| “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” |
| —Deuteronomy 6:4-5 |
“I only have time to obey one commandment. Which one should I obey? Which one is the greatest and most important?”
That may sound like a silly question, but it is a question that arises in the hearts and minds of many individuals. Each one who asks is looking for an easy way to be able to say that he or she is a good person. Each person may well do good in the world. Or, at the very least, he or she does more good than bad. These ones want full credit for doing their very best to do good.
But, trying hard to follow the pathway of the Lord Jesus Christ doesn’t really work that way. The reason devoted disciples of Jesus read His written Word, the Bible, every day—and meditate on what it says—is so that they will understand more and more about God and learn what really brings Him joy.
In building the foundational structure of faith for His chosen people, the children of Israel, God had Moses write down a rather long list of rules and regulations that fleshed out the ten main laws God gave in what we call the Ten Commandments. In so doing, God instructed Moses to share these words with His children, as found in Deuteronomy 6:4-5:
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
But, Moses was not the only one to offer this instruction from God. The Apostle Mark records that Jesus, the one and only Son of God, quoted from Deuteronomy, as recorded in Mark 12:28-34:
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?”
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 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: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 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.”
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
Now, as this new day begins, let us go forth and demonstrate in real and practical ways this teaching from both the Old Testament and New Testament—the very written Word of God, as given through His servant Moses, and the very written Word of God as written down by John Mark from the words spoken through God the Son, Jesus.
Let’s love God with the totality of our being—all four human modalities: emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and physical. And, let’s show forth God’s love to every person who crosses our pathway—that is, our neighbors.
Based on a blog originally posted on Tuesday, November 28, 2017
