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the greatest commandment

Mark 12:30&31
"30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these."

In our study of The Law, we have turned to the Gospel of Mark, where a scribe had the opportunity to ask Jesus which commandment is the most important. Jesus answered with The Shema, that was taught to every Jewish child. It's an obvious answer, and it's an answer that the scribe would think is too simple. And, Jesus continues in today's verses. We can read these two sentences as a summary of two tables of the 10 commandments. The first being people's relationship with God and the second being people's relationships with each other.

In our study of the Holy Scriptures, it becomes tempting to look for complexities. Sometimes, even when complexity is not there. Many times, simplicity is the best. Yet, if we attempt to uphold these standards, we will soon see it's not that simple. And, if we are wise, we will want to better understand the 10 Commandments and Jesus's teaching. One of the BEST tools for this is ‎Luther's Small Catechism. Written in 1529 by Martin Luther, its question and answer format provides Christians with a timeless and easy-to-use guidebook that is applicable to all the various callings we have in life. You can read it online, and you can even download an app for your phone! It is wonderful. Check it out at 
https://catechism.cph.org/en/10-commandments.html
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