Today's Scripture: Mark 12:28-34
"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."
Whenever the greatest commandment is quoted, it's usually from the Matthew or the Luke account of the exchange between the lawyer and Jesus.
The account in Mark is quite interesting, though. After Jesus cites the greatest commandment, the lawyer agrees. But then he adds something not in the other accounts. He says that loving God with everything you have and loving your neighbor more than yourself is "much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."
And that goes right to the heart of the matter (yes, pun intended).
God wants our love more than anything we do. Yes, we keep his commandments. But the teaching of Scripture is clear that we keep his commandments because we love him. Love for God comes first, then the things we do for God.
If we try to earn God's love by doing things for him, even keeping his commandments, but we don't do it out of love for him, then we've missed it. The Old Testament narrative is full of cases like that.
So, love God with all your being. Then love others the same way you love yourself.
That is pleasing to God.
Think about it …
- One question as we close out the Reset Easter experience, and that is this – what is a next step you can take that puts some of the things presented the last five weeks into practice in your life?
