The Greatest Commandment

The Greatest Commandment To Remember: Total devotion to God is our purpose in life Vocabulary • • •

Love: putting others first Sacrifice: giving up something, or doing without Devotion: commitment

Lesson The Jews were not finished questioning Jesus. A lawyer asked Jesus: "Which commandment is the greatest of all?" Jesus answered from the Old Testament: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Jesus added a second command, that we must love our neighbor as ourself. Then he explained that every other law of God was based on these two laws. What did he mean by that? If you love God, would you ignore him or speak badly about him? If you love your neighbor, will you steal from him or hurt him? No. the other laws (don't steal, don't take the Lord's name in vain) all are based on loving God or loving man. Note that true love is 1) total, and 2) sacrificial. You can't love God and something else. You must only love him. And you can't love God but do nothing for him. Loving someone means doing things for them, caring about them and their feelings. giving up your time and money and things for them. Discussion Point: What does God mean when he says we are to love god with all our heart, soul, mind and strength? Our heart is our affection. Our soul is our spirit, our conscience - it's what makes us alive. Our mind is our brain, the part that thinks things through. Our strength is our will, our desire and commitment. All these things must be devoted to God. It's not enough for our heart to love god but our will to be too lazy to do anything. Nor can our spirit believe in God but our mind have doubts. Discussion Point: Total Commitment. There are few people in life who are totally committed to something. What does it mean to be totally committed? Olympic athletes are totally committed to their sport. Everything decision they make hinges on whether it will help or hurt them reach their goal of being a good athlete. What they eat, how often they practice, where they go, and who they spend time with is all determined by whether it helps them meet their goal. Even the apostle Paul used Olympic athletes as examples of how we should live our life. "1 Cor 9:24-25 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever." How does this affect how we live? Every decision about what we do, where we go, and who we spend time with should be determined by whether or not it will help us reach our goal of pleasing God and reaching heaven.

SING: Be careful little eyes True or False True love versus false love 1. 2. 3. 4.

Having a crush on someone - true love or false love? Sacrificing for another - true love or false love? Using guilt to get what you want - true love or false love? Caring about people, even if they don't like you - true love or false love?

Activities • • •

Memory Work: Mark 12:30-31 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Godlen Rule Scramble Worksheet Greatest Commandment Worksheet

Review Questions for gameboard linguistic questions 1. What's a soul? 2. Define love. 3. Who recited the Greatest Commandment?

activity questions 1. Do an act of love for someone. 2. Act out Jesus listing the two greatest commandments. 3. Draw a heart.

emotion questions 1. If we love God, how will we feel about him? 2. Will God be happy sharing our affection? 3. How would you feel if someone said they love you, but served others?

application questions 1. Are some of God's laws greater than others? 2. Does this command leave room for other gods?

3. How should we treat other people?

fact questions 1. What four things must we love God with? 2. Who asked Jesus about the law? 3. What two things should we focus our love on?

review questions 1. What are all other laws based upon? 2. How do we decide whether to participate in an activity? 3. What does it mean to be totally committed?