Our text this evening is found in Mark Chapter 12, verses 29 through 31.
	And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord Our God is one Lord: 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. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

	These are the Words of Christ, as recorded in the Authorized Version, in His response to the question posed by the scribe as to which of the commandments was the foremost. In this response, Christ summarized the whole of the Ten Commandments, and the whole of our life on this earth. When one considers what the import of this scripture entails, one must marvel at the simplicity of the life into which we are called. Everything that we truly need to know, and have ever needed to learn is held in this brief passage. Christ has summarized the entire focus of what it means to be in Him, to be a Christian, to be called of God unto Sonship in our Lord Jesus Christ.
	Consider the opening element of the Lord's answer to the scribe. He places everything in its proper perspective. The Lord Our God is one Lord: Rather than discuss the virtues of the commandments themselves, Christ points to the very basis for the existence of Israel, God. Hear, O Israel, as he quotes Moses, God is our One God. God is our life. God is our being. God is our everything. The Pharisees, in arguing the tenements of the Law forgot God. They, in placing themselves as special above the heathen dogs, forgot that they were only different by the very mercy and calling of God. They placed more value in themselves and in their interpretations of the Law, than in God, Their God, the One True and Living God.
	This is a message to each one of us, as we are before the Lord. These words of Christ were not meant as a carefully chosen phrase to only the Jews. They need to speak to each and every one of our hearts today. Picture the crowd to whom Christ was speaking. It was a gathering of the religious elements of Israel trying to find fault in Him. They were using their knowledge and their studies of the Law in an attempt to discredit this One, Who was to fulfill the Law. If this Jesus of Nazareth was successful, their position of power and esteem would be ruined, so they were attempting to destroy Him.
	Now, apply this position to our lives. How many of us have done the exact some thing, in varying degrees, even in using the Lord's name? We place ourselves in some measure above others, labeling them as less spiritual, or less learned in the ways of the Lord. We focus on the supposed fact that we are well versed in the scripture and in the dealings of God and therefore deserve some element of standing above the rest of the flock. We even argue our worthiness with the Lord, and ignore Him and His Living Word when it knocks against our standing and our position. The church is filled with those who are the learned and the wise and the spiritual, but where are those who place God above themselves? Where are those who are not so learned as to forget that God alone deserves the glory for their standing in Christ? Where are those who seek, not a position, but a deeper and fuller knowledge of Christ living His life in them? Where are those who are not so conscious of this earth's glory that they have forgotten God's place in their lives as solely preeminent?
	These are not rhetorical questions to be filed away in some mental storage cabinet. This is the admonition of Christ ...The Lord Our God is one Lord: put away that sense of self-worth, that idea that we are something special unto ourselves. Realize that without God we are nothing but the dust that will pass away with the blowing of time. Know that God Alone is the focus of our lives. It matters not what our position, what our education, what our social status. What matters is God, and God alone! Does He have first place in our lives above everything else? Is His Word reverenced as the expression of God, or is it treated as an entity unto itself? Is our scholarship based on the desire to know Him in the greater revelation of Christ, or is it based on knowing more than someone else? 
	Christ brings to remembrance, in this statement, the fact that it was God Who chose us unto Himself, as He chose Israel in the days of old. By quoting Moses, He aptly brings to the conscious awareness of the scribes and Pharisees the deliverance of the Children of Israel from Egypt by God alone. This should also be witnessed in our hearts by the fact that it was the love of God alone Who delivered us from the slavery of sin and death. 
	As well, this quote would have indicated the very present state of affairs that were preeminent at the time Moses delivered it. The Children of Israel had turned their hearts from God and were worshipping other gods and idols. The scribes and Pharisees would be reminded of the golden calf and the various other worldly elements that had taken hold in the hearts of the Israelites. They would have received this quote as a reminder of the falseness with which the Children of Israel had treated the One True and Living God Who was their salvation. It should have caused a sense of lacking and repentance to envelop their hearts, if they were truly seeking after God and God alone. Such should be the case in us as we consider this truth of God expressed in Christ. We should realize the manner in which we have turned our backs on God, and given ourselves over to the elements and to the desires and to the attractions of this present realm. We should find a yearning in our being to once again know the God of our salvation in all His Truth. There should be an earnest desire welling in our beings demanding that the focus of our lives be removed from our selves and rather established in God and in God alone.
	This brings us to the second aspect of the passage before us. 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: Again I ask, I ask from my heart unto my heart, where are those to whom Christ makes this truth known, not as doctrine nor as dogma; not as a nice thought or concept, but as the very essence of life? Consider how our lives are changed as the focus is removed from us and placed fully in God, and God alone. I am being very deliberate at this point, if for no other reason than for my sake - God and God alone. There is that duality in my life that needs to be brought to an end. A duality that shares a life with God in Christ. Christ has an important place in my being, that is no issue. But is He the only aspect of my life?
	You see, that is the crux of what we are considering. I have a life at home, as a husband and a parent which demands that Christ be given, at least, nominal control. I have a life as a member of this body in which Christ has even greater control. I have a life at work, in my school, in which I call upon Christ at times, but less than I should. The issue is this, is this glorifying to God, to but share elements of my life with Him? The answer is no! Christ cannot share my life, He is my life! There is that element of the old self that still struggles to keep a separation between that which is Christ's and that which is me. 
	This statement by Christ, recalling the words of Moses, reiterating that ...The Lord Our God is one Lord:... puts us on guard as to the intentions of our hearts. We are set into the fact that God is preeminent and that all other things have their relationship in our lives only in line with the purpose of God, our God our one Lord. The beauty of the simplicity of Christ's response, is that of the committed reality that God is the Basis, the Substance, the Sustenance, and the Essence of our being. Everything about us, unto us, and in us is ordained by God to His plan and to His purpose. Whenever we are wrestling with issues and circumstances and dilemmas, the root of the difficulty can be traced to the root of our desires. Are we after God or after ourselves? Do we want God's way or our way to be preeminent?
	When we recognize God as our one Lord, the course of our daily living is put into its proper perspective. We no longer consider the relationship of being a father, of being a husband, of being a teacher, of being a worker, of being a member of the Body of Christ as distinct and separated elements of our lives which need to have distinct and separated commitments and provisions of our time. Rather than dividing our resources of being between these elements, rather than learning, as the world tries to inspirit us about how to function in the most appropriate manner in each of these areas, rather than accommodating these segregated constraints of our earthly endeavors, we recognize God and God alone. We live our lives unto Him, with Christ as the focus, and allowing Him to bring all these other aspects of our daily walk into line with the fact that we belong heart, mind, body and soul to Him. This is the simple truth with major and resounding import in our lives.
	No longer do we look at our existence within our family structure in terms of what we are doing right, and what we are doing wrong as father, as husband, as son, as any manner of title or position. Rather, we look to what will fully please our Lord, our one God in relationship to how He desires our testimony of Christ to be evidenced within the manner of our dealings, especially with our loved ones. The matter of "I am your husband" or " I am your father" is done away with at the cross of Christ, and the establishment of "He is God alone" becomes the focus of our relationship in our families. No longer is it a matter of what I want, or what I think, or what I don't like, or even, how I interpret it. It is rather, a complete desire after what would please Him alone in dealing in my life that is the focus. The only desire is to be the true testimony of Christ to this family.
	That concentration on what God is and what God desires and how God's glory will be forthcoming is the basis of our everything. We sometimes sing the song, He is my Everything, He is my all. But I wonder, do we sing it in the terms of the realization that everything about us, and everything in which we are part does truly belong to Him? Everything we are at work is because of God and unto God. How we deal with work-mates, how we deal with customers, how we deal with students and with parents and with our supervisors, all should and does reflect our relationship with God. We cannot be a Christian father, a Christian member of the church, a Christian member of society, a Christian teacher. We are either in Christ or we are not! If we are, then our entire life is His to guide and to direct, and everything we do will reflect His Hand of grace and mercy and His testimony. Our every source of thought and word and deed must be His thought and His Word and His action of Love. In everything, God is the source and the life of these bodies of clay. He is the One who is molding and He is the One Who is creating that which will bring glory to His name. 
	Our comfort rests in the fact that, despite our stubborn refusal to acknowledge Christ as more than nominally our life, He is working to establish Himself, without our help, as the very essence of our beings. This verse, then, is the very proclamation of what Christ is doing in each one of us who have given our lives to Him. He is teaching us, through the effective ministry of His Holy Spirit, that our lives are not partially devoted unto Him, but completely and securely His. In line with this, He has issued this charge unto us that we are to love the Lord with ALL our heart, with ALL our soul, with ALL our mind and with ALL our strength! He sovereignly excludes no area of our being that we can hoard unto ourselves. The spiritual truth is that we are now fully in Christ, even though the physical elements of this realm try to fight every advance of Christ in claiming that which belongs to Him. Fortunately, as stated by the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Philippians, Chapter 1 verse 6, we have the assurance that what God begins, He will carry through unto perfection.
	That reality brings forth the glory of the continued response of Christ to love God with every essence of this being. To hold forth the truth of God as more to be coveted than anything that this world can so feebly offer to replace Him.
	How many of us can say that we are truly desirous after this singleness of relationship with God? We are too busy in the realm of this earth to give God everything that He so justly deserves to have, that He paid for in redeeming us unto Himself. We are so caught up in the avenues of what we should do and want to do, that we forget what He has already done. We find ourselves in need of Moses' reminder that God is our strength and our salvation, that God is deserving of all that we say and do; that God is our life and our livelihood - Period!
	We so focus our attention on all the duties of this earth, that we forget the single duty owed to God, to love Him and Him only. Consider this as we chaff against this passage. To consider the duties of this earth as preeminent, no matter how worthy they present themselves, is to defame our God. We are placing idols of duty and honor and justice before our duty to love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength. We allow this world's order to have first call on our heart in dealing with the injustices and the horribleness of this realm, rather than to love God Who is the only One Who can effectively put that injustice to an end with the very Person of Christ, Who is all Just. We try to do things in our human endeavors, taking our hearts away from God because we are too busy doing something, rather than loving God to such an extent that our very presence in a room of unbelievers causes them to know that there is someone else in their midst with the Truth, and the Truth will set them free from their anguish and their strife. This is the way to deal with the ills of society effectively, not with human wisdom and striving, but with the sovereign witness of God being in control and omnipotently working to His glory in the lives of His people.
	The tawdry delights of this world's efforts to divide our interests from that of our Lord, is too often encouraged, even by those who profess to love God. The counsel is to accommodate and to assimilate in order to win the world. We are told that if we want to be effective witnesses of God to the world, we need to use the delights of this world to attract those of the world. How much and how deeply has this weed of destruction served to infest the single truth of Christ? When He answered the Pharisees and the scribes, He didn't accommodate them, nor use their methods. He said point blank and without mincing or couching words, Love the Lord with every fiber of your beings. Make Him the very essence of all that you say, think, feel, and do. No room for anything else in our lives but God and God alone!
	With each area of our beings, we are facing the same issue of life. Is it us, or is it God alone and Supreme? What a testimony to our neighbors, as Christ continues to expand the realm of God's effectual commandment to love Him and Him only ...Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. When we have our entire being set in God as our sole purpose for living, our neighbors will be the recipients of the expression of Christ in a living manner. It will have to be so! Our entire neighborhood will register the fact that our home is filled with a love beyond their comprehension. It will not be a matter of neon crosses and Bible thumping through the neighborhood. It will be a matter of life, of treating them in the manner that God would have us treat them, in His loving-kindness. Is this true of our neighbors? Are we being entreated for advice and for understanding, even by those who so often abuse us? This is the fact of being completely centered on God as our one God. Not letting even our duty as homeowners or renters be an end unto itself, but even in the matter of yard-work, doing it all unto God for His glory.
	Consider the testimony of Christ evident in the occupants of a home that is maintained not because the neighbors are harping on us, not because the homeowners association says we have to, not because it will satisfy the land-lord, but because God will be pleased in it. Even the chore of yard-work, becomes a ministry, and a joy when the purpose is set in the fact that God will be pleased by the up-keep of this domicile which He has provided.
	To many, this may be seen as too simple of a statement, but it was not too simple for Christ. He proclaimed with all the force of The Son of God, that in everything, our focus, our purpose, our being, our love is to be centered in God, and in Him alone. Emanating from God unto others, our lives will be reflective of the purity of Jesus Christ, the very Essence and Being of Love incarnate. On this basis, it is not too hard to love others as ourselves, because they are loved by God, Who so loved us that He gave His only begotten Son to die for us that we would be brought into this living relationship with Himself.
	In terms of human love, it is impossible to love another as ourselves, because we are the focus of that love. But, in the working ministry of the Holy Spirit, and the effectual cleansing of our beings at the cross of Jesus Christ, our focal point no longer is centered in our beings, but in God, our One God, and He is the One Who now sheds forth His mercy and grace and love, even into our hearts. 
	...The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord Our God is one Lord: 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. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.