Mark 12:28-31 – 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. 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.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Family and Friends, oh you who are called by His name and you who will come to be one who is called by His name, Jesus spoke the Truth to these people. They knew it was the truth. Nothing was more holy of a proclamation from God to His people than these verses. In fact Jesus is repeating the first part of what the Jews call the Shema. It is a central part of the verses they pray. Look at Deuteronomy 6:4-9 “Hear, Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! 5 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7 And you shall repeat them diligently to your sons and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the road, when you lie down, and when you get up. 8 You shall also tie them as a sign to your hand, and they shall be as frontlets on your forehead. 9 You shall also write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” This is what Jesus was quoting. For our purposes today, let’s concentrate on Vs 4-5 as that is what the Lord quoted from here in Mark.
We have, more than once, talked about the fact, not the human thought, but the fact that our love for God, His love for and in us and that love filling our hearts and changing everything about us, is the most important commandment God has given us. It is not only the greatest rule, a rule above all others, but one that is in all His rules. The love of God is what is behind us being able to joyfully live out any of God’s commandments and laws for our lives. It is behind having and living in God’s joy. This rule of law does not break any laws but fulfills them. Any of man’s laws that break this law is not of or from God but from Satan. A country or land may make evil laws out of ignorance but rest assured anything that goes against this law of God is from the devil himself. He knows how hide in bushes, and also amongst us, to watch his evil plans unfold. He’s been doing this since the Garden of Eden. Love is the rule that teaches and incorporates all the loveliness of God to us and in us. Love. God’s love. In us, that is the highest the best and the most enjoyable rule. Love.
Now let’s go back to what is the most important thing to learn and grow in God’s love. Jesus said to those listening to Him, and to all of us “Listen! God is one!” Those who refuse to know God, and in our day He must be known through the Son, cannot have God’s love and so cannot grow and be changed by the only true form of love, God’s love. We know that God is love but how can we know that if we don’t love and obey Him. Ah, says the proud, I have already figured out how to know that without God. But the proud are wrong, they cannot know His love unless they know Him. The Triune God must be known. His love is a contagion that infects one wholly, kills what one was to become something incredibly beyond they ever were or ever imagined they could be. We must submit to His hand, to have it touch us in order to change us. In a day that we believe superheroes come from spider bites, radiation or our atmosphere, does it not ever seem to you that these stories are borrowed from the greatest truth? We are changed by being touched, and submitting to the hand and plan of God. His Spirit inhabits us and changes us like a substance put into us might change us. Only what He does changes us completely and noticeably both immediately and gradually. And this truth did not come from comic book heroes, but if the creation of these fictional heroes are inspired they are likely inspired the Truth, and they borrow from it. But we don’t need superheroes, though they are fun. The One, the Mighty, the God and Loving Hero we all have is Jesus. And Jesus is one with the Father and one with the Holy Spirit. These three are one. So Israel and all the earth, God is one. First learn that. First learn who God is and what God is. Then His love will grow and change you. It has been happening to me for over forty years. To others much longer. We all testify the truth written here. Know God is one. Know He is love. Love Him with all that you are. Love others more than you love yourself. Then, oh then, we are changed, and so is the world around us, and that onto the whole world. And we are all connected, not like the six degrees of Kevin Bacon, but to the nth degree as the Lord God has ordained, as is His will, as it is what pleases Him. Praise God! Catch what changes for the good. Let God infect us with His Spirit. It is the best thing that could happen to anyone.
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will Hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, Oh man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
Numbers 6:24-26 – The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.