Mark 12:33 "And to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." Read that last phrase again if you need to: "more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." In today’s verse a scribe affirms that loving God with all one’s heart, understanding, soul, and strength, and loving one’s neighbor as oneself, is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. This statement summarizes the core of the Law. Genuine devotion and ethical love outweigh external religious rituals. The verse highlights several key theological points: Supremacy of love . Heartfelt obedience is superior to ceremonial law. This echoes the prophetic word that God desires mercy and knowledge of Him more than ritual (Hosea 6:6). Comprehensive devotion . Loving God requires the totality of one’s being: affections, intellect, and physic...
Mark 12:32 "And the scribe said unto Him, Well, Master, Thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but He:" "the truth" In answering the scribe, Jesus named the greatest commandment and the second. Together those two commands interpret all the Law and the Prophets. Real faith shows itself in costly action toward others. Love for God and love for people are not separate paths; one flows into the other. Ritual without that love is not the point. We like hearing this. Then fear follows: we cannot keep so high a standard. We prefer a ladder we can climb, rung by rung, toward God, or at least above other sinners. Is that what Jesus is teaching? No. The scribe kept meticulous track of the 613 Old Testament laws. Jesus covered them all in two. Like the scribe, we think the things we do make us more acceptable to God. We take Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28:12 and make it about us climbing a ladder to heaven, when it is actually about Jesus coming d...