Mark 12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

The question was, what is the first commandment of all, which means which is the most important. So Jesus gives the first commandment. Or did He?

Exodus 20:2-3 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Is that the same commandment? Notice the (:) because Jesus wasn’t finished explaining.

Mark 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

What was important to Jesus was to correct Israel’s understanding of the Ten Commandments. They had heard them and failed to obey them because they didn’t rightly understand them. Hidden within those Ten Commandments is a verse which never appears on any list anywhere in all the tablet references located anywhere.

Exodus 20:6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

They leave the love out. Jesus knew how important that love was in the commandments and everyone, even today’s scholars when listing the Ten Commandments, leave out the love. You can argue the importance of the listed commandments all you like, but what is obedience without love?

Obedience without love turns into resentment. Resentment turns into rebellion and that is why Israel kept turning away from God. Israel’s history repeated that error over and over again. It is an error repeated by many besides Israel, even after Jesus sacrificed Himself for us, the ultimate act of love.

God so loved, God loved so, so God loved.

Now it is our turn.