Advent - Mark 12:29-30
Mark 12:29-30
29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart and from your whole soul and from your whole mind and from your whole strength.’
The Most Important Commandment
Deuteronomy 6:4-5
4 “Hear, Israel, Yahweh our God, Yahweh is unique. 5 And you shall love Yahweh your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your might.
Jesus quotes the Shema as the most important commandment - not really surprising... Yahweh's authority and divine kingship is the most important reality to affirm. Along with recognizing the authority and Oneness of Yahweh is the command the love him. ie. Not loving him is not recognizing his authority... Again, not a surprising thing to hear a king say.
So he says the most important thing is to love Yahweh Elohim (the Lord your God) with everything. This calls Paul's words about transformation to mind -
Romans 12:1-2
Therefore I exhort you, brothers, through the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may approve what is the good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God.
Paul says that to offer ourselves as a living sacraifice (strong language, no?) is our reasonable service... If we think about Jesus' words that the most important commandment is to love God with everything, then Paul's words here in Romans are honestly just a natural outpouring of that priority - that we are to offer everything back to him.
One lens through which to view this is simply gratitude... If you are given everything by someone, of course you'd seek to show your thanks. Part of the human experience for the Christian, I think anyways, is the maturing and realization of how much God has given, and how much he has saved me from. This maturity leads me to love God more deeply... It's as if my perspective on what he's done for me grows, so too my love for him grows.
The "everything" I have to offer increases as I become more aware of everything he's given.
Praise God for the mercies on my life, the greatest of which is the freedom to offer myself to him. In the bonds of sin and shame I'm not free to crawl up onto the altar as a living sacrifice. But God, in his grace, brought me to life. He animated my body, makes it sacred space, and in the life-giving power of Jesus' resurrection and the Holy Spirit I should walk myself to the altar and lay myself down. The most important command for me is to love him with everything, and praise the Lord I am free to do so.