One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “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 commandment greater than these.”
“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as oneself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
— Mark 12:28-34

~~~~~

With All: Golden Love
By Jennifer Kane

Love the Lord with every breath,
with heart aflame, untouched by death.
With soul that knows whose child you are,
anchored firm, yet reaching far.

Love with the mind—clear, awake,
thoughts surrendered for His sake.
Let wisdom bow, let reason bend,
to know the First, the Holy Friend.

Love with your strength—your hands, your days,
in hidden work and public praise.
In weary toil, in quiet rest,
love pours forth in doing best.

This is no fragment, no scattered part,
but the whole made whole, one beating heart.
Emotion, will, thought, and deed—
all entwined for the Master’s need.

Here shines the gold, the perfect way,
a love that lives in night and day.
To love our God, and others too,
with all we are—faithful, true.

~~~~~

Scripture: Mark 12:28-34

Over this series, we’ve taken a jeweler’s eye to the greatest commandment. We’ve examined each facet individually: the passion of the heart, the essence of the soul, the focus of the mind, and the effort of our strength. We’ve seen how each is crucial. But today, we step back to behold the complete masterpiece. We look at the whole commandment not as a checklist, but as a single, solid ingot of pure gold—the Gold Standard of what it means to love God.

In the ancient world, a gold standard was the measure against which all other currency’s value was set. It was the definition of true worth. In this conversation with a sincere teacher of the law, Jesus defines the ultimate standard for a life of faith. It’s not rule-keeping, not ritual, but radical, whole-life love.

Jesus’s answer does something profound. He weaves together Deuteronomy 6:5 (love God) and Leviticus 19:18 (love your neighbor) into one inseparable command. He shows us that the vertical love for God and the horizontal love for people are two sides of the same golden coin. You cannot have one without the other. A love for God that doesn’t result in love for people is abstract and disembodied. A love for people that isn’t rooted in the love of God is unsustainable and can easily become self-serving.

But notice how we are to love God: with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. This isn’t a sequential list; it’s a comprehensive picture. It’s the total mobilization of your entire being.

Heart (Emotion) + Soul (Will/Identity) + Mind (Intellect) + Strength (Action) = Whole-Life Love.

This is the gold standard. It’s a love that is passionate (heart), faithful (soul), thoughtful (mind), and active (strength). It engages every part of who we are. It’s not just a feeling, not just a decision, not just a theological concept, and not just busyness. It is all of them, all at once, directed toward God and flowing out to others.

The teacher of the law understood this. His response is a moment of stunning clarity: “To love him with all your heart… is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

He recognized that this whole-life love was the very point of all their religious rituals. The sacrifices were meant to lead to this; the laws were designed to cultivate this. But this love is the substance, while the rituals are merely the shadow. Jesus’s affirming response, “You are not far from the kingdom of God,” tells us that grasping this truth is the very gateway to the life God desires for us.

The kingdom of God is not populated by perfect rule-followers, but by whole-hearted lovers of God.

The gold standard is pure. Our lives, on our own, are not. We often love God with a divided heart, a conditional soul, a distracted mind, and a weary strength. The beauty of the gospel is that Jesus lived this commandment perfectly on our behalf. He loved the Father with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, all the way to the cross. And He loves us with that same perfect love.

Our calling is not to achieve this gold-standard love through sheer willpower, but to respond to the love He has first shown us. We ask the Holy Spirit to refine us, to melt away the impurities of our half-heartedness, and to shape us into people who love more and more like Jesus.

~~~~~

Heavenly Father, Thank you for the perfect, gold-standard love you have shown us in your Son, Jesus Christ. We confess that our love is often fragmented and feeble. We love you with parts of ourselves, but rarely with our all. As we conclude this series, we ask you to unite our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths into one single, purposeful direction: toward loving you. Help us to see that this whole-life love is the true worship you desire. May it spill over into a genuine, practical love for our neighbors. Refine us, Lord. Draw us closer to your gold standard, not out of obligation, but as a joyful response to your incredible grace. Thank you that in your kingdom, we are not far off, but are welcomed in through Christ. Amen.

September 26 2025