Embracing Holistic Love: The Greatest Commandment
Devotional
Sermon Summary
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Jesus answered, the first is, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this. You shall love the neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. [00:00:27] (29 seconds)
Then the scribe said to him, you are right, teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and besides him there is no other. And 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, but much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. [00:00:56] (27 seconds)
knowing that very similar passages are also in matthew and luke and and i've called this kind of a mitzvah for our time what is mitzvah well mitzvah is the hebrew word for commandment but it it kind of implies more than a a legal understanding of the word commandment a mitzvah is is really an expression of something so fundamental it it yes it's it's about our behavior and it's it's about a commandment around that behavior but it's also about as i say [00:01:55] (38 seconds)
And I think the Synoptic Gospels are really a powerful testimony to this. Because I say in all three of the, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, with Mark being the first that was written, there is this question. It's a bit of trickery, actually, that comes from the lawyers of Jesus' time, the scribes who sort of are challenging. Now, the Gospel of Mark seems to be, you know, there seems to be less of a confrontational tone than perhaps the other Gospels. [00:02:36] (33 seconds)
assert that fundamental principle so jesus is absolutely adhering to and indeed takes the commandments to another level and in those in so doing when he explicitly states this he's quoting from deuteronomy 6 verses 4 and 5 which say hear o israel the lord our god the lord is one you shall love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul with all your might now it's an interesting that that's from deuteronomy and in mark it's almost quoted word for word [00:05:09] (40 seconds)
So in addition to all those things, we are to love God with our mind, which is kind of a reflection of the Hellenistic period in which Jesus was alive in ministry and how these Gospels came to pass. Since Deuteronomy was sort of scribed and written, further revelations and understanding is reflected in this kind of fulsome understanding of the greatest commandment. [00:05:53] (29 seconds)
of this devotion, that it involves a love of God that is, as I describe it, to be every dimension of our being, our emotions, our intellect, our physical capacity. And it's not an ideal. This is really important. It's not some kind of ideal standard that's being talked about here, some perfectly sculpted physical intellectual form, Michelangelo a la David. [00:07:04] (39 seconds)
It is a furtherance of, as we've talked about, the uniqueness of God's covenantal relationship with each and every person, which includes the full spectrum of our emotional capabilities, our intellectual capabilities, our physical capabilities. It gathers all of that together, and it provides room for an incredible diversity. [00:07:43] (31 seconds)
a Nietzschean sort of over overhang on on all of these things instead it is a recognition of those unique elements why do I say that well what's the next thing Jesus says in addition to the Shema and the the the the commitment of every dimension of our being we are called to love God how through the love of our neighbors and what's Jesus doing here he's quoting from Leviticus 19 verse 18 you shall love your neighbor as yourself so [00:08:21] (38 seconds)
Again, part of the Torah, part of the commandment structure, Leviticus, this exhortation, this really strong requirement that in addition to all those other, that sort of sense of connectiveness to God, we need to live and witness that out in our witness, live that out in our relationship to others. So we have a combination of Deuteronomy, Leviticus, all being pulled together. [00:08:58] (35 seconds)
synthesis of the commandments fit nice in a social media world right where you can't go into too much detail you got to get to the essence but you can't in getting to the essence you can't lose the fundamental meaning so entire books of the bible are devoted to the commandments and jesus is confronted and he's asked for a synthesis and he provides one last point that we didn't necessarily read in our in the passage this morning but it follows with the synoptic gospels is the connection between [00:09:36] (37 seconds)
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Then the scribe said to him, you are right, teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and besides him there is no other. And 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, but much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. [00:00:56] (27 seconds)
knowing that very similar passages are also in matthew and luke and and i've called this kind of a mitzvah for our time what is mitzvah well mitzvah is the hebrew word for commandment but it it kind of implies more than a a legal understanding of the word commandment a mitzvah is is really an expression of something so fundamental it it yes it's it's about our behavior and it's it's about a commandment around that behavior but it's also about as i say [00:01:55] (38 seconds)
And I think the Synoptic Gospels are really a powerful testimony to this. Because I say in all three of the, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, with Mark being the first that was written, there is this question. It's a bit of trickery, actually, that comes from the lawyers of Jesus' time, the scribes who sort of are challenging. Now, the Gospel of Mark seems to be, you know, there seems to be less of a confrontational tone than perhaps the other Gospels. [00:02:36] (33 seconds)
assert that fundamental principle so jesus is absolutely adhering to and indeed takes the commandments to another level and in those in so doing when he explicitly states this he's quoting from deuteronomy 6 verses 4 and 5 which say hear o israel the lord our god the lord is one you shall love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul with all your might now it's an interesting that that's from deuteronomy and in mark it's almost quoted word for word [00:05:09] (40 seconds)
So in addition to all those things, we are to love God with our mind, which is kind of a reflection of the Hellenistic period in which Jesus was alive in ministry and how these Gospels came to pass. Since Deuteronomy was sort of scribed and written, further revelations and understanding is reflected in this kind of fulsome understanding of the greatest commandment. [00:05:53] (29 seconds)
of this devotion, that it involves a love of God that is, as I describe it, to be every dimension of our being, our emotions, our intellect, our physical capacity. And it's not an ideal. This is really important. It's not some kind of ideal standard that's being talked about here, some perfectly sculpted physical intellectual form, Michelangelo a la David. [00:07:04] (39 seconds)
It is a furtherance of, as we've talked about, the uniqueness of God's covenantal relationship with each and every person, which includes the full spectrum of our emotional capabilities, our intellectual capabilities, our physical capabilities. It gathers all of that together, and it provides room for an incredible diversity. [00:07:43] (31 seconds)
a Nietzschean sort of over overhang on on all of these things instead it is a recognition of those unique elements why do I say that well what's the next thing Jesus says in addition to the Shema and the the the the commitment of every dimension of our being we are called to love God how through the love of our neighbors and what's Jesus doing here he's quoting from Leviticus 19 verse 18 you shall love your neighbor as yourself so [00:08:21] (38 seconds)
Again, part of the Torah, part of the commandment structure, Leviticus, this exhortation, this really strong requirement that in addition to all those other, that sort of sense of connectiveness to God, we need to live and witness that out in our witness, live that out in our relationship to others. So we have a combination of Deuteronomy, Leviticus, all being pulled together. [00:08:58] (35 seconds)
synthesis of the commandments fit nice in a social media world right where you can't go into too much detail you got to get to the essence but you can't in getting to the essence you can't lose the fundamental meaning so entire books of the bible are devoted to the commandments and jesus is confronted and he's asked for a synthesis and he provides one last point that we didn't necessarily read in our in the passage this morning but it follows with the synoptic gospels is the connection between [00:09:36] (37 seconds)
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