LOVING GOD AND NEIGHBOR

THURSDAY, 07 JUNE 2007
Reading: Mark 12:28-34

Do you know that this was not a new teaching introduced by Christ? The commandments to love God with our entire beings and to love our neighbor as ourselves were given to the Jewish people over a thousand years earlier. You can find it yourself in the Old Testament.

In the Book of Deuteronomy (6:4-5) we find Moses saying, quote: “Hear, 0 Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

And in the Book of Leviticus (19:18), it says: “You shall take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countrymen. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Surprised? Yes, these two commandments were known by the Jews long before Jesus spoke them. He merely was reminding them of something God had commanded them through Moses. What he was really doing was asking them why they weren’t doing it.

If the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the rest of the crowd thought they were so holy walking in the footsteps of Moses, then why weren’t they doing what Moses told them to do? If Christians think they are so holy walking in the footsteps of Christ, then why aren’t we doing what Jesus told us to do?

“A scribe came up to Jesus and asked, ‘Which is the first of all the commandments?’” We know what Jesus replied, don’t we? Now all that’s left for us is to do it.