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About-Him.Com Devotional 09-17-2005
Http://About-Him.Com/ My Thoughts on the Life of Christ, from His Baptism to His Ascension. 193: The Great commandment Mt.22:34-40; Mk. 12:28-34 Mark 12:28 ¶ And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? 29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 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. 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: 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. 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question. With all of the various religious and political factions aligned against Jesus, this must have been an exhausting day for Him. They had challenged His authority to teach and heal and had tried to trap Him with various questions, that they might find a reason to accuse Him and have Him put to death. So far, they had not been successful. He had fended off their questions and had issued a couple of stinging denunciations. All the while He was ministering to and healing the people who had gathered to hear Him. His antagonist decided to give it one last try. When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had gotten the best of the Sadducees, one of their number, a scribe, decided to test Jesus with a question. Perhaps hoping to induce Him to say something against Moses, the scribe asked Him, "Master, which is the greatest commandment of all?" Jesus immediately answered that the first and greatest commandment of all was to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. The second commandment in importance is to love our neighbors as ourselves. If we do this we will have fulfilled all of the law and the prophets. The scribe was moved by the answer of Jesus and stated that to love God and our neighbor with all that we had was much better than an abundance of burnt offerings and sacrifice. Jesus told the man that he was not far from the kingdom of God. After that, they left Jesus alone, and questioned Him no more. Conclusion and Application: Deuteronomy 6:4-16 is known as the Shema and is recited daily as a prayer by devout Jews. Deuteronomy 6:4 ¶ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: 5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: It would be good for all of us to keep it in mind continually. God is One. He has no other God beside Him, above Him, or beneath Him. He is God and God alone. He accomplished creation by the power of His spoken word. He accomplished our salvation by condescending and walking this earth in the form and nature of a man. He poured out His life’s blood to pay the penalty for our sins. He ascended to the throne of heaven from whence He is ever listening to our faintest cry. He is coming again to take us to be with Him eternally, in a place that He has prepared just for us (John 14:1-3). What a God! We need no other! Some neighbors are a bit more lovable than others. We remember when a man asked Jesus, “Well, just who is my neighbor?” Jesus gave The Parable of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37 - See Par. 148) and then asked who was a neighbor to the unfortunate man who had been beaten and left for dead. Of course it was the person who had met the man’s need. Perhaps I should ask myself just what I have done to be lovable in God’s sight? I can’t think of anything. Jesus had taught the principal of loving our neighbors as ourselves in The Sermon on the Mount. See The Sermon on the Mount Matthew 7:12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets The more we yield to and love our Lord, the easier it is to recognize our neighbor and minister to them. 1John 3:17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 1John 4:20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? Much more could be said about those who loudly profess a great love for God and then ignore the plight of those around them, but we won’t say it because we may step on some toes, perhaps our own. Note: Hurricane Katrina has occurred since this was written, giving the writer a good opportunity to consider his own words. In About-Him
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If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?
Evian as in Evian water spelled backwards is NAIVE. Why do croutons come in airtight packages when they are stale bread to start with? Somebody Has Said
"We know that we have made God in our own image when He hates the same people
that we do." - Attributed to Anne Lamott
Keep Looking Up! Don and Marie Spooner About Him! Ministries Your thoughts and Inquiries Contact@about-him.com Subscribe to this devotional? Subscribe@about-him.com
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