Mark 11-12

Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall 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: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." And the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him....And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." Mark 12:29-32, 34a


In highlighting some of the last moments of Jesus' ministry, Mark shows the growing hatred of the Pharisees and chief priests for Jesus' confrontation of their methods of religion. They repeatedly tried to trap Him with tricky questions so they could denounce Him before the people. The religious leaders had a real problem - they were afraid of what the people thought. In the midst of these parables Jesus gave the leaders, we find a story of (soon to be) believing faith. We do not know if he ever trusted Christ, but one can say he really wanted to hear Jesus' answer. The others simply tried to trap Him; this man responded to Jesus simply based on a desire to hear the truth. Jesus always quickly condemned the self-righteous and hypocrites, but the response to the scribe is commendation.

God obviously always can see the hearts of men, but He tells us that the man responded wisely. An important point is, even in the midst of men who hated Him, there was a story of a man who truly believed God's law. We know today how God responds to men based on His word. When we approach Him with a desire to know what He wants, then it will be revealed to us. There is no mystery to God in this regard, and there are a number of Scriptures that can be applied, but these ones stand out:

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Hebrews 11:6

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." James 4:6

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Romans 12:1-2