Mark 12:28-24 THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE Intro: Ill. The Context. In the Jewish books of the Law, the first 5 books of our English Bibles, there are 613 laws given to men. Of these laws, 248 are considered positives in nature while 365 are considered to be negative. That is, some compel men to do certain things while others forbid men from certain activities. It is these 613 Laws that formed the basis for Jewish belief and practice and it seems to have been the practice of the religious elite, the Pharisees and the Scribes, or the doctors and the lawyers, (Ill. Luke 11:46 is often misinterpreted and misapplied.), to spend most of their time debating which of these 613 laws was the greatest in importance. Therefore, this lawyerss question seems to have at least been legitimate. Having said all that, it is Christs answer to this man that is of the supreme importance. Jesus takes all 613 rules and regulations and sums them up in 2 great statements of divine truth. Jesus, in essence, boils all the Law, the Commandments and all the teachings of the prophets down into one word: Love. This kind of love is defined and explained by the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 13:1-13, (read and comment). As he concludes his thoughts on the idea of love, Paul says that of all the things that remain in the world, love is the greatest of all. Tonight, I would like to take these simple words of Jesus and preach for awhile on the subject, The Greatest Of These Is Love. As I do, please be aware that Jesus takes our whole lives and our entire purpose for existing in this world and sums it up in these few verses. Lets look for a while at that thought, The Greatest Of These Is Love. I. V. 29-31 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GREAT COMMANDMENTS A. V. 29-30 The Supreme Commandment - In these verses, Jesus tells man that he has the responsibility to love God ahead of everything else in this world and that he is to love the Lord with every faculty of his being. Jesus begins by quoting what is called the Shema. This is a quotation of Deut. 6:4-5, this passage was quoted by every Jew every day during his prayer time. In doing so, he was reminding himself that there is no other God but Jehovah and that anything that occupied first place in his life ahead of God was, in essence, an idol, or a false god. (Ill. This is still true today. Like the Jews of old, we must be certain that God occupies the first place in our lives, ahead of every other love or allegiance, Col. 1:18! Ill. We say He is first, then we place other things ahead of Him and His will for our lives! Our actions speak louder than our words! In these words of Jesus, we can see that He intends for us to place the Lord God ahead of everything else in life. Notice areas in which we are to love the Lord supremely.
Posted on: Sun, 26 Jan 2014 04:44:05 +0000
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