One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 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: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
-Mark 12:28-31 (NIV)

Jewish law in a nutshell: 248 commands of things to do, 365 commands of things not to do, for a total of 613 rules, all of which are covered in the first 5 books of the Old Testament (a.k.a. the Pentateuch/Torah). The “thou shalts” require action to bring you closer to God, and the “thou shalt nots” forbid action that creates a distance from God.

With that in mind, a scribe walks in on Jesus debating scripture with others in Chapter 12 of Mark. A scribe’s purpose is to interpret the meaning of scripture and its commands, so of course his interest is piqued. Whether to settle the question once and for all or to drag Jesus into it, I don’t know. But the Scribe asks Jesus the loaded question: What is the most important commandment? 1 out of 613. Nice odds, huh? As if there were a “right” answer anyhow.

Jesus responds however by quoting the Shema, a traditional Jewish confession of faith (“Hear, O Israel…”). Why? Probably to demonstrate his knowledge of tradition and scripture. In other words, he was setting up his answer by showing he had the authority to answer the question in the first place.

Then, he let his wisdom shine – all 613 rules, all of the 10 Commandments, all that jazz – are boiled down to one principle, one simple word: Love.

Instead of focusing all of one’s heart, soul, mind and strength on rules, Jesus says to focus them on relationships – your relationship with the Father, and your relationship with every, single person He surrounds you with. Simply put, when you love God and love others, every one of God’s rules is fulfilled. Love covers them all.

If you’re like me you probably know how hard it is to love people. Loving God (to me) is not so difficult most of the time, but loving everyone pretty much seems infeasible. But there’s a reason why Jesus says that loving the Lord is the most important, and loving people is second. When your love for Him is poured out from everything you do – your emotions, your intellect, your energy – it gives you the desire and wisdom you need to love others.

Want to know the secret to living a life God would be proud of? Base everything you think, everything you say, and everything you do on one question: Am I loving God and loving others?

To quote the great theologian Lenny Kravitz, you got to let love rule.