Mark 12:28-34
28One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” 29Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30you 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.’ 31The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; 33and ‘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,’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.
After the cleansing of the temple and the fig tree incident, the religious leaders ask Jesus under what authority He is doing what He is doing. In response Jesus tells a parable about a man planting a vineyard.
Some Pharisees and Herodians try to trap Jesus by asking about paying taxes but were unsuccessful.
Sadducees emphasized the Torah and they did not accept any teaching that is not contained within the Torah. They did not believe in the resurrection, since they did not find any reference to it within the Torah.
Some Sadducees try to trip up Jesus, but Jesus turns it around to teach the Sadducees that resurrection is taught within the first five books of the Old Testament.
Jesus’ teaching about the great command is recorded in Matthew, Luke and Mark. In Matthew and Luke, the question is asked to test Jesus, but in Mark this does not seem to be the case. Mark states that one of the scribes who has been listening to the exchanges between Jesus and others thought Jesus answered well and is moved to ask Jesus the question.
Mark is the only one who records that Jesus starts off by quoting Deuteronomy 6:4 – 4Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. Scholars think that in Mark’s time, there were Jews who thought that the Christians were preaching polytheism – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. It was important to stress that Jesus stated that there is only one God.
It is also interesting to note that to Deuteronomy 6:5 – 5You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might – Jesus inserts, “with all your mind”. This would imply that it is important for us to worship and love God intellectually, along with our emotions, our spirit, and with our body – That is, by our actions.
In recent times, many point out from this passage that there are three objects of love – God, our neighbors, and ourselves. Psychologists would say that we must learn to love ourselves before we can love others. I have also encountered Christians who interpret this to mean we should prioritize our needs and wants and use that as an excuse to get out of serving the church or others, or worshipping God.
This is probably not Jesus’ teaching nor how He acted. Most of us know how to put ourselves first, and that self-love gets more in the way of loving God and others than aids us to be more loving. There is no direct command in the Bible to “love yourself”, or “love yourself first so you can learn how to love others”.
This is in line with Jesus’ teachings in the latter part of this chapter – He denounces the greed and the self-love of the scribes, while commending the poor widow who donated all the coins that she possessed.
How should we love God with all our heart, with all our soul, all our mind and all our strength?
It implies that we love God with our whole self. We ought to love Him from our heart for what He has done for us. He loved us enough to send His Son to earth and onto the cross so that Christ would take the punishment for our sins.
Once we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us. This should stir up our spirit to love God from our soul.
Instead of just warm feelings, we should acknowledge God and His omnipotence and omniscience with our minds. Intellectually, we ought to acknowledge the lordship of Christ.
And if we acknowledge the lordship of Christ, then it should move us into action, to use our body and strength in the Lord’s service.
Later in this chapter, Jesus teaches us how the poor widow gave all she had to God. She is an example of someone who loved God with her heart, soul, mind and strength.
As to how to love others, Jesus has left us many teachings on this topic.
In Luke 10, Jesus gave us the parable of the good Samaritan on how to be a good neighbor – Risking life, time and money on a stranger in need.
In Matthew 5, Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
In John 13, Jesus washes the dirty feet of His disciples to leave us an example of how to love and serve one another. Our love for each other is supposed to be so apparent that the world would know that we are Jesus’ disciples.
In John 15, Jesus said, 12“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
Jesus was not just a great teacher; He practiced what He preached. Soon after telling us that the greatest act of love is to lay down one’s life for one’s friends, Jesus went to the cross for us.
Jesus taught love and His life was love. How can we not love Him in return and dedicate our lives to Him?
(the above is a summary of the message shared by Shun Takano during our worship of October 11, 2026.)
