The Greatest Commandment

Mrk 12:28–34

1. 28 Jesus answered him, “The most important of God’s laws is this one, ‘Listen to me, you Israel people, God is the one biggest boss over everybody. He is the only one you have to take notice of.
2. 29 You have to love God properly, not just a little bit. You have to love God from right inside yourself. You have to love God in the way you feel and in the way you think. And you have to love God in the way you do things.’
3. 30 The 2nd most important of God’s laws is this one, ‘You have to love other people just as much as you love yourself.’ These 2 laws are the strongest and most important laws.”
4. 31 The Jewish law man said, “That is a good answer, Teacher. God is the number one boss over everybody. You are right to say, ‘There is no other god, just him.’
5. 32 We have to love God properly, not just a little bit. We have to love God from right inside ourselves. We have to love God in the way we feel and in the way we think. And we have to love God in the way we do things. This is really important for us. It isn’t so important for us to do ceremonies, like we burn meat to give it to him.”
6. 33 Jesus heard the man’s words and knew this man was thinking the right way. Jesus said, “You are thinking the right way now. You are nearly ready to let God be your boss.” After that nobody was brave enough to ask Jesus any more questions to try to trick him.
7. 34 Then Jesus taught people in the yard of God’s ceremony house. He said, “You know that David lived a long time ago, and now our law teachers tell us that God’s special person will be the grand-son to come of David. What do they mean by that?