Dave and Ashley Willis read Mark 12:29-31, the Shema, and show how loving God wholly means loving your spouse intentionally. They suggest breaking stalemates with kindness first and making daily gratitude a habit.
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Welcome to Summer of Scripture on the Naked marriage podcast. For 66 days in a row, we are releasing a daily devotional episode for your marriage. And over these 66 days, we're going to pull out one scripture from each of the 66 books of the Bible and talk about how it applies to your marriage. So if you listen to every single one of these episodes, you're going to have a comprehensive understanding of God's plan for your marriage. We encourage you to listen to everyone. Let's dive into today's scripture.
Hello there. Welcome back to Summer of Scripture on the Naked Marriage podcast. Again, we are newly in the New Testament and we are moving on to the second book, which is the Gospel of Mark. And we are in chapter 12, verses 29 through 31. It says this. Jesus replied, the most important commandment is this. Listen, O Israel, the Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your. All your mind, and all your strength. The second is equally important. Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these. And this again, you know, Jesus doesn't, doesn't ever like, diminish scripture from the Old Testament. In fact, he usually shares it and actually adds to it. And right here, he's quoting from Deuteronomy. And these are some really famous verses that are referred to as the Shema verses that actually, till this day, Jews actually, as children, memorize these verses. And a lot of times, you know, even some of the Hasidic Jews will have these, these verses written out on different garments of clothing. They'll have it written out, you know, on their doorways in their home. And it's extremely important. I actually did a seminary paper on this, so I know a lot about these verses, but it's just beautiful that Jesus, you know, who would obviously was, was a Jew and was raised in this Jewish home, he would have memorized these verses. You know, they would have been some of the first scriptures that he would have memorized. And so I think it's wonderful that he's. He's exclaiming that these are important. But then he adds, you know, love your neighbor as yourself. Again, he, He. He ups it, right? He gives us, like, what the Old Testament says, and then he adds to it. And I think it's so important that, that he, that, that we really, we really listen into the things that actually came out of Jesus mouth probably more than any other scripture. Wouldn't you say, sweetie?
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's God in the flesh, speaking now all the scriptures God breathed and inspired. And I mean, we can trust every word of Scripture. But, yeah, I do think it's something very special when it's a direct quotation of Jesus.
Yeah. And I love how, you know, he talks about this loving, you know, first of all, putting God first, you know, not having any other gods. And we see that all throughout the Old Testament. What happens when. When the Jews, you know, we're kind of following these other gods and really getting led astray many times by. We talked about intermarriage, you know, where they're marrying people who do not love the Lord and are worshiping these other gods. But I think it's even in today's society, it's like, you put God first, right? As Christians, we put God first. And not only that, but we love him with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our soul, all of our strength. And I shared in an earlier episode that in that particular verse, in those Shema verses, when it's talking about heart and mind, there's one word, there's that leb, which is a leb, L, E, B, which is a Hebrew word that really encompasses the heart and mind. And I did a study on it. I cannot remember the Hebrew word, but when it talked about all of your soul, it means really every part of your being. Right. Every part of you. Okay. And then your strength. It was really interesting when it talked about what this Hebrew word for strength actually, like, the whole meaning of it. Again, because. Because Hebrew words can't necessarily, like, the definition cannot be captured with just one equivalent, like, English word. And so sometimes you have to get, like, a broader definition to understand it. And I remember when I was doing this word study on this, that when it talked about strength, it wasn't like just physical strength or courage. It was meaning, like, everything that you could possibly make or have that would be in your possession that you could offer God, like, that you were willing to give all that up for Him. And I hope I'm explaining. Remember when I was explaining that to you? And so it's basically like every. Just every part of you, mind, body, soul, and even what you own, okay. That you will love, that you would give it all up for God, right? Because he gave it all up for us. And that's what we're asked to do, is to love him that much. And it's hard for us. I mean, he loves us that much. He never asked us to do what he doesn't first do for us. But I just Thought that was really interesting when I was studying that. And then, you know, he calls us to love, love our neighbor as ourself. Right?
Yeah. And I love that he turns, he turns the practice. I mean, he turns it from just saying it's not just about loving God, even though it's obviously most important. You can't say you love God and not love people.
Right?
Like, and a lot of people do that, you know, they'll say, I love God, and then they're just jerks. They're missing the whole point. They're repelling people from God. So Jesus is saying, like, how you treat people is really a reflection of how you say you love God. We got to love people too. And that starts right at home. The person you should be loving the most is your spouse. So don't fall into the trap of being cordial and polite to strangers all day or co workers and then coming home and being rude to your spouse. Coming back to just very specific marriage examples that love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. And then love, love your spouse, love your neighbor as yourself. Your closest neighbor is your spouse, right? I think we forget that, like they're talk about neighbor. I mean, you're not just next door, you're next to each other in the bed. Like, that's as close as a neighbor gets, right? And they should be the one who gets the very best of you.
And I love that because, you know, it's a great reminder for us all because I do think we tend to take advantage of, of assuming that our spouse knows we love them, of assuming that, oh, they'll get over it. They know I'm just in a bad mood. We just make these assumptions like, oh, well, they should know I love them, so I just don't have to actually show it and be kind to them and be cordial and pleasant or whatever. But I think we should try even harder for them because we love them to be more kind and pleasant and to do those things that the word asks us to do. And instead of making these assumptions and just not trying, you know, because we really do see just this one little thing of not loving our spouse, you know, as our closest neighbor, as the person that we pledged our life to, like not being kind to them, just that little thing of just making these assumptions can often lead to much bigger problems later in the marriage. And even divorce. I mean, even divorce. We've seen this happen for sure. And so it's really important that if you're watching this or listening to this right now, and you can't think of the last time you said a kind word to your spouse. Let today be the last day that that happens. Go to your spouse immediately and apologize. And then start being kind and kindness. If you have a hard time finding kind words, I encourage you to pray about this and really think about something you're thankful for. When it comes to your spouse, write those things down. Thank God for them. And then I would just make it your mission to every day thank your spouse for something. Start with one thing, then. Then go to two things and go to three things and make this a daily in your marriage. And you will be astounded by how it changes the whole kind of temperature in your home. Because when you have a heart of thankfulness, it's easier to be kind, right? And then when you're kinder to your spouse, they really want to be kinder to you. So it's like it starts with us individually doing those things, because I think sometimes we're like, well, if. If they would start being kind with me, then I would be kind with them. But then you're just kind of at this stalemate where you're just like, nobody's doing anything good, right? We're just waiting on the other.
You got to go first, because God went first with us.
Right?
And then we. We receive what he gave us, and we love him back, and we love others the way he loves us.
Yes. I love it. Thank you guys so much for joining us. Tomorrow we're going to be talking about the Gospel of Luke, and it will be day 42. We'll see you.
