The Great Commandment
Mark 12:28–34
Pastor Cisco Victa | Lebanon Valley Presbyterian Church, visit us at www.lebanonvalleypca.com
Sermon
One of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that He answered them well, asked Him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 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.” 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.
For several months, we’ve been going through the Gospel of Mark, and we’ve spent some time in the rather long chapter of Mark 12. Today, we come to the third question posed to Jesus. He’s been repeatedly and in many ways harassed by questions—I say harassed because there wasn’t a good motive in the questions asked of Him. But this third question is a little different, perhaps much more friendly than the previous two, though it’s still a question. Even from questions motivated by wrong, twisted desires, the Lord revealed His word and will, and today, He does the same. Let us turn to Mark 12:28–34 and give careful attention to God’s holy, inspired, and authoritative word:
This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.
We’ve seen two questions posed to Jesus so far in chapter 12, both with hostile, manipulative intentions. The Pharisees and Herodians asked Him about paying taxes to Caesar in verses 13–17: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” Then the Sadducees, who didn’t believe in the resurrection, asked Him a mocking question about resurrection and marriage in verses 18–27: “In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be?” As I mentioned, this next question is probably the most friendly of the three, asked with more sincerity, though other Gospel writers note that the scribe was still attempting to test Jesus. Unlike the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians, this scribe doesn’t come as part of a posse.
This passage appears in all three Synoptic Gospels, with minor differences but primarily the same content. First, let’s ask: Who is a scribe? A scribe was an expert in the law and the oral traditions surrounding it, skilled in reading and interpreting the Scriptures. This isn’t the first time we’ve encountered scribes in Mark’s Gospel. They’re mentioned multiple times, often alongside the Pharisees, typically in an adversarial role toward Jesus.
The scribe’s question is straightforward: “Which commandment is the most important of all?” What was he asking? According to rabbinic tradition, there are 613 commands in the Hebrew Scriptures: 248 positive (“do this”) and 365 prohibitive (“don’t do this,” like don’t steal, don’t commit adultery). This man isn’t asking which laws must be obeyed and which can be ignored. Rather, he’s asking, “What is the fundamental premise of the law on which all the individual commands depend? What is the single most important commandment God has given to the world? What commandment sums up the whole duty of human beings before their Creator?” The question suggests a theological debate among the scribes about whether the commandments could be prioritized. What’s in view here is not just the obligations of Israel or the Christian community but the duty of the entire world—every man, woman, and child born into this world, created in the image of God. What is their chief duty to their Creator?
Jesus’s answer is straightforward. He quotes Deuteronomy 6:4–5, the fundamental creedal statement of Judaism known as the Shema, often called the Great Shema. To provide context, in Deuteronomy 6, Moses addresses the people as they prepare to enter the Promised Land. He says, “These are the commands, decrees, and laws the Lord directed me to teach you to observe in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children, and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live.” In verse 3, he continues, “Hear, therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.” This is the preface to Deuteronomy 6. Then, in verses 4–9, we find the Shema:
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
For many years, the Jews took this literally. The words of the Shema were placed in a small rounded box on the doors of Jewish homes. The Shema was also worn by many Jewish men on their foreheads or wrists, particularly during morning and evening prayers. Every devout Jewish household recited these words daily: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.” Synagogue services began with this oral creed, and it was often the last words on a martyr’s lips. This is what Jesus quotes in response to the scribe’s question.
Understand that in the polytheistic Greco-Roman world, where the Jews of Jesus’s day lived, Israel alone held to monotheism. They worshiped one God, not many. The Shema begins with a confession: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” This is followed by a command involving the whole of who we are to that one true God. In the context of both Deuteronomy 6 and Mark 12, this starkly contrasted God’s people with the rampant paganism around them. In paganism, there were many gods, each with its own domain. If you were taking a sea voyage, you’d offer a sacrifice to Neptune, the god of the sea. If you were giving a speech, you’d sacrifice to Hermes (or Mercury in the Roman pantheon), the god of communication. If you were going to war, you’d want Zeus or Jupiter on your side. Each god had a specific domain, and you didn’t want to offend one by neglecting it. In Paul’s day, in Athens, they even had an altar to an “unknown god” to cover all their bases.
In paganism, you couldn’t afford to give all your attention, affection, and intellectual devotion to one god, because each had its own domain. But for Israel, God’s declaration that there is one God changed everything. Following this confession, the instruction is clear: “You shall love this one God with all that you are.” Deuteronomy 6 names three parts: heart, soul, and might. Some Hebrew scholars suggest that “might” implicitly includes the mind, but Jesus leaves no ambiguity. When He summarizes the Shema, He says we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind—the fullness of our understanding.
Both lists—Mark 12 and Deuteronomy 6—make the same point. If Yahweh is the one true God, then all our adoration and allegiance belong to Him. Notice in Mark 12, the word “all” appears four times: all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. This demands total, Godward devotion, a love encompassing all our attitudes, affections, and actions. Some identify the heart as the will, the soul as appetite and affection, the mind as understanding and intellect, and might as bodily strength. Together, with the intensive “all,” they imply a great, undivided love for God, unlike the pagans’ divided devotion to multiple gods. This love embraces all of life—not something you turn on at 9:50 a.m. on Sunday and turn off at 11:30 a.m. It consumes your past, present, and future, a love you delight to talk about and give yourself to.
The Shema commands Israel to love God not just with the heart but from the heart—not a superficial, casual, or cavalier affection but an undiluted, unmixed love from the very root of your being, unsurpassed by any other experience. It’s a simple answer, but heavy, isn’t it?
Let’s consider three reactions we should have to this great commandment to love God with all that we are and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus innovatively combines these two commandments, and we’ll see how. First, we should be convicted that we owe God all our love with perfection. These words should trouble us deeply. As a young man who came to the Lord very young, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard the Shema presented in a way that was troubling or terrifying, but it should be. We’re made aware that we owe God all our love.
I use “owe” intentionally to avoid a sentimental, mushy misunderstanding of love. I owe my wife my love based on the covenant I made with her before God. But I’m even more aware of this because I was in the room when she gave birth to our son, Phoenix. I’ve had various emotions when our children were born—crying, weeping, joy—but my primary feeling as she labored was apology for the pain she endured. Afterward, when she wanted things done at home, I could only say, “Your wish is my command.” Wives, you owe your husbands love for their faithfulness. Children, you owe your parents love and respect. But how much more does the creature owe the Creator all love and devotion? The Shema, echoed by Jesus, calls humanity to apply the fullest ability of their faculties—mind, soul, heart, and strength—to God.
Loving God with all my mind means seeking to understand the riches of His word. We should be stunned, disoriented by the weight of this commandment, aware of how little we’ve used the faculties God gave us to love Him. For example, as a teenager, I could name every baseball player from 100 cards thrown across a table, just by their face and uniform. Yet, how lazy was I not to memorize Scripture with the same intensity? How much of this book have I failed to study carefully? How many ways have I wasted my mind instead of loving God by mastering His word? How much bodily strength have I wasted, not directing my vigor toward God? How can we sit for hours watching Netflix or ball games but find one hour in prayer too long or check our watches during church? Our affections are divided. If God asked me, “Have you loved Me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength?” I’d have to say, “I’m nowhere near it.” My mind has turned to other things; I’ve been more interested in the things of this world than the things of God. “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.” None of us has kept this commandment for a single day. Worse, we’re often at ease with that, unconvicted because we see no one else loving God perfectly either. But this command should convict us that we owe God all our love with perfection.
Second, we should be convinced of our absolute and immediate need for a Redeemer. The great commandment summarizes the Mosaic law, which is permanent—not like ceremonial laws that have passed away. This law to love God with all you are and love your neighbor as yourself was binding before the Mosaic Law and remains in force. In Exodus 20, when God gives the Ten Commandments, He says, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” The first command is, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” This anti-idolatry command applies to all creatures because He is our Creator. To fail to recognize Him as our Maker and Judge is to deny our essential createdness. Every being made in God’s image is called to love Him with all their soul—not tepidly, but with all their strength, magnifying that affection.
At Lebanon Rescue Mission graduations, we hear men say, “I’ve given 30 years to the devil; I want to give the rest to God.” In prisons, inmates say the same. But that’s true of all of us before Christ. If you’re 13 and haven’t come to saving faith, you’ve given 13 years to the devil. All are born in sin. How many years have you given to the devil? Our immediate reaction to this text should be: We need a Redeemer, and we need Him now.
The second commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), is also from the Old Testament. Leviticus 19 lists ethical laws about respecting parents, observing the Sabbath, leaving harvest for the poor, not stealing, lying, defrauding, or slandering, and more. Verse 18 says, “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge, but love your neighbor as yourself.” This anticipates Jesus’s Golden Rule: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” These commandments are tied to loving God. You can’t love people without loving God, and you can’t love God without loving people. Jesus’s unique response combines them, showing their inseparability. You don’t commit adultery because it wounds another; it’s deceitful and selfish. Cheating makes your neighbor absorb the loss. Even private sins like pornography defraud others by shaping how we view them.
Jesus challenges the scribe’s self-assurance by pointing to the law’s strict demand: “Do this, and you will live.” But have you done it? Perfect obedience is required. Have you loved God and your neighbor perfectly? The Shema humbles those who think they’re righteous, exposes our idolatries, and drives us to God’s righteousness found in Jesus. To fallen humanity, this commandment is impossible, and the penalty is intolerable. Because of the law’s high standard, we need a Redeemer, found only in Christ. His work on earth was perfect obedience. He loved God and His neighbor perfectly, the blessed man of Psalm 1, who delighted in God’s law and meditated on it day and night. Have we come to Him?
Some think, “Of course Jesus loved God; He was Jesus, like Superman, whisked away to do right.” But this betrays Scripture. The Nicene Creed confesses that Jesus, for our salvation, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, and made man. He loved His Father and neighbor as a man, increasing in wisdom and stature (Luke 2:52). He disciplined Himself to memorize Scripture, prayed early mornings or all night, and was tempted in every way, yet without sin. What a Redeemer, what a Savior! Those who come to Him are hidden in Christ, and God deals with us as His children. By the Holy Spirit, He pours His love into our hearts.
First Kings 14:8 describes David: “He obeyed My commands and followed Me wholeheartedly, always striving to do what’s right.” Did someone miss David’s sins? No, David had a Redeemer, and God honored his consistent repentance. Similarly, 2 Kings 23:25 praises Josiah: “No king before him turned to God with all his heart, soul, and strength, fully devoted to God’s law.” Josiah had sins, but he had a Redeemer. Oh, the urgency for you to have a Redeemer today!
Lastly, this text should cultivate in us a desire for greater love for God. We are bound to strive for greater devotion, though we won’t reach perfection until glorification. Freed from the law’s condemnation in Christ, we’re not freed from its moral constraints. Paul speaks of being “under the law of Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:21). To love God and neighbor, we look to Christ. With God’s love in our hearts, we say, “Lord, give me an eye for heaven, not the world.” We ask: Where are my priorities? What consumes my time, mind, and heart? What do I hunger to be at 60, 70, or 80? Like Paul, who, gray-haired, said, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings,” do we desire a closer walk with God? Or are our minds consumed with portfolios, 401(k)s, politics, sports, and entertainment?
Church, let us cultivate greater love for God. One way is to make heroes of those who love God more than we do—living or dead. When I was a school principal in Florida, I’d play basketball with kids who said, “Mr. Victa, you’re the greatest!” I felt like it, dunking on them. But at a playground with men my age, I never saw the court. I realized my weaknesses when around those more skilled. Spiritually, get around people closer to God, more diligent in the Word. Read dead authors who gave up everything to preach the gospel, loving God more than money. John Calvin, reluctant to go to Geneva, finally said, “My heart I offer to You, Lord, promptly and sincerely.” Oh, that I may love God like that! Jesus, who loved His Father to the cross, said, “Not My will, but Yours be done.” Love begets love. God’s love begets ours because He first loved us. On the cross, He held nothing back, giving all in Christ. He has the right to call us to love Him with all our heart, strength, mind, and being.
As we close, the scribe responds, “You’re right, Jesus. This is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Jesus sees his wise answer and says, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” If I say, “You’re not far from my house,” you’re close, but not there. The wood wasn’t ready to burn but was drying out. The scribe was close because he began to see what God’s law commands. If he followed Jesus, he’d see Jesus give His life as a ransom for many. His entrance into the kingdom wouldn’t be by perfect obedience but by Christ alone—our way into the kingdom.
Have you come to Christ, feeling the weight of God’s law, crying, “What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me?” You’re not far from the kingdom. But don’t stay there. Being “not far” isn’t being in. Get in. Christ is the only way. Let’s pray.
Father, a day is coming when these two commandments will be perfectly obeyed. Your people will love You with all they are and their neighbor as themselves. There will be no more lies, deceit, oppression, or injury to those made in Your image. As we taste the foretaste of that day, cause us to love You more, Your creation more, our neighbors more, our wives and husbands more, because we love You. For those in Christ, thank You for softening our hostile hearts. Soften them more. For those close to the kingdom, bring them in quickly. Have mercy on us sinners. We pray in Jesus’s name. Amen
This sermon transcript has been lightly edited for clarity, readability, and flow while preserving the original spoken content. To listen to this sermon, go to The Great Commandment