4 words

Mark 12

28 One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate.

He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked,

"Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
 

 29 Jesus replied, "The most important commandment is this:

'Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD.

30 And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.'

31 The second is equally important:

'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

No other commandment is greater than these."

  32 The teacher of religious law replied,

"Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other.

33 And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself.

This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law."

  34 Realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him,

"You are not far from the Kingdom of God."

And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.

There you have it.

I talked about this before in this blog.

Jesus boils the whole thing down to 4 words.

In a time when Christians have made Christianity a whole lot of things that it is NOT, here's the DL of what Jesus thought it was all about...

Love God.

Love others.

That's it, folks.

That's the long & the short of it.

I didn't say that – Jesus did.

I wonder what our world would look like if we who claim to not only believe in Jesus but actually follow Him lived out those 4 words in our day to day lives.

Love God.

Love others.