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28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 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: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.” 32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions. (Mark 12:28-34 NIV)
Happy Monday to you all ConCafe Family! May this be the start of a week in which we all work for God. May you, dear Reader, bless God and all of God's people is my prayer for you. Let us pray for those who need our prayers and let us pray for one another. Let us pray for our needs as well.
We have discussed that part of Jesus' stress is that His ministry was constantly under the strict scrutiny of all; those who loved and appreciated Him, and those who wanted to stop Him. And those loved nothing more than to question Him. And here is today's question. It is a Sunday school level question, meaning if you attended Sabbath school, paid attention, and loved God, you would know the answer. "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" Please keep in mind there are 613 commandments in Judaism. Which is the same number of seeds in a pomegranate, according to the rabbinical teachings. Please note there can be anywhere between 200 and 1,400 seeds, but the average number is 613 which prompted the rabbis to say there is a correlation between the commandments and the seeds. Now, most good Jews would normally say that each of the 613 commandments are important. To get Jesus to narrow it down to one may have made some of Jesus' enemies hope that He would mess up the answer and thus they could snag Him and condemn Him for not being a man of faith. Jesus, though, knew that the most important one was The Shema, the daily and nightly prayer said in most Jewish households. It served as a cornerstone faith. The prayer is simple and powerful. "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."
This prayer came straight out of Moses' mouth as he instructed the people of God about who they were and what was expected of them as they entered into the land God was providing to them. So, as Moses speaks, he stresses the need for them to hear, which means to receive that which God has shared with him to share with them. And the first thing they need to hear is that God is their Lord and He is our God, and unlike the gods of the neighbors, the Lord God is one. And what is expected of us in response to His being our God? We are to love Him with all our heart, our soul, our mind, and with all our strength. In other words there should no part of our very being which is not utlized to love God. True love takes focus. True love takes all of our heart. True love takes all of our soul, and all of our thoughts and all of the strength. God should be the key of our thinking, our feelings, our energy and drive. This, of course, was the answer the Jewish leaders were looking for.
Jesus shares what He says is second greatest commandment is, "Love your neighbor as yourself." And He says, "There is no commandment greater than these." And, if you think on this, if we truly love God as we should, then we should love our neighbors with the same kind of love; a deep respectful, reflective love not only for God, but for those who live near us. And if the world needed a commandment to bless it, it is both the first and second commandment. We cannot fail in loving one another. We have to have a healthy love towards ourselves in terms of self-care and respectful treatment of ourselves; and the same should be the same about how we love who are different from us. And the man responded with his thoughts about what Jesus had said, and Jesus blessed him with His reponse about how he stood in his relationship with God; "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And for the time being, this interaction stopped further questioning of Jesus.
Dear one, which of the two commandments is the stronger one for you? What can you do to strengthen the other? If we bear the name of Christian, it should be the brand which we represent to others, and that brand is all about love. Turn on the love for the world now!
PRAYER: Loving God, bless us with a double portion of love with which we can bless Your world. May we be all about doing for others and caring for one another. May we see others, especially strangers as those whom we need to bless with our love; in Christ Jesus we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Find someone who needs a special dose of love in Christ's name today.
Receive my blessing of joy and peace,
Pastor Eradio Valverde
