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For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.

The Greatest Commandment 28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[b] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[c] There is no commandment greater than these.” 32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions. Read full chapter Footnotes Mark 12:29 Or The Lord our God is one Lord Mark 12:30 Deut. 6:4,5 Mark 12:31 Lev. 19:18 New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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My grandson loves lists: ‘Grandad, what are your top three fizzy drinks/footballers/curries?’ Similarly, the UK radio program Desert Island Discs, asks which eight recordings we would take with us if cast away on a desert island. We like to know what’s important to other people. This teacher asks Jesus for his Number 1 commandment. In reply, he receives the additional bonus of Number 2.

Jesus’ response is initially conventional. He quotes the Shemah, the declaration of faith that every pious Jew would recite daily.1 Our total being—emotions, spirit, intellect, and body—is to be employed in loving the one God. Everything we think, speak, and do is to bring pleasure to him. This is love on the vertical plane, love that ascends to the God who has created and sustained us. Then Jesus flips the direction by 180 degrees. He adds a quote from Leviticus, directing the love outward on a horizontal plane to those around us.2 We are commanded to show no less regard for those we live, work, and play with than we would show to ourselves.

There’s been interest in the media recently about the topic of altruism, looking to the needs of others before our own. This is a healthy development, a countercultural offensive against consumerism, and is worthy of commendation. Yet I’d suggest that this movement’s horizons are restricted. If the good I do stems only from my worldview and my resources, then whatever I can achieve has its limits. To look to God first is to open up the needs of our world to the limitless wisdom and resources of the one, true God. As Paul says, ‘How great are God’s riches …All glory to him forever.’3

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