These small group studies of the gospel of Mark 12:28-34 contain commentary, cross-references, Bible study discussion questions, and applications to encourage life change. Visit our library of inductive Bible studies for more practical studies on this and other books of the Bible you can use in your small group.
Mark 12:28-34 Bible Study and Questions – The Greatest Two Commandments
I. Love God and love your neighbors (28-34)
Discussion Questions
• Do you think this scribe was trying to challenge Jesus like the others?
• What is the most important command? Why is this the most important?
• What other commandments are connected to this one?
• How would you define “loving God?”
• How can you show love to God whom you cannot see?
• What does with “all your heart, all your soul, all your strength” mean?
• Is there any difference between these three things?
• What is the second greatest commandment? Why is this so important? Who does it include?
• What can you do to love your neighbor?
• Are you fulfilling these commands? What do you need to do to love God more? To love your neighbor more?
• What additional observation did the scribe make? What was Jesus’ response to it?
• What does it mean that he is not far from the kingdom of God?
Cross-References
Deuteronomy 7:9 – Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.
Deuteronomy 6:4-6 – “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
1 John 4:19 – We love because He first loved us.
John 15:12-14 – This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.
1 John 2:15-17 – Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
Verse by Verse Commentary
1. This scribe was sincere –
Mark 12:28 – And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”
Not all of the scribes and religious leaders were hostile to Jesus. We know from other passages that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea believed in Jesus. Others were surely either believers or at least on the fence. This scribe seems to be open to Jesus. There are several reasons to believe that his question was sincere and not a desire to trap Jesus.
Jesus answered it at face value. Often when they asked Him questions to trap Him, He asked them questions in return or ignored their question to get back to the heart of the issue. In this case, He simply answered it.
Secondly, the scribe agreed with Jesus’ answer.
Thirdly, he added the observation that loving God is more important than burnt offerings.
Finally, Jesus thought highly of the scribe’s answer and commented that he was close to the kingdom of God.
Even though most of the religious class rejected Jesus, not all did. Seeds were still being sown and some hearts were transformed.
Application – Do not be discouraged if most people reject you. Faithfully sow the seed of the Word and some will land on fertile ground.
2. The most important commandment –
This was a great question. According to rabbinic tradition, there are 613 commands in the Old Testament. These range from detailed steps on how to deal with mold to overarching life direction principles.
Each commandment was important and should have been followed, but how could someone go through all of those minute commands and still keep their eyes on the most important principles which guide all of the other commands? It was all too easy to become ritualistic and rules oriented. Jesus is about to tell the core commands in the Bible. These are the foundation from which all others flow.
Mark 12:29-31 – Jesus answered, “The most important is, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall 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: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
In Matthew 22:40, Jesus went further and said that “On these two commands, depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Jesus said that all of the law and the prophets stem from these two commands.
Reflect – Spend five minutes and list as many Biblical commands as you can think of.
Here are a few examples:
A. Do not worship other gods – Love God
B. Rest on the Sabbath – Love God
C. Do not divorce and remarry – Love your neighbor (wife)
D. Do not bear false witness – Love your neighbor
E. If you see your neighbor’s ox in a pit, get it out and return it to him – Love your neighbor
As you can see, the list goes on and on. Virtually every (if not all) command in the Bible is a specific way in which we need to show our love to God and to our neighbors.
3. Breaking down the most important commandment –
A. You shall love – People are commanded to love God. He is the Creator. He made us. He fashioned us in His own image. He sustains our very lives and our very world. Every breath is from Him. He also forgives and sanctifies and gives new life.
What should we do?
We should love Him because He first loved us. It is brazen rebellion to not love God. Loving God is right. It is what we should do. The words “you shall love” shows us that love is a choice, an action, and a decision, not a feeling.
B. The LORD – The original command in Deuteronomy 6 uses God’s covenant name, YHWH, which means “I AM WHO I AM”. He is the eternally existent and self-sufficient Supreme Creator and should be the Master of our life.
C. Your God – God is personal. He desires a personal and intimate relationship with each of us. He is not an impersonal force such as Hinduism teaches. He is not a concept. He is not a state of mind like New Agists may teach. He is not distant and uncaring like taught by deists.
He wants to be your God. He wants to be your Father. He wants to have a personal relationship with you. He cares about you as an individual. What is more, He sent His only Son to die for you. Because He is personal, He answers our prayers and He sympathizes with us in the struggles and challenges which we face.
Our faith is about a personal relationship with God, not a religion.
D. With All – To what degree should we love God? What would your families or friends say about how much you should love God? I have heard many say, “Having a belief is good. Just don’t be too extreme.”
The idea is that belief is good because it can give comfort or hope. Yet do not spend too much time, energy, or effort on it because your career is more important. This idea greatly lowers God. It makes Him out to be our servant, existing to help us when we need it.
Jesus says we are to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. Not just part or even 90 or 99%.
Reflect – What would that look like in action?
It means that we should put God first. He is the priority. You cannot be too extreme in following God because He is worthy of any possible sacrifice we could make. Other passages tell us that love for God means we are to obey Him.
John 14:15 – If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
If we love Him with all our heart, we should obey all of His commands, not just the convenient ones. We cannot pick and choose. We have to open up our lives and say to God, “Here I am, my life, family, money, and home, all of it is yours. Do with me whatever you want. I am here to serve you.”
Reflect – Is there anything you have held back from God thinking that this is yours?
E. Your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength –
Those show us the comprehensive nature of the love we are to have for God. It is to be inside and out, visible and hidden, in thought, and action.
We are to love Him with all of our mind.
This includes all of our thoughts. Do your thoughts honor God? Do not allow your mind to run wild. If a printer were hooked up to your mind to print out your thoughts for all to see, would you be ashamed? If so, then you are not loving God with all your mind. In addition, loving God with our mind means we are to make decisions, both big and small, out of a desire to serve and obey God. We are to put Him first in all the decisions which we make.
Application – When you make a decision always start with the question, “What is God’s will?”
Loving God with your strength
If we are only commanded to love God with all our heart then it would be easy to separate our “heart emotions” from our actions. A person might think that they disobeyed God’s command out of necessity, but still love God in their heart.
To pre-empt any possible word trickery, we are also commanded to love God with all our strength.
We use our strength to move and to act. Both tangible actions we see and intangible thoughts in the mind should be an expression of love for God. Loving God with all of our strength means everything which we do should be done out of a desire to please God.
In Bible times, there were many farmers. These farmers worked from sunup until sundown day after day on their farms. It was hard work and included cutting down trees, carrying heavy rocks, and tilling the soil.
Some may have thought they were too busy on the farm to serve God. Maybe when they became old and could not work in the fields anymore, then they would serve God. By that time, they wouldn’t have much strength left. We should use all our strength to serve God while we are young and while we still have plenty of energy.
Many of you are in the workforce. You pile up thousands of hours at your job. Some of you may be struggling because you want a promotion or a better career.
Reflect – Do you use up all your energy on yourself and your own career? Are you so tired from your work that you have no energy left to serve God?
Jesus didn’t say love the Lord your God with any strength you have left after you get off work or retire. He said to love God with all of your strength.
Application – Ask the Lord how He wants you to love Him and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading.
4. The second greatest commandment –
Mark 12:31 – The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus gave the scribe a bonus answer about the second most important commandment. This one is closely related to the first. Many times, we love God by loving people (Matthew 25:36-44).
While we cannot see God, we can see the people around us. Our love for God should motivate us to love them as well. There are many examples that loving the people around us is the way for us to love God.
For example, in giving. There isn’t any cash in heaven. God has no use for your pieces of paper with your president on the front of it. We don’t give to God by throwing money into the sky.
We give to God by giving to people in need or workers who are serving God.
1 John 4:20 – If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
I had three brothers so I heard this verse from my mother many times growing up. God requires us to show our love for Him by obeying His commands to love the people around us. When I heard this verse growing up, I sometimes thought, “Yeah, but God is perfect and my brother is not.” And yet Jesus said we should love each other as He has loved us.
John 15:12 – This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
We certainly didn’t deserve His love, but He loved us anyway. Another example is found in Jesus’ conversation with Peter.
John 21:15 – When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
He told Peter that if he truly loved Jesus, he should feed His sheep. Teaching and preaching the Word was the mission Christ called Peter to.
5. What is the loving thing to do? –
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus showed in the Parable of the Good Samaritan what the term “neighbor” means. It includes every person around us, especially those in need.
A. Love God first. This command comes before the command to love your neighbor because loving God is more important and the basis for all other commands.
B. Love your neighbor as yourself.
These two commands give us a blueprint for how to live our life and make decisions.
Application –
Whenever you doubt the right course of action, you can ask “What is the loving thing to do?”
• Should you scold your wife or not – “What is the loving thing to do?”
• Should you yell at your child or not – “What is the loving thing to do?” Sometimes it might be loving to yell at your child, such as if they are about to run in front of a car, but generally it is not.
• Should you visit your friend in the hospital or take a nap – “What is the loving thing to do?”
So many problems you face can be solved by asking two questions.
• “Is this loving God?”
• “Is this loving my neighbor?”
5. The scribe agreed with Jesus – Then he added the observation that these things are more important than burnt offerings, quoting 1 Samuel.
1 Samuel 15:22 – And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
His observation was spot on. This was the core problem with the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. They followed most of the commands of the law externally, but they didn’t do it from love. They often did it out of wrong motivations like a desire for recognition.
Their rituals became empty and meaningless because they did not love God with all of their heart. This is why loving God has to be at the center of all we do.
Do you go to church because you love God or out of habit or to see your friends?
Even religious exercises are not valuable if they are not done out of a love for God.
1 Corinthians 13:3 – If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Application – Evaluate your own heart. You can pray the prayer of David from Psalm 139.
Psalms 139:23-24 – Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
Ask God to increase your love for Him, to correct your motivations, and to give you the strength and will to obey all of His commands and truly love because He first loved us.
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