All Of Our Heart
Have you noticed how confrontational people are towards Christianity today? People are offended when we proclaim that there is but one God; even more so when we proclaim that there is only one Savior. His name is not honored; and, His teachings are ridiculed. Just because there are Ten Commandments, that doesn’t mean we have to obey them all, does it? None of this is new, though. The Sadducees were the teachers of the Law; yet, even they wanted to be selective in what they should obey.
One of them asked Jesus this: “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” What he was really saying was, “I don’t want to obey them all, so is there one you consider mandatory?”
Jesus answered him this way: “The most important one is this: Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these” (Mark 12:28-31).
Jesus reminded the Sadducee there is only one God, and you’re not him, so don’t think you can sit and judge what he says. It is in Him that we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).
Then, instead of choosing one or two “mandatory” commandments, Jesus summarized the whole intent of God’s Law. It’s all about His love for us and our love for one another. If you love God, who is perfection and knowledge and wisdom and beauty and strength and peace and love and all-together good, then you love all those things as well. And, if you love God with everything you are and all that you have and all of your strength, you will have dedicated your life to that which is good. And, if you have dedicated your life to that which is good, you will have indeed loved your neighbor as yourself.
To drive God out of our society is to drive out the only thing that is good. The same is true when we try to pick and choose where we let Him into our own lives. We are to love Him with ALL of our hearts and souls and minds and strength.