Thursday, June 2, 2016

Thursday, June 2, 2016


Mark 12: 28-34

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
“Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus replied, “The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, 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.”
The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
He is One and there is no other than he.
And to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself

is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.



Which is the first of all the commandments? The Jews knew the commandments. They didn’t number them as we do. They didn’t argue about that numbering. They knew them. They tried to live them in their hearts. Knowing the commandments means nothing if we don’t live them in our hearts.

When I ask people what the greatest commandment is they always answer, “To love God with all that you are.” This is good but it is only the second part of the Great Commandment. We seem to forget the first part – “Hear, O Israel!”

The first part of the Great Commandment is to shut our mouths and listen to the Lord. Only after he has spoken to us do we get to the part about loving him with all that we are. Why is that? It is because you cannot love someone whom you do not listen to. When you listen you get to know and to know the Lord is to love him. If you love the Lord and you trust (believe) in him you will do as he commands.

And then he commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves. More aptly put he wants us to love our neighbors as he loves us. When you love someone you will the best for that person. The best any person can get is to spend eternity with God in heaven. God is love and from love flows truth. To will the best for someone is to will they live in the truth. This means that we do not shrink from the truth to save feelings or to make someone feel better. We do not justify untruth with our acceptance of it. Tolerance begins with a disagreement between two people where each addresses the other with love and respect while disagreeing. There is no tolerance where there is acceptance. Likewise, there is no tolerance where there is tyranny. Tolerance can only exist where there is love.

Love is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. That is because at the heart of love is obedience, obedience to God our Father and creator. God loves obedience more than sacrifice. With perfect obedience sacrifice no longer becomes necessary. Our obedience becomes the perfect sacrifice in itself. One who loves God listens to his word and then obeys it with perfect trust. This was Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus desire was to avoid the suffering he was about to undergo. He put his desires aside and trusted in his Father. He conformed his will to that of the Father. He became the perfect sacrifice through his obedience.

Shut up.

Hear the Lord.

Love him with all that you are.

Give that same love to all that you meet this day.

This one act of obedience pleases God more than any sacrifice you can make today.

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