Mark

By Joyce Webb 2023

Chapter 12 Verse 28-34

Verse 28 One of the Jewish leaders—a scribe—-asked Jesus a question.
(A scribe—one who writes—a man who copied the Old Testament scriptures onto new “paper”—or coped other Jewish laws.)

The scribe asked Jesus: “Which is the first commandment of all? (or which is the most important commandment of all)

Verse 29 Jesus answered —”The Lord our Lord is one Lord”.

Verse 30 “And you shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”

Verse 31 “And the second —You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
“There is no other commandment greater than these.”
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There are some important truths to think about here.
The Lord our Lord is one Lord.
The Bible speaks of God the Father, His Son-Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. They are not 3 Gods. They are One.

Example: H2O–water Shows itself in 3 forms. Liquid, ice-solid, gas–steam, vapor. Each form is still the chemical component of H2O.
The “essence”—what it is made of—is still the same—no matter what “form” it is.

God has shown himself in 3 forms also. Each form is of the same essence.
Our Lord is One Lord—the 3 forms of God are One God.
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You should love the Lord thy God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

A person is more than a body. We have within us– a spirit—soul. It will live forever—somewhere—heaven or hell.

Our mind is different than our soul. The mind influences the soul.

The heart might be thought of as our emotions—feelings—both are connected to our mind and our soul.

With “All that is within me” is the way we should love God.

Animals have a body and “spirit of life” —and —emotions and personality—but —the scriptures do not say they have an eternal spirit that lives after death.
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The second commandment—we should love our neighbor as we love our self.
If we love others—-we would automatically keep all the other commandments. We would not kill, steal, lie, envy—etc.
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Verse 32 The scribe answered—”That is true. For there is one God and there is no other.”

Deuteronomy 6:4 Moses told them–”The Lord our God is one Lord.”

Verse 33 The scribe said: “To love him with all the heart, and understanding, soul and strength—and to love his neighbor as himself—is more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

Verse 34 When Jesus heard his answer—he said to him—“You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

(This scribe understood that God wanted our hearts, soul and mind to love God. That is God’s desire and goal for each person.

The animal offerings and sacrifices were to remind the people of their sin. To remind them—that sin had a death penalty and punishment for it.

A person who loves God with all their heart, soul, mind—is not going to do sin.

That is the whole point—and goal.

Do not sin—disobey—go your own way–but rather go God’s way.

God’s way—has our best in mind for us. Our own way will bring bad things and destruction.

When Jesus told the scribe that he was not far from the kingdom of God—he meant that the scribe understood that God wanted us—our hearts, mind, soul to worship God.

But Jesus also saw that the scribe had not come to the place where he was willing to believe that Jesus was God’s Son. He was not willing to believe in Jesus.