Listen up, little ones
Listen for the words love and Lord.
Reading
Mark 12:28-31 – The Greatest Commandment
Keys for kids
- A scribe asked Jesus what the most important commandment is.
- Jesus said to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, strength.
- Jesus did this perfectly. We don’t.
Questions
- Why is this the most important commandment?
- How can we do better at loving God with our all?
- What do we do when we realize we fail at this?
Notes
(See Saturday for authors. Today’s notes are from a commentary on Mark by R.C. Sproul)
The scribe was not wondering about chronology. He was not asking, “What was the first commandment that God ever gave?” Rather, he was posing a question of priority. He was asking, “What is the single most important commandment that God has given to this world?” He wanted to know the chief duty not just of members of the household of Israel and, later, the Christian community, but of the entire world, of every human being created in the image of God. … Jesus directed the man’s attention to the most fundamental summary of man’s obligation that God gave to His people in the Old Testament… you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart…
We ought not to love God simply for the gifts and benefits we receive from His hand. Neither are we to love Him simply for His attributes—His infinite wisdom, His limitless power, His peerless justice, and so on. Rather, we are to love Him for who He is in Himself. We do not really progress in the Christian life until we understand that we are to love God simply because He is lovely and wonderful, worthy of every creature’s unqualified affection.
It seems to me that if the Great Commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, the great transgression is the failure to keep this commandment. … Were it not for Jesus, I would perish because of this sin, and rightly so.
Swedish Method questions
Praise
Psalm 116a, 88a
Prayer
- Ask God to help you love him with all of your being.
- Give thanks for something from last Lord’s Day’s sermons.
- Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.