Mark 12:28-30 28And 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?” 29Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30And 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 last group from the Jewish ruling council to come up to Jesus was the scribes, represented by one who asked a tricky question that tested Jesus’ Bible knowledge. There is no indicator in verse 28 that the scribe had any animosity towards Jesus, like the other representatives, but appears a genuine seeker of the truth. He heard Jesus’s good responses to the others who tried to trick Jesus and may have thought that Jesus could answer one of his troubling questions. As a scribe, this man had spent much time and effort in learning the Hebrew Scriptures and would have been considered a scholar and expert in interpretation. But as often happens with scholars, he may have had so much knowledge and got lost in all the details that he lacked insight into wisdom and the simple message God gave. God gave his people many commandments; the rabbis counted 613 commandments in the Torah, with 365 prohibitions and 248 positive commands. They also differentiated between “light” and “heavy” (more serious) commands. One might even be confused by the Ten Commandments, which can be counted differently and even end up with eleven or twelve in the list. Of all of these commandments, which is the “heaviest” and most important?
Jesus’ answer is simple and comes from the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, which every faithful Jew regularly recites, some even on a daily basis. At the heart of this statement is the Jewish belief of monotheism, “one God.” Jesus was totally orthodox and was not bringing a new revelation about God but pointing out what the Jews already knew about God. Every ethical command rests upon this core theological claim. This statement implies God’s complete sovereignty, power, and knowledge. Changing this statement in any way results in humanistic interpretation and ethical compromise.
Verse 30 (Deuteronomy 6:5) gives the specific command that results from the faith statement of verse 29. Because of what we believe about God, we must respond in worship that acknowledges his supremacy in our lives. The original text in Deuteronomy only has three of the four elements Jesus lists, with Jesus adding with all your mind. How the four terms fit into the personhood of a human is not easy to distinguish and have some overlap in meaning.
The heart (kardias) in the Bible represents the core life essence of a person, where one makes decisions and chooses freely to love God. The ancients understood enough about anatomy to know that when a heart stopped, life ended. This part of a person may represent one’s will, emotions, and desires that drive a person to action. The soul (psychēs) is another nebulous term with various nuances in the Bible. It is used interchangeably with “spirit” and can represent that aspect of a person that communes with God and will live in eternity. The Hebrew term (nephesh) can mean “life” in the sense of what we have here on earth. The mind (dianoias) represents our thinking and is close in meaning to the heart. It incorporates our intelligence and learning, which sets us off from all other creation. Strength (ischyos) represents the effort of the will and how our decisions guide our actions. It is our capability of carrying out God’s will for us on earth. It can modify many aspects of a human being, including mental fortitude and physical endurance.
There are three keywords used with these terms. The word that guides this primary command and the second is love (agapēseis). This word is significant in the New Testament and attempts to capture God’s gracious action of sending his one and only Son to die on the cross so that we might have eternal life (John 3:16; Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:7). God defines love and calls his followers to emulate his love in all ways. God’s love is unconditional and represents his covenantal promises made in the Old Testament and embodied in the new covenant through Christ’s death and resurrection. The only way we can love like God is to have God in us, guiding us through his Holy Spirit, who will grow the fruit of love in us as we fully commit ourselves to Jesus as Lord and Savior.
The second word used with all four terms is all (holēs), meaning whole, complete, and everything about us. This commandment is first because it incorporates all other commands. Without obedience to this primary command, everything else we do deteriorates into humanistic effort. Common human goodness in treating others well can help build a livable society but leaves out the primary purpose for living. God created us to know his love and to love him fully in return. We grow into this love through our faith in God and obedience to his will in our lives. The word captures what is elsewhere in the New Testament called “sanctification.” The ancient command captures the heart of the whole Bible in its call to complete dedication of ourselves to God.
The third word is the preposition used with each statement: from (ek). This word indicates the source from which our love for God comes. Our whole being and existence must be involved in the love process. Everything we do, represented in all the other commands given in the Bible, must be a reflection of the call to love God. There is no better answer to the scribe’s question.
For older posts, click here.