Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-august-24-2023
Mark 12:28-34
The Greatest Commandment
28 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.”
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.”
34 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.
This has to be one of the most important passages in the whole Bible. At this one moment, a representative of humankind stood in the presence of Jesus – who was God in human form – and asked which of the many commandments is the most important.
I think this passage points to the difference between ‘religious Christianity’ and following Jesus. Religion is all about dividing “the good people” from everyone else – so religious Christians tend to focus on parts of the Bible that have to do with sins, and especially with sexual immorality. Those parts have proven to be effective in creating guilt in some people and allowing others to feel more righteous. So those parts of the Bible are used to reinforce a dynamic of fear and control in some parts of the church.
But this passage about the greatest commandment points to a different vision of relating to God – one that’s not about guilt and fear and control. That’s because in this conversation, Jesus links love of God and love of neighbor.
In the passage, “one of the teachers of the law” – a Hebrew religious scholar – hears Jesus speaking and is impressed with what Jesus has to say. Some exchanges between Jesus and Jewish leaders are presented as attempts to trap him, but this one seems to be presented as a sincere question from a Hebrew theologian.
Jesus says that the most important commandment is to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. Most of us have heard that lots of times in our lives of faith – all the way back to VBS when we were kids. But it probably takes an adult sensibility to really appreciate what it means to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
We talk about our heart as representing the emotional side of our nature – what we feel. So it seems that we are commanded to love God with a level of emotion that reaches to passion. But it’s not immediately clear how can you command someone to love God passionately.
The thing we always need to keep reminding ourselves is that the word translated as “love” here is the Greek word agapao – and that word really means something like “to commit yourself to advancing the interests of another.” The core of the idea is commitment, not feelings. I’m not saying we’re not supposed to cultivate deep feelings for God – the more we remind ourselves of the great price God has paid for us on the cross, the more feelings of gratitude and affection are likely to grow in us.
And the more we confront our own sinfulness, and the truth that we’re saved by God’s grace alone, the more we come to experience a genuine emotional attachment to the God who invites us to call him ‘Papa.’ But the real point of this great commandment is to do everything we possibly can to advance God’s interests in the world.
It’s also interesting to think about what it means to love God with our soul, mind and strength, as well as our heart.
We usually think of soul as this immaterial thing that’s somewhere inside us and then goes to heaven when our body dies. But actually, the biblical idea of soul refers to our ability to relate to God and to other people. So loving God with all our soul means opening ourselves as much as possible to relationship with him.
We’re also commanded to love God with all our strength, which seems to suggest that love for God is meant to be about doing something – it’s an active love. Genuine love for God moves us to get to work serving his kingdom and serving others in his name. That’s probably what the apostle James had in mind when he wrote, “Faith without works is dead.”
The original form of this command – in Deuteronomy 6 – said that we are to love God with heart, soul and strength. But Jesus added “mind.” Loving God ‘with all your mind,’ it seems to me, means being thoughtful about the things of the faith, using your mind to understand God’s teachings and pass them along to others. But it also means paying attention to what’s going on in our minds, not allowing them to be consumed with anger or hatred or prejudice or lust or greed. Because anything we allow to grow in our minds will eventually emerge into the world as concrete actions.
So that’s why I think this most important commandment includes loving God in all four of these ways – with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
And it seems to me very significant that Jesus didn’t stop there – that he went on to mention loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. The Bible clearly seems to link our love for God with our love for others. So it seems perfectly consistent that Jesus linked the two commandments when he was asked for the most important one. And with the whole body of his teachings, for that matter. If God loves the world enough to die for it, it seems entirely consistent that our love for God would include serving our neighbors in his name.
Let’s pray. Lord, let your Spirit stir in us to nurture a greater and greater commitment to advancing your interests, and to loving you with heart, soul, mind and strength. And move us also to love others, serving and sacrificing for them as Jesus did. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
(The other readings for today are Psalm 119:153-168; II Samuel 19:1-23; and Acts 24:1-23. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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