Mark 12:28-34

6. THE TWO GREAT COMMANDMENTS 12:28-34

TEXT 12:28-34

And one of the scribes came, and heard them questioning together, and knowing that he had answered them well, asked him, What commandment is the first of all? Jesus answered, The first is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. The second is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto him, Of a truth, Master, thou hast well said that he is one; and there is none other but he: and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS 12:28-34

666.

What were the circumstances of the questioning of Mark 12:28?

667.

What was the motive of the scribe in asking this question?

668.

Why preface the greatest commandment with an expression concerning the nature of God? Cf. Deuteronomy 6:4 ff, and Leviticus 19:18.

669.

What is involved in loving God with all your heart? i.e. what is the heart?

670.

What is involved in loving God with all your soul?your mind?your strength?

671.

Specify areas of love involved in loving our neighbor as ourselves?

672.

In the answer of Jesus what was the first thing that appealed to the scribe? Why?

673.

Why mention whole burnt offerings and sacrifices?

674.

What is the meaning of the word discreetly as here used by Jesus?

675.

What kingdom was involved?

676

Had Jesus set up His kingdom? Discuss.

COMMENT

TIME,A.D. 30; Tuesday, April 4, same day as the last event.
PLACE.The temple in Jerusalem.

PARALLEL ACCOUNTS.Matthew 22:15-33; Luke 20:20-40.

OUTLINE.1. Love the Lord thy God, 2. Love Thy Neighbor, 3. Not Far from the Kingdom.

ANALYSIS

I.

LOVE THE LORD THY GOD, Mark 12:28-30.

1.

The Scribe's Question. Mark 12:28; Matthew 22:35.

2.

The Lord One Lord. Mark 12:29; Deuteronomy 6:4.

3.

The First Commandment, Mark 12:30; Matthew 22:37; Luke 10:27; Deuteronomy 6:4.

II.

LOVE THY NEIGHBOR, Mark 12:31.

III.

NOT FAR FROM KINGDOM, Mark 12:32-34.

1.

None Other God, Mark 12:32; Deuteronomy 4:39; Isaiah 45:6; Isaiah 45:14.

2.

More than Burnt Offerings. Mark 12:33; 1 Samuel 15:22; Hosea 6:6.

3.

Near the Kingdom. Mark 12:34.

4.

Christ's Enemies Silenced. Mark 12:34; Matthew 22:46.

INTRODUCTION

This was one of the busiest days of the Lord's ministry, a day of bitter conflict with his enemies right in the citadel of their power. After the parable of the wicked husbandmen, Jesus utters one more parable, that of the king's son (Matthew 22:1-14). There was but one of two courses before them. They will see their sins arid repent; or, being thus accused, and refusing to repent, they will be still more enraged against him. They refused to repent, and, filled with a desire for vengeance, they take counsel with the Herodians how they may compel him to say something that will refute his claims as the Messiah, or give ground for an accusation against him before the government. The Herodians first asked a question that they hoped would be so answered that they could accuse him of sedition; then the Sadducees attempted to involve him in confusion; then the Pharisees put forward a scribe to ask another, still in the hope that he would betray some weakness that would destroy confidence in his wisdom.

EXPLANATORY NOTES

I.

LOVE THE LORD THY GOD.

Mark 12:28. One of the scribes came. Matthew in the Parallel Account says he was a Pharisee and a lawyer, which was another designation for a scribe. The scribes were learned men who preserved, copied and expounded the Jewish law. They were called by Jewish writers, the schoolmasters of the nation. Many of them were Pharisees and members of the Sanhedrim. Having heard them reasoning together. The question of the Sadducees concerning the resurrection and the Lord's remarkable reply. See Mark 12:18-26. Asked. Matthew (Matthew 22:35) adds, tempting him. Not, perhaps, maliciously, but in the sense of testing on another question the wisdom of one who answered so admirably. I judge that he was neither a caviller, nor a disciple, but one curious to see what reply Christ would make to one of the puzzling theological problems of the day. Which is the first commandment of all? First in importance: the primary, leading commandment, the most fundamental one. This was a question which, with some others, divided the Jewish teachers into rival schools, and was a constant bone of contentionone of those strivings about the law against which Paul warns Titus (Titus 3:9). The Jews divided the commandments of their law into greater and lesser; but they were not agreed in the particulars. Some contended for the law of circumcision; others, for that of sacrifice; others, for that of phylacteries; others, for that concerning ablutions. The Jewish Talmud reckons the positive laws of Moses at 248, and the negative at 365, the sum being 613. To keep so many laws, said the Jews, is an angel's work, and so they had much question which was the great commandment, so that they might keep that in lieu of keeping the whole.

Mark 12:29. Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord. Our Lord begins with the creed of Israel. This passage (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) was one of the four places of Scripture inscribed on the phylacteries,Cook, It was called the Shema. To say the Shema, was a passport into paradise for any child of Abraham,Ellicott. This every devout Jew recited twice every day; and they do it to this day, thus keeping up the great ancient national protest against the polytheisms and pantheisms of the heathen world, the great utterance of the national faith in one living and personal God. This mighty text contains far more than a mere declaration that God is one, It asserts that the Lord God of Israel is absolutely God, and none other.

Mark 12:30. Thou shalt love. We have here the language of law, expressive of God's claims. What, then, are we here bound down to do? One word is made to express it. And what a wordLOVE! Had the essence of the divine law consisted in deeds, it could not possibly have been expressed in a single word; for no one deed is comprehensive of all others embraced in the law. But, as it consists in an affection of the soul, one word suffices to express itbut only one. But love is an all-inclusive affection, embracing not only every other affection proper to its object, but all that is proper to be done to its object; for, as love spontaneously seeks to please its object, so, in the case of men to God, it is the native well-spring of a voluntary obedience. It is, besides, the most personal of all affections. One may fear an event, one may hope for an event, one may rejoice in an event, but one can love only a person, It is the tenderest, the most unselfish, the most divine, of all affections. Such, then, is the affection in which the essence of the divine law is declared to consist.Brown. Heart, soul, mind, strength. We may understand this four-fold enumeration as a command to devote all the faculties to the love of God.Cook. Heart denotes in general terms the affection and will; affectionate choice, the love of conscious resolve, expressed with will, which must at once become a second nature. Soul is the individual existence, the person himself, the seat of the will, disposition, desires, character. The two words are united to teach that the entire, undivided person must share in that which it has to perform with the heart.Cremer's Biblico-Theol, Lexicon. With all thy mind. This commands our intellectual nature: Thou shalt put intelligence into thine affectionin opposition to a blind devotion, or mere devoteeism. With all thy strength. Enjoins the full and entire devotion of all these powers. Such is the first of the commandments, in the order of importance. Taking these four things together, the command of the law is, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy powerswith a sincere, a fervid, an intelligent, an energetic love. This subordinates the whole life to the love of God and brings the whole being into willing obedience. This is the first commandment. A precept so narrow as to measure the smallest thought of the smallest man; so broad, as to compass the mightiest outgoings of the largest angel; so perfect, as to bind all moral beings to the throne of God, and produce eternal and universal harmony and happiness and progress.

II.

LOVE THY NEIGHBOR.

Mark 12:31. The second is like. To complete the lesson, and to leave no room for perverse distinctions between duties to God and man, our Lord makes the second commandment the necessary result and complement of the first. The first is the sun, so to speak, of the spiritual life; this the lesser light, which reflects the shining of that other. It is like to it inasmuch as both are laws of love; both deduced from the great and highest love; both dependent on I am the Lord thy God. Supreme love to God is to manifest itself in love to men. Alike binding, the two are correspondent, not contradictory. He who loves God must love those who are in the image of God. Thy neighbor. On Who is my neighbor? see Luke 10:25-37, and James 1:27. The words were found, strangely enough, in the book which is for the most part ceremonial (Leviticus 19:18). As thyself. (1) Not as he does love himself, but as he ought to love himself. (2) After the same manner; i.e., freely and readily, sincerely and unfeignedly, tenderly and compassionately, constantly and preservingly. Cases arise where a man ought to love his neighbor more than his lifephysical lifeand has done so, sacrificing it for his fellows, his country, and the church, an imitation of the example of Christ and the martyrs.Schaff. None other commandment greater. The unity of the moral law prevents any discrimination between its precepts; it is one law of love, the hinge of the whole Old Testament revelation. There can be none greater. No one can love God without loving his fellowmen, and no one can truly love man without loving God. The former is the source of the latter. Hence the first table (the first five commandments) enjoins love to God; the second table (the last five commandments), love to our neighbors.Schaff. All duty springs from the single principle of love.

He only wanted (but the want was indeed a serious one) repentance and faith to be within it. The Lord shows us here, that even outside his flock those who can answer discreetly, who have knowledge of the spirit of the great command of law and gospel, are nearer to being of his flock than the formalists; but then, as Bengel adds, If thou are not far off, enter; otherwise, it were better that thou wert far off.Alford. This scribe saw that an outward, formal obedience would not satisfy God, but had yet perhaps failed to see that a heart wholly surrendered to God would require an implicit obedience, not only in the heart, but outwardly to the Divine will. If a man love me, says Christ, he will keep my words. The demonstration of love is a loving and faithful obedience, Whether this scribe finally decided to follow the Lord and entered into the kingdom, upon the borders of which he stood, we are not told, It may be that we are left in suspense concerning his fate in order to teach us how important it is that those near the kingdom should enter in.

III.

NOT FAR FROM THE KINGDOM.

Mark 12:32. The scribe said unto him, Mark alone records the effect of our Lord's answer upon the scribe. It came home to his heart with convincing power. Doubtless he never before saw so plainly the deep spiritual truths of these commands. Entering into our Lord's reply, he cannot but express his approval, and even admiration.

Mark 12:33. Burnt offerings and sacrifices. The scribe gathers up in his reply some of the great utterances of the prophets, which prove the superiority of Love to God and man over all mere ceremonial observances. See 1 Samuel 15:22; Psalms 51; Hosea 6:6; Micah 6:6-8. The reply shows that he had either read the prophets with much greater discernment than most of his fellow scribes, or that his understanding had been enlightened by the teachings of the Lord. To say that love was greater than burnt offerings and sacrifices was a daring utterance, directly opposed to the rigid ceremonial ideas of the Jewish leaders.

Mark 12:34. Discreetly. With knowledge and understanding. Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. This man had hold of that principle in which law and gospel are one. He stood, as it were, at the door of the kingdom of God.

FACT QUESTIONS 12:28-34

776.

What two courses did Jesus place before the religious leaders of His day? Which one did they take? Why?

777.

Compare Matthew's account of this incidentwas this man a lawyer or a scribe? What is meant by such a designation?

778.

In what sense was this man tempting our Lord? (Cf. Matthew 22:35).

779.

How was the word first used in the question about the first commandment?

780.

What choices had some made as to which commandment was first?

781.

How many positive, and how many negative laws given by Moses? Why worry over which one was the greatest?

782.

What was the Shema? How and why was it used?

783.

Show how love encompasses all that God wants us to be and to do.

784.

Attempt a definition and illustration of the use of the four words: heart, soul, mind, strength as related to love.

785.

Why does our Lord make the second commandment the necessary result and complement of the first?

786.

Why would it be impossible to keep the first commandment without keeping the second?

787.

How was the question of who is my neighbor answered? Cf. Luke 10:25-37 and James 1:27.

788.

Give three characteristics of the love we ought to have for our neighbor.

789.

How were the tables of the law divided in content?

790.

Read 1 Samuel 15:22; Psalms 51; Hosea 6:6; Micah 6:6-8 and show how the scribe arrived at his conclusion as expressed in Mark 12:33.

791.

What did the scribe need to admit him to the kingdom?

792.

What had the scribe yet failed to see?

793.

Why are we left without a knowledge of what the scribe did?