationship of love with them, just as much as He loves me.  Though I am special to Him, I am not more special than the other person.  Each of us is a holy ground, a recipient of God’s love.  To transgress this through actions that are not love is to trample the love of God’s heart.  You cannot do the greatest commandment when you are transgressing the second.  This is another way of stating the Golden Rule.  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  However, it is even grander.

It is important to note that in Matthew 22:40, Jesus states that all of the Law “hangs” on these two commands.    In some way, each law in the Old Testament is working out what it means to love God or to love your neighbor within the context of their culture.  Of course, cultures vary and are not always based upon the recognition of God.  We are still called to hear God’s Word and to hear His Holy Spirit teaching us what it means to love people in our culture, and in innumerable ways.  Through life, God continually calls us to wrestle with the question, “What does love do now?”

The Scribe’s Response

The scribe is duly impressed with the answer that Jesus gives.  He even states that these two commands are greater than all the sacrificial system commands.  The sacrificial laws and activity were not as important as loving God.  They were simply an expression of loving God.  In other words, there is nothing particularly good about killing an animal when you sin.  However, if God tells you to do it then it becomes an opportunity to demonstrate the true nature of your relationship with Him.  Christians are not under the sacrificial commands of the Law of Moses, but these concepts are still important to us.  We do not obey God’s Word because it makes sense to us, even though we have received an understanding of it.  Rather, our obedience, or lack thereof, expresses the truth of where our relationship with Him is.  The prophet Samuel brings this up when he tells King Saul that it is better to obey God than to make sacrifices to Him.  Clearly, there is a primary importance to loving God, which leads to obeying Him.

Jesus tells the scribe that he is not far from the Kingdom of God.  It was the desire of all Israelites to be able to participate in the Kingdom of God when Messiah arrived.  May God help us to have a heart that is open to His Word, to Jesus.  If we are to keep a place in the coming Kingdom of God at the Second Coming of Jesus then we must guard our hearts.  It is not enough to be only near the Kingdom. 

We don’t know if this man was one of the 3,000 saved on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2.  However, in Luke 10:28, Jesus had a similar discussion with a man about the greatest command.  There, Jesus told the man, “Do this and you will live.”  The “this” refers to the command.  When our lives are surrendered to Jesus, we will focus it on loving God and loving our fellow man, but not just as I define it, or as our culture defines it.  We love people by working for their well being as God defines it.  This is why we tell people about Jesus, even though the world may castigate us for trying to convert people from other religions.  Actually, we are not trying to convert people to our religion.  We are extending God’s offer of love to them.  This is why we warn people about sin, as defined by God, rather than pat them on the back as they embrace it.  We cannot kill our unborn children and think that God will approve.  We cannot marry people of the same sex and think that God will approve.  Only sophistry of the highest level would allow a person to do so.  Failure in these areas is not only a lack of true love for the other person, but also a failure in loving God.  I pray that you will see the amazing love of God calling us out of a life of faithlessness and into a life of His love.

Most Important Command audio