Mark 12:29-31

‘Jesus answered, “The first is, hear Oh 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, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” ’

Jesus answered willingly by turning men’s eyes back on God, and to the Scriptures. While He saw the whole Law of God as the word of God (Mark 7:13) He was not hidebound about the equal importance of each detail. He recognised that what was of most importance was the attitude of heart required by Scripture. Significantly Jesus puts God first. To Him relationship to God was of prime importance. He would have had no truck with those who said that our attitude towards our fellow man was all important. (That is our fellow man’s view). On the other hand the immediate inclusion of the other commandment demonstrates that He nevertheless did consider that it too was of great importance. He did therefore also consider that man’s relationship with man was important. For as John would later say, ‘he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God Whom he has not seen’ (1 John 4:20). The two commandments thus went together in Jesus’ eyes as one, but with love for God primary.

The first commandment as here stated by Jesus, is taken from Deuteronomy 6:5 (where ‘with all your mind’ is excluded) and was repeated by strict Jews daily. It was carried around in the phylacteries worn by Pharisees, especially at the time of prayer, and also fixed to their doors in small tubes (see Deuteronomy 6:8-9, which they interpreted literally). They would not have doubted its great importance. The second is taken from Leviticus 19:18. As its context reveals it especially had in mind complete honesty, fair judgment, non-talebearing, and avoiding hatred, vengeance, and the bearing of grudges, but allowed for rebuking a neighbour, although without permanent rancour (Leviticus 19:13-18). In sum the two commandments cover both tables of commandments as given to Moses, attitude and behaviour towards God and attitude and behaviour towards men.

Matthew 22:37 excludes the opening words, in his much abbreviated summary, but it is doubtful if a Jew would orally have repeated the command without them.

We note in passing that Jesus splits man’s make-up into four, heart, soul, mind and strength, a warning against taking such divisions too strictly. Paul divided man’s make up into three (spirit, soul and body - 1 Thessalonians 5:23). The purpose in both cases was not in order to analyse and define man but in order to cover every aspect of a man’s being. It was not an attempt to strictly define his make up and divide it up, for man is a unity.

It is true that the general idea of what Jesus said is found in the Testament of the Twelve patriarchs (1st century BC). ‘Love the Lord and love your neighbour, have compassion on the poor and weak’ (Issachar Mark 5:2). ‘I loved the Lord, in the same way also every man with my whole heart’ (Issachar Mark 7:6). ‘Love the Lord through all your life, and one another with a true heart’ (Daniel 5:3). But the ideas were not new there either. They were found in the Law of Moses. They simply summarised the ten commandments.

Yet as far as we are aware Jesus was the first to bring these two commands together as one. The incident in Luke 10:25-37, where the Pharisee cites them, may indicate that the combination was well known, but it may equally be that he had heard Jesus citing them. The question is not of great importance. What is important is that Jesus declared that they summed up the Law, and that that meant that attitude of heart was more important than detail.

The commands begin with a declaration that there is only One God, and that is the Lord God of Israel. It then declares the requirement for totality of love for Him with the whole being. God is to be all important and all absorbing. Man’s first consideration and desire should be to know Him, to love Him and to be pleasing to Him as a loving son is to his father (Malachi 1:6). And this immediately challenges us. We have only to consider our own response to this to recognise our own sinfulness. We know we should be like this always but so often we are not. It was an impossible demand. That is why Paul could say, ‘All have sinned and come short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23). It was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, and to continually make us depend on Christ.

Then follows the command to love our neighbour as ourselves. This is a lower love to that which we have for God. We are not to be totally absorbed in either our neighbour or ourselves. But we are to love them with a true heart, and as Jesus made clear in Luke 10:25-37 our neighbour is anyone whose heart is right toward us, whatever their religion, race or colour. It is a practical love, a love which acts. We may not feel gushing towards them, but we are to behave towards them as God would, and in a way that pleases Him. (That Luke 10:25-37 is a separate incident from this comes out in an examination of the detail).

‘There is no other commandment greater than these.’ While Jesus in the end required total perfection, He recognised men’s weakness (how gentle He was with His failing disciples) and therefore the importance of the need for them to understand what their aim should be. As the Pharisees had proved for themselves, the task of keeping every smallest Law, with its ramifications in the tradition of the elders, was beyond them even from a memory point of view. It was much better therefore to concentrate on prime laws, laws of relationship, while using the others as a guide. Let any man be like this then and it would reveal that he was truly one who had been blessed by God, for he could not do it otherwise.