And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Mark 12:34
So what was the wise answer that this scribe gave to Jesus that placed him at the cusp of the kingdom? Simply put: he agreed with Jesus’ summary of God’s Law and expectations of humanity. The scribe had asked Jesus to tell him what was the greatest commandment, a classic theological stump question of Judaism. Jesus responded with a two-part summary of all that God revealed in the Law. If you kept them well, you could keep all the other commands. And they literally are the heart of God’s Law. Jesus’ summary:
- Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
- Love your neighbor as yourself
This summary honors the great Shema: Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One. As the scribe put it well: He is one and there is no other. To hold these two commands forth in life is to acknowledge and obey God well. It is worship lived out for all to experience.
Jesus taught that only one object of worship should be the focus of our hearts. We must love God with all we are. That is what worship is. It isn’t about songs or liturgy exclusively. Those will just be dry ritual without a heart, mind, soul, and strength devoted to loving God passionately foremost. Worship is always a heart activity before it is expressed in any outward manifestation.
And from that worship coming from our loving hearts, God leads our hearts to neighbor love. And who is my neighbor? Jesus’ teaching made that clear as well… even my enemy is my neighbor when viewed by the supernatural, redeeming love of God. Any fellow human being, fellow sufferer, fellow sinner, fellow image-bearer of the Creator should be loved as seriously as I love myself. Wow! Imagine a world where by Christ’s power and trust in the redeeming work of Jesus, people love well. This love as God commands would eclipse our petty differences of politics, race, gender, ethnicity, income, education, or any other human difference! That is how Jesus teaches God-lovers to love others.
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