The Greatest Commandment

This morning I am meditating on the following verses - Mark 12:29-33 NIV:

[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.”

[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.”

It is interesting that Jesus boils down all of the law into these two commandments, loving God and loving our neighbors. The word used for love here is Agape and that denotes more than just brotherly love and affection. Definition: Agape is selfless, sacrificial, unconditional love, the highest of the four types of love in the Bible. In other words this is the type of Love that Jesus demonstrated in dying for us.

His love for us was demonstrated in His coming to earth, to reveal the heart of the Father and restore a way for us to be in eternal relationship with us. He then calls us to that exact same Love in our relationship with the Father. I think that Agape love is impossible without relationship. The teacher of the law gets it right, relationship is more important than the religious ceremonies and sacrifices.

Loving the Lord with all one's heart, soul, mind and strength, means that this love is all encompassing in our life. It involves our emotions, our understanding and reasoning, our choices and finally our physical exertions. This is not a one-hour on Sunday kind of love, but a life focus kind of love. The is a daily, hourly, never ending, never decreasing kind of love. This is the kind of love that shapes one's life, and the object of all this love is God.

Secondly, we are called to love our neighbor, in the same way we love ourselves. This is every bit as hard as the first command, in fact sometimes it seems harder. It is so easy to love ourselves, to spend our money on ourselves, to think constantly about our self, and to prioritize ourselves above every one else. The issue is that Jesus says we should love others just like we love ourselves, and that means we need to be ready to spend money on them, think about their needs and make them a priority. In our independent western mind-set, this is not common. In fact, it seems that about the only time we really see this type of love expressed is during times of difficulty that affect everyone, such as blizzards, ice storms, etc.

These few verses give me much to think about, and much to look at in my daily life. Am I truly loving God with my everything? Am I loving my neighbors in the same way I am loving myself? Am I pursuing relationships with God and my neighbors or am I just doing the minimal religious, and community duty? Lord, You said our love would be a sign to all that we follow You, and I pray that this would be the case for us all, that when people looked at us they would see our love! Amen!