The Greatest Commandments
Yeshua was once questioned by a scribe asking him what was the first or the greatest commandment. Yeshua interestingly answers with not just one commandment, but two. What is the first and greatest commandment and how does it apply to our lives?
Mark 12: 28-34
28 And one of the scribes coming near, hearing them reasoning together, knowing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first command of all?” (The ESV says ‘most important of all’)
29 And Yeshua answered him, “The first of all the commands is, ‘Hear, O Yisra’ĕl, YHWH our Elohim, YHWH is one.
30 ‘And you shall love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your being, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first command.
31 And the second, like it, is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other command greater than these.
32 And the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one Elohim, and there is no other besides Him.
33 “And to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the being, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than all the ascending offerings and offerings (sacrifices).”
34 And when Yeshua saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the reign of Elohim.” And after that no one was bold enough to question Him.
Yeshua answers the scribe with not just one commandment but answers him with two commandments! We can clearly see Yeshua is drawing his response to the sage’s question from the Torah in Deuteronomy 6: 4-8. This passage of scripture is known as the Shema.
Deuteronomy 6: 4-8
4 “Hear, O Yisra’ĕl YHWH our Elohim, יהוה is one!
5 “And you shall love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your being, and with all your might.
6 And these Words which I am commanding you today shall be in your heart,
7 and you shall impress them upon your children, and shall speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up,
8 and shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
Let’s break the Shema passage down into two sections.
1. These Words shall be upon your heart
In the Shema lies a promise of the new covenant. Deuteronomy 6:6 speaks in the future tense when it says, “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:6).
This means that we are to endeavor to keep the commandments by placing them on our hearts, but it could also be read to imply an assurance of the future. Jeremiah 31:33 promises that in the new covenant YHWH will write his Torah upon our hearts. He says, “I will put My Torah within them and on their heart I will write it” This means that YHWH will change our nature, circumcising our hearts, as it were, to remove from us the waywardness of our evil inclinations. Paul speaks of this transformation as “the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).
In another passage, Paul says,
“Therefore, if anyone is in Messiah, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
The Ruach Hakodesh (Holy Spirit) is responsible for writing the commandments of Yah upon our hearts:
Ezekiel 36: 26-27
26“ And I shall give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. And I shall take the heart of stone out of your flesh, and I shall give you a heart of flesh,
27 and put My Spirit within you. And I shall cause you to walk in My laws and guard My right-rulings and shall do them.
The completion of the promises of the new covenant awaits the coming of Messiah who is the “guarantee of a better covenant” (Hebrews 7:22).
Paul tells us that YHWH “gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge” (2 Corinthians 1:22)
A pledge implies a down payment on a sum which will be paid in full in the future. The down payment is the Holy Spirit within us now. The amount to be paid in full in the future is the Torah written on our hearts.
Observing The Shema
Traditionally this mitzvah (commandment) is observed by reciting the Shema twice a day morning and evening. Deut 6:7 when you lie down, and when you rise up.
Some may think the Torah is not specifically commanding me to recite the Shema twice a day or is it? The morning and evening recitation of the Shema is one of the 613 commandments found in the Torah. Do you claim to walk in Torah and are you diligently seeking to carry out the commandments that apply to you? We can’t just assume we talk about it and impress it upon our children day and night, we must be proactive in keeping his commandments!
John 14:15 “If you love Me, you shall guard My commands.
1 John 5:3 For this is the love for Elohim, that we guard His commands, and His commands are not heavy (KJV = grievous)
Yeshua teaches that to love YHWH is the greatest commandment because genuine love for YHWH leads us to fulfill all the commandments that apply to us as individuals and as a set-apart people. If we love YHWH, we will seek to please Him in all that we do. We will keep His commandments out of a desire to demonstrate our love for Him.
If we attempt to serve YHWH merely out of fear, for reward, or to earn salvation, our service is not genuine. Just as a husband wants his wife to love him, so too the Father desires His children to serve Him out of love—not merely fear of punishment or desire for reward. Love for YHWH results in obedience to His commandments, the Torah.
One the mantras in Christianity today is “God knows my heart”. While that’s a comforting truth it should also alarm us at the same time. YHWH does know our hearts, and this is one of the reasons He gave us the Torah. Even our hearts can deceive us, and we must allow the Words of YHWH to train us in righteousness, guide us, and shape us into the image of our Messiah Yeshua! HalleluYah
In a Christian world so betrayed by the heart, the tickling of the ears, we have allowed ourselves to slip into spiritual passivity
In his classic work ‘The Cost of Discipleship’ Dietrich Bonhoeffer defines for us what ‘Cheap Grace’ is.
Cheap Grace creates:
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- Lazy casual attitudes towards serving the Father.
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- Unknowingly creates lovers of self rather than lovers of Yah.
And become doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves!!
The greatest commandment points us away from this ‘Cheap Grace’.
- Cheap grace is something we bestow upon ourselves.
- Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance!
- Costly grace is the hidden treasure in the field.
- The pearl of great price
Forsaking all this world has to offer and living for Olam Ha Ba ‘The Kingdom’.
Let us SHEMA “Hear & Obey”
We will address the second greatest commandment: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” in our upcoming Fruits of the Spirit series.
Deuteronomy 6: 4-8
Ezekiel 36: 26-27
Jeremiah 31:33
Mark 12: 28-34
John 14:15
2 Corinthians 5:17
Hebrews 7:22
Titus 3:5
James 1:22
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“You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt becomes tasteless, how shall it be seasoned? For it is no longer of any use but to be thrown out and to be trodden down by men.”
