We are continuing to examine how Christ lived and served the Father.

Jesus lived and served the Father by knowing how to prioritize His life. His priorities were: love the Father first, love everyone else second, and then deny self (Matt. 16:24-26, 22:34-40). Notice this writer did not use the words “love self,” because of how our culture applies them. Of course, God does want you to love yourself, but this is not done by putting yourself fi rst, as this world would have you believe but by denying yourself and becoming like our Savior. Loving yourself is following God’s commandments, so ultimately, you cannot love self unless the other two priorities are met first. This week, we are going to consider the first priority in Jesus’ list because without loving God first, you cannot have your life prioritized as Jesus did.

A lawyer, who was not interested in learning the truth, tried to trap Him with a question. This lawyer was a scribe, according to Mark’s account of the Gospel, and as such, he would have been very knowledgeable in the Law of Moses (Mark 12:28-34). Thus, he would have been the perfect person to word a question which seemingly had no proper answer, so the Pharisees could trap Jesus, proving that He was not the Messiah. However, their attempt backfired, and all it accomplished was to show that Jesus’ priorities in this life were right on point and His understanding of the Law was perfect.

It also proved that this lawyer did not understand the law as well as he thought, and his priorities were not on point with God’s. The lawyer asked the question, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” (Matt. 22:34). This question was asked Jesus with the purpose of having Him pinpoint one command, so that an argument could begin as to which of God’s laws was the most important; thus, they were trying to confuse the situation and muddy the water as to whether He really was the Christ and instill doubt in those who followed Him.

This technique is still being employed by the devil today to confuse the situation and instill doubt in Jesus’ followers. Do we not still ask this same question today with slightly different wording? “Which commandment is the most important—baptism, faith, or grace?” Is God’s answer not still the same as it was to the lawyer? “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37). Jesus did exactly as the lawyer had asked and gave one command from the law.

Deuteronomy 6:5 was Jesus’ answer: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength,” but this answer did not pinpoint the keeping of one specifi c law, as the Scribe had hoped, but the importance of all the law to Israel. It also pointed out the frailty of the question because in Deuteronomy, loving God with all your heart, mind, and strength was learning the entirety of the law and placing it in your own heart (Deut. 6:6) so that you could teach your children throughout their day (Deut. 6:7-9), showing and teaching them how God could never be forgotten in Israel (Deut. 6:10-12).

The weakness of the question is in the debate of which law is the most important, because all of God’s law is equally important and one cannot be a servant of God without learning, obeying, and then teaching their children all of God’s law without exception of one (Acts 20:27). Therefore, if God commanded it, then it is important and thus essential for salvation. One cannot love God with all their heart, mind, and soul if even one commandment is ignored and made less important than all the rest (John 14:15). All of God’s Word is essential for salvation. Jesus loved and served the Father by knowing how to prioritize His life, and He prioritized the Father and His law first. What are the prioritizes in your life?

Just something to consider.