Mark
12:28-34
The
Greatest Commandment in the
Bible
12:28
"One of the scribes came and
heard them arguing, and
recognizing that He had answered
them well, asked Him,
-
- 'What
commandment is the foremost of
all?'
29
Jesus answered, 'The foremost is,
HEAR,
O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE
LORD;
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.'
31
'The second is this,
'YOU
SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS
YOURSELF.'
There is
no other commandment greater than
these.'
32
The scribe said to Him, 'Right,
Teacher; You have truly stated
that
HE
IS ONE, AND THERE IS NO ONE ELSE
BESIDES HIM;
33
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
HIMSELF,
is much more than all burnt
offerings and sacrifices.'
34
When
Jesus saw that he had answered
intelligently, He said to him,
'You are
not far from the kingdom of God.'
After
that, no one would venture to ask
Him any more questions.
"
-
This
is the Word of the Lord ... It
is meant to change the way
that we think, and the way
that we live.
Commentary
by Bob
Pardue
What
is the greatest commandment in
the Bible?
- Jesus
said it all in these verses.
If you love God and love your
neighbor as much as you love
yourself, the other 8
Commandments will
follow.
-
- However,
following these two
commandments is near
impossible for us as humans.
Not a day goes by that we do
not break one of these
commandments (or both) in one
way or another.
-
- In the
course of the day we may give
an ugly thought to the grocery
clerk who didn't "do it right"
according to our standards or
we may have inadvertently
failed to disclose that minor
engine problem when selling
our car.
-
- We most
likely didn't murder anyone
today but we may have murdered
their character by attacking
them mentally or even
verbally.
-
- The
fact of the matter is that, no
matter how good a person we
try to be, we can never live
up to the standards Christ set
for us.
-
- Are we
hopeless cases doomed to
failure? Yes and no.
-
- Yes
because we are human with
human feelings and human
thoughts.
-
- No
because we have Jesus to stand
in our place and to purify
us.
-
- If we
only put our trust in him
Christ will say to the Father,
"I will vouch for him (her)."
and all we have done will be
forgotten and
forgiven.
-
- Isn't
God Wonderful??
-
Love in
Christ
-
Bob
If you have
never made the commitment to
receive the love and
life-changing experience of Jesus
Christ, please take a moment to
go
here
and take the first
steps
to salvation.
Bob
Pardue
is a member of First
Baptist
Church
in Lancaster, SC. He is ordained
from Rich Hill Baptist in
Lancaster.
Want
to place this passage and
commentary on your website or
e-zine for
content?
This
article about the greatest
commandment in the Bible may be
freely reprinted or distributed
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and be included with every
reproduction of this report.
Bob
Verses are from Life
Application Study Bible: New
International Version
Comments are welcome.
Please email
me with any questions
or comments you may have.
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