And one of the scribes who had come up, and had heard them reasoning together, perceiving that he had answered them well, demanded of him, Which is [the] first commandment of all?
This scribe comes last, after priests, Pharisees, Herodians and Sadducees have each tried the Lord with questions and fallen silent. His question about the greatest commandment was a live dispute among Israel's teachers, but Mark also lets us see something stirring in the man himself.
Every group in the nation had already had its turn. Each one failed on the ground it claimed as its own.
After this, no one dared ask the Lord any question. Representatives of all classes came with their questions to test the Lord — priests, rulers, Pharisees, Herodians, Sadducees and lawyers. They only found themselves exposed and silenced. The Pharisee, who claimed to uphold religion, had not rendered to God the things that are God's. The Herodian, who claimed to maintain the political interest of Caesar, had not rendered to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. The Sadducee, who boasted in intellect, was remarkable for his ignorance. And the scribe, who expounded the law, had not kept the law. However opposed to one another, they are all united in opposition to Christ.
Scribes were the men who explained the law. Asking which commandment comes first was not idle curiosity. It belonged to a system that ranked the commandments.
The scribes believed that the commandments differed in value. Some, they thought, were worth more than others in making up the sum of righteousness a man ought to reach. Here the Lord answers without turning the question back to confuse those who asked it. Instead He establishes the two great pillars of man's responsibility. These are the unity of God, and man's duty towards Him and towards his neighbour. This was Israel's faith, and Israel's duty towards all. The Lord does not quote the ten commandments, but the great principles of the law as to the whole duty of man.
Matthew's account of this scene says the man came to test Jesus.
Mark lets us learn the exercise of that man's soul. Matthew tells us only that he came to test the Lord, as one of the representatives of the rebellious nation. But Mark shows us the man himself, and what was going on within him. Mark then shows us how the Lord took him up in the same way, saying to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."
Both motives can sit in one man at once, and often do.
How apt we are to fight with the truth just when it is gaining access into our hearts! And how often the thoughts that work together to move us are contrary to each other!
The Lord does not pick a winner among the ten commandments. He goes back to Deuteronomy, to one word that holds them all.
The Lord's answer brushed aside all their elaborate arguments and quibbles about one or other of the ten commandments. He went straight to the word in Deuteronomy 6:4-5. Here was a commandment that brought all the other commandments within its scope. God demanded to be absolutely supreme in the affections of His creatures; if only He were, everything else would fall into its right place. Here is the great master-commandment that governs everything. There was great encouragement in this commandment. Why should God care about having the undivided love of His creature? Faith answers this question by saying: because He Himself is love. Being love, and loving His creature, even though that creature is lost in his sins, He cannot be satisfied without his creature's love.
The answer opens with who God is, before it says anything about duty.
Notice how vital the first words here are to the whole matter: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one." This is basic to all obedience on man's part. If the unity of the Godhead is not confessed, the very spirit of obedience is lacking.
The Lord gives two commandments, and He does not measure them the same way.
He sums up the heart of God's law in these two extracts. One is the love of God, which is unlimited. The other is the love of one's neighbour, not with all the soul and strength, but "as yourself." The first is loving God more than oneself, to the exclusion of every other object as a rival. The second is loving one's neighbour as oneself. In effect, he who loves God and his neighbour has fulfilled the law, as the Apostle says. Grace goes further than that — even to the total renunciation of self.
- Question. The scribes ranked commandments by value. This man asks which stands first. The Lord answers not from the ten commandments, but from the great principles that hold man's whole duty.
- Foundation. The answer begins with who God is — one Lord. Where that is not confessed, obedience has nothing to stand on.
- Scope. Love of God is the master-commandment that contains every other. He asks for it because He Himself is love, and where He is supreme, everything else takes its right place.
- Measure. Love God without limit. Love your neighbour "as yourself" — and grace goes further still, to the giving up of self.
- Man. Matthew shows the testing motive, Mark the movement of the heart. Both are true of the same man, and the Lord meets him where the movement is.
And Jesus answered him, [The] first commandment of all [is], Hear, Israel the Lord our God is one Lord;
A scribe steps out of the crowd of hostile questioners with an honest question: which command ranks first? Jesus answers with the words Israel recited every day. He states a fact about God before He names any duty, and commentators treat that opening line as the hinge for everything else.
Teachers of the law had a running debate about ranking the commandments. The Lord does not join it on its own terms.
The scribes believed that the commandments differed in value. Some, they thought, counted for more than others in making up the sum of righteousness a man ought to reach. This time the Lord answers without turning the question back on those who asked it to confuse them. Instead He sets out the two great pillars of man's responsibility: the unity of God, and man's duty towards Him and towards his neighbour.
The sentence Jesus quotes was not new to His hearers. It had a name and a fixed place in daily Jewish life.
The words quoted by the Lord in verse 29 and following are those of the Shema, which it was the duty of males to repeat morning and evening.
But the daily recital carried a demand Israel had not met.
It is true that Israel boasted in their great "Shema." In it Moses called them back to the privilege and the responsibility of what God had revealed under the law. "Hear, O Israel," Moses urged, "the LORD our God is one LORD," and then he summed up the ten commandments. But Israel was the "deaf servant" of Jehovah; and now God had raised up another Prophet.
Notice the order. The Lord does not begin with what a person must do. He begins with who God is.
Notice, though, how vital the first words here are: "Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord." This is basic to all obedience on man's part. If people do not confess the unity of the Godhead, the very spirit of obedience is lacking.
For Israel this line was not a private belief.
This truth lay at the very foundation of the Jewish way of life. It was the great centre round which the people were to rally. As long as they held it, they were a happy, prosperous, fruitful people; but when it was let go, all was gone. It was their great national defence, and the thing that was to mark them off from all the nations of the east.
In the ESV the line reads "the Lord our God, the Lord is one"; older versions render it "one Lord." The Hebrew sets a plural word for God beside a singular name for the Lord.
God, who gave speech to our first parents, must have designed this special plural for a very definite purpose. With that in mind the verse reads: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD [Jehovah, singular] our God [Elohim, plural] is one LORD [Jehovah, singular]." Here is a striking statement of the Oneness of God, yet with equal care it gives a very clear and unmistakable hint of the truth of the Holy Trinity — Father, Son and Holy Spirit, One in Three, and Three in One, ONE GOD.
The scribe agreed with the answer. One thing still escaped him.
The Lord told him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." However, the questioner did not realise that He who stood before him in that hour was Jehovah Himself, the giver of the law.
After the truth about God comes the command to love Him. That command hits a problem.
The law commands man to love God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his strength, and with all his mind. But the commandment, just as it stands, achieves nothing, because in this case man is a sinner and loveless. No law ever produced or called out love. It may demand but cannot create love.
God closes the gap from His own side.
How glad are our hearts that He desires nothing less! How we bless His holy name that His love, fully proved, has produced love. What the law could not do, His love has done.
- Hear first. The greatest commandment opens with a call to listen, not to act. God tells Israel who He is before He tells them what to do.
- One Lord. That confession was Israel's centre and defence. While they held it they flourished. When they let it go, everything went with it.
- Then obey. Obedience grows out of that confession. Where people do not confess the unity of the Godhead, the very spirit of obedience is missing.
- Then love. What follows asks for the whole person, and law can demand love without ever creating it.
- Then Christ. The scribe agreed with every word and still missed the giver of the law standing in front of him. His love, not the command, produces the love the law asked for.
and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thine understanding, and with all thy strength. This is [the] first commandment.
A scribe — a teacher of the law — asks Jesus which single command stands above all the rest. The answer reaches back to Israel's oldest confession: God is one.
The scribes had built a whole system of ranking commands, and the Lord's reply cut across it.
The scribes believed that the commandments differed in value. Some, they thought, were worth more than others in making up the sum of righteousness a man ought to reach. The Lord answers in this case without turning the question back on those who asked it, to their confusion. Instead He sets up the two great pillars of man's responsibility. These are the unity of God, and man's duty towards Him and towards his neighbour. The Lord does not quote the ten commandments, but the great principles of the law as to the whole duty of man.
The command does not begin with love. It begins with a statement about who God is, and that order matters.
When asking which is the first commandment, he evidently has in mind that which is first in importance. The Lord's answer is from Deuteronomy 6:5. Notice, though, how vital the first words are here: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one." This is basic to all obedience on man's part. If the unity of the Godhead is not confessed, the very spirit of obedience is lacking.
The claim behind the command belongs to the Creator, and it reaches the whole inner man:
If there is only one God, there is no other to divide the heart with; and the Lord claims the whole of it in the most absolute way. The words stand for the inner man, with all his affections, and in their full energy. This is the reasonable claim of the Creator: the full answer of the heart from the man He made. In His service alone do all man's faculties find their full occupation, rest, and satisfaction.
Heart, soul, mind and strength are not four separate boxes to fill. They name one whole person.
The law's demand was love. That very fact shows it was God's own nature which desired this, and that nature is love — "God is love." The law does not just demand love from the whole heart, as is sometimes said. It demands love from the whole being!
The second command that follows uses a smaller measure than the first, and the difference is deliberate.
He sums up the heart of God's law in these two quotations. The love of God is unlimited. The love of one's neighbour is not with all the soul and strength, but "as yourself." The first means loving God more than yourself, so that nothing else competes with Him. The second means loving your neighbour as yourself. In effect, whoever loves God and his neighbour has fulfilled the law, as the Apostle says. Grace goes further than that — even to the total renunciation of self.
A law can demand love. Whether it can produce love is another question.
The law commands man here to love God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength, and with all his mind. But the commandment, just as it is, is wholly unavailing, because in this case man is a sinner and loveless. No law ever produced or called out love. It may demand but cannot create love; it is not within the nature or power of law to do so. God knew this perfectly; and in the gospel He becomes Himself the Great Agent.
One person answered the demand fully, and He was the one speaking:
The sense of duty was perfect in Him, as also grace and divine love; One greater than these... here we find the perfect rule of walk and of the duty of man on earth according to the law — not the part that was obvious to everyone (that is, the ten commandments, which come to mind first), but principles scattered here and there through the books of the Old Testament, which shone out everywhere for Him.
There is a reason God asks for this love, and it lies in what He is.
In this commandment there lay an element of great encouragement. Why should God care about possessing the undivided love of His creature? Faith would answer this question by saying — because He Himself is love. He is love, and He loves His creature, even though that creature is lost in his sins. So nothing but the love of His creature will satisfy Him.
- One God — the command rests on the confession that comes before it; where God's oneness is not owned, obedience has no root.
- One whole self — heart, soul, mind and strength name the entire person, not a set of separate religious duties.
- One measure — love God above self, and your neighbour as yourself. Grace goes further still, to giving up self altogether.
- One failure — the law can demand this love, but it cannot produce it; in Christ alone the sense of duty was perfect.
- One reason — God asks for undivided love because He is love, and love is never satisfied with less.
And a second like it [is] this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is not another commandment greater than these.
Jesus has just named the first commandment — total love for God — and He does not stop there. He adds a second and closes the subject: nothing outranks these two, and the question left hanging is what "as yourself" really asks of us.
One commentator shows where the Lord found this second command, and why it grows out of the first:
For the second commandment the Lord referred the man to Leviticus 19:18, another unexpected passage. But this commandment clearly springs out of the first. No one can have both the ability and the desire to treat his neighbour rightly unless he is first right with his God. But love is the essence of this second commandment no less than of the first. To love one's neighbour as oneself is the limit under the law… However, "Love is the fulfilling of the law" (Romans 13:10), and this is said in connection with this second commandment.
People are quick to treat decency toward others as the whole of religion:
But men make the second first, last, and only commandment, because in this world there are few who have any respect for God. People are ready to assume they have done all that is asked of them. They act fair and square with their neighbours. They do not trespass on what may be supposed to be their rights.
You can read the phrase as a ceiling: love this far and no further. One writer warns that this reading destroys the very thing it tries to measure:
Some take the second part of the great commandment as though it set the limit of how far love to our neighbour should go. They think we need not love him any better than that. But if we weigh the obligation like this, we shall likely lose the very principle entirely. Self-love then becomes the judge of how far we go in kindness to our neighbour. The real principle is a holy urgency, in which another person is identified with you in interest, in unity of love.
The two commands do not ask for the same thing. God gets love without limit; the neighbour gets love on a human scale:
He sums up the heart of the law of God in these two extracts. The love of God is unlimited. The love of one's neighbour is not with all the soul and strength, but "as yourself." The first is loving God more than oneself, leaving no other object as a rival. The second is loving one's neighbour as oneself.
Because this single sentence gathers up every command about how we treat people, keeping it settles the rest at once:
In the variety of action specified here, man shows his habitual breach of the second table of the law, whose provisions are mainly toward man. Love is the fulfilling of the law; it thinks no evil, and does no harm. Love of one's neighbour therefore secures the keeping of the various prohibitions against trespassing on his rights.
Who counts as a neighbour? One writer says the parable of the good Samaritan turns that question around:
Some read the parable of the good Samaritan and conclude too quickly that the Lord had answered the question "Who is my neighbour?" Their idea is that wherever there is need, we should do our duty toward our neighbour. But notice: the man who fell among thieves is not spoken of as a neighbour whom the other acts toward. It was the Samaritan who was neighbour to him. The lawyer only wished to justify himself. He wanted a clear list of everyone who had a claim on him, so that he might have no outstanding debts… Where love is at work, it does not ask "Who?" It takes its own delight in acting, apart from the question of who deserves it. The one is meeting a claim; the other is meeting need, with no question of claim at all.
One writer sets the law's measure beside what grace asks:
The law makes your love for yourself the measure of your love for your neighbour. Grace asks you to give up yourself entirely. In a sinful world, I want something more than the former. I have to do with people who wrong, insult, harass and outrage me. Christ did more than love us as He loved Himself; He gave Himself up entirely.
So who has actually kept it?
But the Lord goes on to insist that the second is like the first, "You shall love your neighbour as yourself." Who does this? Today's "permissive society" says the flat opposite: "live for yourself; forget your neighbour." Only the Lord Jesus has ever obeyed this law.
- Source. Love for a neighbour springs out of love for God; no one treats people rightly who is not first right with God.
- Measure. God gets love without limit. The neighbour gets love "as yourself" — a phrase that ties you to him, instead of letting self-love set a cap.
- Scope. Love is the fulfilling of the law, and that is said about this very command toward our neighbour.
- Reach. The question is not who has a claim on me, but whom I will become a neighbour to — need, not entitlement.
- Fulfilment. Only Jesus ever kept it, and He went past it: grace asks not for love measured by self, but for self given up entirely.
And the scribe said to him, Right, teacher; thou hast spoken according to [the] truth. For he is one, and there is none other besides him;
A scribe — a teacher of the law — has just heard Jesus answer a run of questions meant to trap Him. He now does what no earlier questioner did: he agrees out loud, repeating Israel's oldest confession about God and raising the question of how far right belief can carry a person.
The chapter opened with flatterers who praised the Lord's teaching only to trip Him up. This man is different.
The scribe felt the force of this answer, as verses 32 and 33 show. The series of questions began with the confession, "Teacher, we know that You... teach the way of God truthfully." The Pharisees and Herodians said this in the spirit of hypocrisy. It ended with the scribe saying in all sincerity, "You are right, Teacher, You have truly said..."
Agreeing out loud took nerve.
It took real boldness to say so warmly that he accepted this truth — simple as it may seem, and is — that love to God and to one's neighbour is "more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." He said it in sympathy and admiration for Jesus of Nazareth, and he said it among those who were His open enemies.
"He is one, and there is no other besides him" is not the scribe's own invention. He is echoing the sentence that had held Israel together for centuries.
Here we have that great truth which Israel had a special responsibility to hold fast and confess — the unity of the Godhead. This truth lay at the very foundation of the Jewish system. It was the great centre the people were to rally around. As long as they held it, they were a happy, prosperous, fruitful people; but when it was let go, all was gone. They were called to confess this glorious truth in the face of an idolatrous world, with "its gods many, and lords many."
That confession is not a detached piece of doctrine.
Notice how vital the first words here are: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one." Everything about man's obedience rests on this. If the unity of the Godhead is not confessed, the very spirit of obedience is lacking. This is consistent with the words of the Lord Jesus, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). This involves therefore the unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as one indivisible God.
His answer is not the applause of a man scoring a debate. Something deeper moved him.
The scribe's conscience and heart are touched. He testifies to the perfection of the Lord's reply, and adds that to do this was worth more than sacrifices and burnt offerings. He was not far from the kingdom of God. A heart which understands God's thoughts about man loves what God loves.
This is not a special case. It is how God always weighs a person.
As always, in God's sight the moral state of the soul matters far more than an outward show of piety.
Everything the man says is true. It is still not enough, because of what he does not say.
In his conscience he owns that to love God and one's neighbour this way is far better than the outward forms and ceremonies of the law. Those were the things the Jews put such stress and value on. But there he stopped: he did not see Christ; grace, therefore, was unknown to this man. So all the Lord could say to him was, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." Still, he was outside... This scribe owned what was in the law, but he did not know what was in Christ.
What was missing was not a doctrine. He confessed that God is one, yet did not see that this God stood in front of him.
The Lord answered him that he was not far from the kingdom of God. In fact, all that he needed was to realise that the One who stood before him was the true God. He had an honest respect for the Lord Jesus, which was not far from a true submission of heart to Him.
Commentators differ on how his story ended. Some leave him outside. Another writes that we are not told he ever entered, but there is good reason to hope. He had come that far by seeking, and such seeking does not miss God's guidance.
- One — "He is one, and there is no other" was Israel's founding confession. It was the centre they were to rally around in a world full of idols.
- Ground — that oneness is the base of all obedience. Without it the very spirit of obedience is lacking.
- Sincere — the questions began with hypocrites saying "we know." They end with this man saying "You are right" — among Jesus' open enemies.
- Touched — his conscience and heart bore witness, not just his learning. God weighs that inward state above any outward show.
- Short — he owned what was in the law but did not see what was in Christ. "Not far" still meant outside. One thing was left: to recognise who stood in front of him.
and to love him with all the heart, and with all the intelligence, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbour as one's self, is more than all the burnt-offerings and sacrifices.
A scribe agrees with Jesus and repeats the answer in his own words: love for God and neighbour counts for more than all the offerings and sacrifices. So what does that love ask of a person, and can a man be right about the law yet stand outside the kingdom?
The scribe is not inventing a standard of his own. He is agreeing with words the Lord drew from Israel's own books.
The Lord's reply from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18 more than answered the question asked. The scribe agreed that the answer was true. He confessed that loving God and loving one's neighbour — in short, showing the divine nature — was more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
The two loves are not weighed the same way. Love for God has no limit. Love for your neighbour has a measure: the care you already show yourself.
He sums up the heart of God's law in these two quotations. Love for God is unlimited. Love for one's neighbour is not with all the soul and strength, but "as yourself." The first means loving God more than oneself, with no other object allowed as a rival. The second means loving one's neighbour as oneself. In effect, he who loves God and his neighbour has fulfilled the law, as the Apostle says. Grace goes farther still — even to the complete giving up of self.
The scribe is not dismissing the sacrifices. He is ranking them, and the ranking follows a simple logic.
The man saw that the love which leads to keeping these two great commandments matters far more than offering all the sacrifices the law required. The sacrifices had their place but they were only a means to an end. Love is "the end of the commandment," as an older translation of 1 Timothy 1:5 puts it. The end is greater than the means.
This was not a new idea. Israel's own scriptures had already put obedience above sacrifice.
For Saul, sacrifice is better than obedience; but, "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry." Sacrifice without obedience — solemn truth — is no better than idol worship... "I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings" (Hosea 6:6).
The setting matters. Saying this out loud cost the scribe something.
It took some boldness to declare his acceptance of this truth so warmly — simple as it may seem, and is — that love to God and to one's neighbour is "much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." He said it in sympathy and admiration for Jesus of Nazareth, surrounded by men who were His open enemies.
One writer draws the wider rule from this. God weighs what a person is inside above what he shows outside.
He recognises that giving God His due and acting rightly towards one's neighbour is worth more than all the outward forms and ceremonies of the law. As always, the moral condition of the soul matters far more in God's sight than the outward show of piety.
The scribe's answer is right as far as it goes. One writer marks what it still lacked.
But there he stopped: he did not see Christ; grace, therefore, was unknown to this man. Still, he was outside, for grace alone brings a person into the kingdom of God through the knowledge of Christ. And whether a person is near the kingdom of God or far off, it is destruction just the same if he does not enter it. This scribe owned what was in the law, but he did not know what was in Christ. He knew nothing of the grace of God that brings salvation.
There is one more step past a correct answer.
To acknowledge the teaching as true is one thing, to carry it out is another.
- Demand. The law asks for love — without limit toward God, and toward your neighbour as much as you already care for yourself.
- Ranking. Sacrifices were a means; love is the end, and the end is greater than the means.
- Witness. Israel's scriptures said it first. To obey is better than sacrifice, and sacrifice without obedience is no better than idol worship.
- Weight. God values the state of the soul above the outward show of religion. This scribe said so in front of Christ's open enemies.
- Gap. He saw what was in the law but not what was in Christ. Agreeing with the truth is one thing; only grace brings a person in.
And Jesus, seeing that he had answered intelligently, said to him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no one dared question him any more.
The scribe has just said out loud that loving God and neighbour matters more than all the offerings. Jesus answers with a measurement, not a welcome: near is not in.
Hostile questioners surround Jesus. He still credits an honest answer when He hears one.
We have the scribe showing what the character of the law is. In answer to his own question, the Lord shed the full light of God upon the law. But at the same time He added a remarkable comment on the lawyer. "When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, 'You are not far from the kingdom of God.'" It is a beautiful feature in our Lord's service — this readiness to own whatever was according to truth, no matter where He found it.
The scribe had moved from ritual to reality. That is the move the Lord measures.
He pronounced the man "not far from the kingdom of God," and this showed two things. First, a person may get away from what is outward and ceremonial, and come to see the importance of what is inward and vital before God. Such a person is not far from blessing. Second, important as that is, it does not by itself qualify anyone to enter the kingdom. Something more is needed: the spirit of a little child. The scribe was near the kingdom but not yet in it.
The compliment carries a warning. Being near the door is not the question. Being inside it is.
But there he stopped: he did not see Christ; grace, therefore, was unknown to this man. So all the Lord could say to him was, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." Still, he was outside. Only grace brings a person into the kingdom of God, through knowing Christ. And whether a person is near or far from the kingdom of God, it means destruction either way if he does not enter it. This scribe owned what was in the law, but he did not know what was in Christ.
Another writer traces the problem back a step. The scribe missed something about Christ because he never admitted something about himself.
The lawyer saw what was in the law. But he failed to see his own deep need, as one who had completely failed to meet the demands of the law. So he failed to see the glory of the Person of Christ, and the grace that was in Him to meet the need of those who have completely failed in their responsibilities.
Something changed in the man while he was talking. One writer sees a journey made in a few minutes, under the Lord's own eye.
It tells us — and this secret is very welcome to us — that the lights and shades of the inner kingdom are all under His eye. He knows how to value them. Something seems to have suddenly moved this man's spirit. He came to tempt the Lord, but before he went away he was not far from the kingdom of God. Surely in spirit he had taken a journey; his soul had made a deeply interesting passage.
Commentators differ on how the man's story ended. Some leave him outside. Another finds hope in the courage his confession took.
We are not told that he ever entered it. But we have good reason to hope that he had reached this place through a seeking that could not fail of divine guidance. It took some boldness to declare so heartily that he accepted the truth — simple as it may seem, and is — that love to God and to one's neighbour is "more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." And he said it in sympathetic admiration of Jesus of Nazareth, surrounded by His open enemies.
This reply ends the questioning. Each group that came to test Him had exposed itself by its own question.
After this, no one dared ask the Lord any question. Representatives of all classes had come with their questions to test the Lord: priests, rulers, Pharisees, Herodians, Sadducees and lawyers. They only found themselves exposed and silenced. The Pharisee, who claimed to uphold religion, had not rendered to God the things that are God's. The Herodian, who claimed to maintain the political interest of Caesar, had not rendered to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. The Sadducee, who boasted in intellect, was remarkable for his ignorance. And the scribe, who expounded the law, had not kept the law.
- Near. Move from outward ceremony to what is inward and real before God, and you come close to blessing. The Lord Himself says so.
- Not in. Near is still outside. Near or far, it means destruction either way if a person does not enter.
- Missing. The scribe owned what was in the law but did not know what was in Christ, and never faced his own failure to keep that law.
- Needed. Only grace brings a person in, through knowing Christ. It also takes the spirit of a little child.
- Noticed. The lights and shades of the inner life are under His eye. He credits truth wherever He finds it — even in a man who came to test Him. After that, no one dared ask Him anything more.