1. BIB 121 History of the New Testament
What Is Most Important?
BIB 121
History of the New Testament

2. Shema (“Hear” or “Listen”) Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:4-5

3. “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts
“These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:6-9

4. The Pharisees and teachers of the law discussed exactly how this should be obeyed.
They would say the shema twice every day.
They would write out the shema and strap it to their arms and foreheads. (phylactery)
They would wrote out the shema and place it on their doorframe. (mezzuzah)

5. Laws of the Old Testament
The Old Testament has 613 laws:
365 negative
248 positive
But the Pharisees and teachers of the law kept adding laws to these, until it became very hard to know all the laws, much less follow them.

6. One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating
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?” Mark 12:28

7. Everything we do should be motivated by a love for God.
“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.”
Mark 12:29-30
Everything we do should be motivated by a love for God.

8. Our love for God is expressed
“The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:31
(Leviticus 19:18)
Our love for God is expressed
in love for others.

9. Loving him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
What does God want? What is most important to him?
Loving him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
Loving our neighbors as ourselves.

10. Memory Verse:
Mark 12:29-31