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Author: Stephen Weller
716 words, 4 minutes read time

The Most Important Commandment

Scripture: Matthew 22:35-36, 38-40; Mark 12:28-31

With the previous lesson we ended a section from which we learned that marriage does not continue on in heaven but ends at our physical death, and we learned that marriage does not occur in heaven as those who rise from the “dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.” We were also given evidence that there is a resurrection of the dead. With this lesson one of the scribes steps forward and tries to test Jesus with his question.

Mk 12:28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, ^{Mt 22:35} a question to test him. ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

A particular scribe watched and listened to what was going on and at the right moment he steps forward to ask Jesus a question to test him. He was not seeking information for the purpose of learning, but for the purpose of trying to get Jesus to say something that could be used against him. His question was quite simple, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” His question was part of an ongoing debate to determine which commandments were “light” (unimportant) and which were “weighty” (important). We find an example of this in Matthew 23:23 ESV: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” We covered this in lesson H463 where the religious leaders placed a great emphasis on certain details of the law but neglected more important things like “justice and mercy and faithfulness.”

^{Mk 12:29} Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ 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.’ ^{Mt 22:38} This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. ^{Mk 12:31} There is no other commandment greater than these.”

“The Lord our God, the Lord is one” describes the God we are to love. This description is not included in the Matthew account, but is given by Mark to suggest that we are to worship only one God, not many gods as others do. Here that one God is referred to as the “Lord.” It is this one God that we are to love “with all [our] heart and with all [our] soul and with all [our] mind and with all [our] strength.”

The question is being asked to determine which commandment is of fundamental importance and central to all others. The answer Jesus given is from Deuteronomy 6:4 – 5. This commandment was covered in lesson H431. There we look at verse differences and why.

“The use of “heart, soul, and mind” does not represent rigid compartments of human existence but rather used together refer to the whole person that is to love God. To love God in this way illustrates the idea of total devotion to God and our responsibility to obey the rest of God’s commandments. We are to “Do [our] best to present [ourselves] to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 ESV), and as we do we will learn more about God through the person of Jesus Christ and grow deeper in our love for him.” (quote from lesson VS0201).

To love God with the whole person is “the great and first commandment.” On this note, we will end this lesson and look at the second commandment in importance in the next lesson.

Conclusion

If loving God with our whole person is so important, then why is that not a stronger focus in our lives. It seems that the world has a way of drawing us away from loving God as we should.