Leviticus 13, Mark 12:28-44, Psalm 38: 1-11
Mark 12: 29-31 (ESV)
“Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel:
The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 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.”
In verses 29 through 31 from Mark 12, Jesus answers the
scribe who asked me which commandment is the most important of all. The authors
of the Bible commentaries I read all noted that the scribe was trying to test
Jesus to see if he would show disrespect for one of the Law of Moses. But Jesus
was smarter than the scribe and pointed out the essence of the laws of Moses.
Jesus said that the most important commandment is to love the God with all of
your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Then Jesus said if you love God this way,
you will naturally want to obey all this commandment which in essence tells us
to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Jesus teaches us that God wants us
to love him first. Without this love, any obedience to the laws of Moses would
be empty. If the image of God is in every person as well as in us, then we need
to love our neighbor because God is in them. And what is rarely mentioned is
that we need to love ourselves as well because God’s image is in us. God loves
us and wants us to love ourselves as much as he loves us and our neighbors.
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