Jesus said it is most important to love God and to love people

Know God (v.29)
Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one….”

Jesus is talking to all – Jews who were very familiar with His words, and Gentile who needed to understand. An affirmation to the people of Israel that the Lord their God is the only God that there is. There is no other. And He is unique. The One and Only sent His one and only Son to die for the sins of the world, providing the one and only way of salvation through faith in Christ.

 Jesus said, The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. He is completely unique, one of a kind, and there is no other god besides Him. He deserves our one and only life that He gave us.

Love God supremely (v.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.’

Jesus’ response indicates that we must love God in four (4) ways—with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

• What does it mean to love God with all your heart?

When believers love God with all their heart, they strive to make every decision based on His glory, not our convenience or comfort. No split loyalties.

• What does it mean to love God with all your soul?

It means loving Him passionately, not in a lukewarm or fair-weather manner.

• What does it mean to love God with all your strength?

It means loving Him with all the power and energy we can muster; whatever physical strength we have; we should use it for God’s glory – to help others. It means whatever financial strength we have; we should use it for God – to give for His kingdom work, and whatever relational and social strength we have; we should use it to impact and bless others for Christ.

• What does it mean to love God with all your mind?

It means loving Him by studying Him as He has been revealed in His Word.

• • (2 Cor. 10:5) “…take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience….”
  • (Col. 3:2) “…set your minds on things that are above.”  
  • (Rom. 12:1-2) “…discern what is the will of God….”
  • (Phil. 4:8) “…whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

Love each other sincerely (v.31)
The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Love for neighbor is the second greatest of all the commandments. Point of clarification: Jesus is NOT saying that the most important thing to do is love God and the second most important thing to do is love people. Jesus is saying that loving God and loving people are equally important. We cannot separate the two. They go together. We cannot have one without the other.

“Though He gave a certain logical priority to loving God by mentioning it first, answering a question about the greatest commandment with two commandments shows that Jesus regarded the commands as distinguishable, not separable. That is, Christ held that we cannot truly love God without loving our neighbor and we cannot truly love our neighbor without loving God.”  (Ligonier Ministries, The Greatest Commandments) 

By quoting the Shema Jesus has already answered the question but expands upon the call to love, He gives one of the most significant expressions (or manifestations) of a true love of God. The second greatest command is: “‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

(1 John 4:20) If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 

Here is the cold, hard truth: How well we keep the first command will determine how well we keep the second; and when we obey the second, we show that we are striving to keep the first. We learn from other parts of Scripture that these commands are most important because all the other commands of the Law find their source in these two.

When I love God supremely and others sincerely,

• • • I will love my wife more sacrificially.
    • I will love your husband more humbly.
    • I love God supremely and others sincerely
    • I will love my children more patiently.
    • I will love difficult people more graciously.
    • I will love the church more deeply.

Jesus took these two commands: love God and love each other and treats them as if they are one command because they are equal. If we love God, we must love people. If we don’t love people, we don’t love God. It’s two sides of the same coin.

Mark 12:32-34  And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him.   And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”  And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Essentially, the scribe agrees with Jesus that the most important thing in life is loving God and loving others. And he qualifies this affirmation by saying that this is more important than all the religious activities combined; relationships with God and others supersedes all religious rules and laws. (v.34) This is why Jesus, discerning the man’s wisdom, answers him by saying, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

 But There is a huge difference between being near the Kingdom and in the Kingdom. How does a person go from being almost in the kingdom of God and actually being in the Kingdom of God?

(1) Repent of his sins

When we repent, we agree with God that we’re a sinner, that we have sinned against God, and that sin is what is keeping us out of God’s kingdom.

(2) Believe in Jesus as his Savior

Our sin separates us from God, Jesus takes upon Himself our sin and reconciles us to God.

Mark concludes by saying, “And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.”  Because Jesus has the right and the might. He is the only One with the authority to say these things.

Mark 12:30  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.’