Mark 12:29-33: in context

When asked which commandment is the greatest, Jesus answers with two. The first: hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. And the second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. And the scribe who asked agrees, adding that to love God with the whole self and one's neighbor as oneself is more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.

Jesus reduces the whole of what God requires to two commandments, and both are commands to love. The first and greatest is to love God with the whole of our being, heart, soul, mind, and strength, holding nothing back, giving him our whole selves in love. The second is to love our neighbor as ourselves, extending to others the care we naturally have for ourselves. On these two, love for God and love for neighbor, everything else hangs. The whole law, all that God requires, is summed up in love; and there is no commandment greater than these. This tells us what God most desires from us: not chiefly religious activity, ritual, or observance, but love. The scribe grasped this, agreeing that to love God and neighbor is more than all the sacrifices and offerings. God desires love, whole-hearted love for him and genuine love for our neighbor, more than any outward religious act. We can be diligent in religious activity, in worship and observance and service, and yet miss the heart of it, which is love. God wants our love first, love for him with our whole being, and love for others; and all the rest, if it is real, flows from this. This searches the heart of our own religion. Is it, at its center, love, whole-hearted love for God and genuine love for our neighbor? Or is it religious activity and observance without the love that is meant to be its heart? God desires love above sacrifice; and religion without love, however diligent, misses the greatest thing. Love is the fulfillment of the law, Paul says; all the commandments are summed up in it. And the two loves are joined: whoever does not love the neighbor he has seen, John says, cannot love the God he has not seen. Love for God and love for neighbor belong together, and together they are the heart of all God requires. This calls us to make love the center of our life with God, love for him with our whole being and love for our neighbor. Jesus named these as the greatest commandments, and the scribe agreed they are more than all sacrifices; and we are called to give God our whole-hearted love and to love our neighbor as ourselves, making this the center and summary of our life with God, from which all else flows. To love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves, is the greatest thing, greater than all outward observance; and we are called to make this love the heart of everything.

Is love the center of my life with God, whole-hearted love for him and genuine love for my neighbor, or is my religion activity and observance without the love that is meant to be its heart, and can Jesus' naming of the two greatest commandments, to love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and my neighbor as myself, greater than all sacrifices, move me to make this love the center and summary of my life with God, giving him my whole-hearted love and loving my neighbor as myself, from which all else flows?