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It seemed to be a typical day in Israel. Jesus was teaching the people as a crowd of scribes and other religious leaders looked on. We don’t know what the weather was like on that particular day, whether it was cool or hot, whether there was a breeze or not, but we do know that the religious leaders were getting pretty hot under the collar. With consummate skill, Jesus had just silenced one religious group, the Sadducees, who had come to the popular young Rabbi thinking they were going to outsmart Him. Suddenly, out from the crowd stepped a scribe with a question that he thought would put Jesus to the test.
If you have your Bible, maybe you’d like to follow along as I read to you from Matthew’s account of this story. Matt. 22:34-37:
“But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. 35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer [a scribe who had the particular job of interpreting the law], asked him a question, tempting him [or testing Him], and saying, 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy MIND.”
Jesus singles out loving God with the totality of our being—heart, soul, and mind—as the GREATEST commandment. Out of all the commandments in the Old Testament, loving God is the greatest, Jesus says.
Our Lord was quoting from Deuteronomy 6:4-5. This is what it says:
“Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD. And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might [or strength].”
Now for whatever reason, when Jesus quotes that verse from Deuteronomy 6, He changes the word “might” to “mind.” “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy MIND.”
I want to talk about that for a few moments tonight: loving God with all our MIND.