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Introduction
From Hostility to Impressed
After Jesus dealt with the hostile questions of the Herodians, Pharisees and Sadducees, the third major group that comprised the Sanhedrin, the scribes ask Jesus a question.
The scribes were the theologians, the experts in biblical interpretation among the Jews.
However, this time the question isn’t trying to be hostile, instead the question from Scribe is because he was profoundly impressed by the way Jesus handled the trick questions posed by the others.
The Scribe’s Question
A Question of Priority
What is the single most important commandment that God has given to this world?
The scribe didn’t just want to know what God had commanded for the Jews, he wanted a bigger answer, what was it that God wants for every human being created in the image of God.
It was common in both the OT writings and in Jewish teachings at Jesus’ time for teachers to attempt to summarize our chief obligation to God.
d.
One Rabbi who taught twenty years before the ministry of Jesus, summed it up this way: “What you would not want done to you, do not do to your neighbour, this is the essence of the law”.
2. Jesus Directs the Question to the Shema
a.
To answer the scribes question Jesus directs him to the most fundamental summary of man’s obligation that God gave His people in the OT, the Shema.
b.
The call that begins the command is the word “Hear” which in Hebrew is shema.
c.
The Jews would recite the shema as a call to direct their focus and affection on God.
They were called to love God not simply for what He had done for them, but for who He is in Himself.
d.
We are not truly growing in our Christian life until we understand that we are to love God simply because He is lovely and wonderful, worthy of every creature’s unqualified affection.
Comprehensive Love for God
The Shema commands us to have a comprehensive love for God.
Love God with all our hearts - our love for God is to come from the very root of our being.
Our love for God is to be an affection that is surpassed by no other affection.
It is to be an undiluted, unmixed love for God.
Love God with all our souls - our love for Him is not to be lukewarm.
It is to be blazing fire in our souls.
c.
Finally the shema calls us to love God with all our strength - our love is not to be weak, we must call on all of the strength we can muster to express our affection for Him.
2. Jesus adds to the Shema
a. Jesus actually adds a fourth element to our love for God, Jesus says we must love with our hearts, soul, mind , and strength.
b.
Jesus adds the dimension of loving with our mind.
We are to love God with the fullness of our understanding.
Many Christians never bother with this!
We are called by God to apply our minds to the fullest extent to understand the riches and depths of His revelation of Himself in His Word!
If we are truly honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we have not kept the Great Commandment for even a single day of our lives.
This causes us problems, because we see that no one actually loves God in this way, so we become lukewarm about it.
We think it’s no big deal, we are human, sinners, if we don’t keep God’s command it’s no big deal.
The Most Serious Sin
What is the most serious sin?
We love to put levels on sin, don’t we.
If you were asked what is the worst sin you could do what would you answer?
Is it murder?
Adultery?
Sexual Sin?
According to Jesus it’s none of those.
It seems to me that if the Great Commandment is to love the Lord your God with all our hearts, soul, mind, and strength, the great transgression is the failure to keep this commandment.
That’s scary, considering I have not truly kept this commandment for five minutes in my life!
Have I ever really loved God with my whole heart, where nothing gets in the way of my love for Him? Has my soul truly ever overflowed with affection for God? Often my mind is lazy with respect to understanding God’s Word.
Thank goodness for Jesus!
Were it not for Him I would be completely lost when it come to living my life by God’s commands.
Jesus is the only one to have ever truly lived like this!
The Great Commandment at it’s Fullest
Jesus ties another aspect into his definition of our true calling as created beings.
We are to love our neighbours.
b.
So if we love God with our whole self, the manifestation of that love for God, is loving others.
This summarizes the entire Christian faith.
Love God, love others.
c.
How we treat people shows how we love God.
It exposes our true self.
Listen to how the text continues in Deuteronomy.
We are called to live the great commandment and pass it our to our children!
To burn it on our hearts.
d.
When we receive Christ through faith in Him, His Spirit lives in our hearts!
e.
This means the commandment of loving God, is actually living in our hearts, it’s our true desire.
But we can only receive that desire if we place our faith in Jesus, He is the only one who has truly lived this love.
Close to the Kingdom
Jesus tells the scribe he is close to the Kingdom.
The scribe reacted well to Jesus answer, he even agreed with Jesus.
The scribe was putting love for God and others ahead of the sacrificial system of the Jews.
The scribe was admitting that religion was not the point, and because of the scribes anti religious response, Jesus tells him that he is starting to get it!
2. Loving God and our Neighbour Starts with Jesus
a. Jesus gives us the strength, the ability to love God and others.
b.
Because Jesus changes our hearts!
Which means He changes us from the depths of who we are.
Big Idea: Our priority in life is loving God with our whole self, the results of this is loving others.
Only through Jesus can we actually live this command.
Jesus changes our hearts!
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