Deuteronomy 6.4-9

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD 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 might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

In order to love God from within we must take His Law into our inner being (Ps. 119.9-11). We must lay His words up within our hearts. Here the heart, which, as we have seen, has the primacy in the soul, is used by hendiadys to stand for the soul in its entirety.

We must study the Law of God, meditating in it day and night (Ps. 1). Thus our minds will be informed by God’s will; our hearts will incline to love what He has revealed (Ps. 119.97); our priorities will line up with what we are coming to know and love; and we will follow the Law as a path to guide us in all our ways (Ps. 119.105).

There is no substitute for daily reading, reflection, and study in the Word of God, beginning in His Law, if we would become the kind of people who love Him supremely and enjoy all the blessings of eternal life with Him.

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Deuteronomy 6.4-9

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD 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 might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Love for God comes to expression through the exertions of our body – what our text refers to as “might.” These are of two sorts: speaking and doing. The Scriptures abound in teaching concerning each of these; thus, there is more involved to loving God in word and deed than we can consider here.

We have been redeemed unto good works (Eph. 2.10); we show our love for God by studying to learn and working to practice all He describes as expressions of speech and word that are consistent with love for Him. Certainly if we love God with all our soul, from within, it will be easier to love Him with our strength, for what we do will effectively and efficiently flow from the kind of people we are.

Similarly, as we show love for God in words and deeds, such practices reinforce our inward convictions, making us firmer and more convinced of the love we have for God in our inner being, and, thus, more likely to show that love consistently in our lives. A symbiosis of inward and outward transformation, oriented around and motivated by love for God, thus brings the commandments of God – holy and righteous and good – into flesh before the watching world.

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Deuteronomy 6.4-9

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD 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 might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

The Lord mentions here heart, soul, mind, and might. Both the immaterial and material facets of our lives are to be devoted to loving God. The heart is the vital wellspring of all existence, for from it flow all the other issues of life (Prov. 4.23). All our affections are to be devoted to loving God.

The mind refers to the various cognitive functions we perform each day – thinking, imagining, recalling, synthesizing, analyzing, and all the rest. It too must be devoted to the service of the living God through love (2 Cor. 10.3-5).

The soul probably is intended here to encompass heart and mind in the larger spiritual entity, the soul, and so includes what the New Testament refers to as the conscience (Acts 24.16).

We must discipline our affections, thinking, and priorities (will), bending them toward loving God as of the first importance in all we do.

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Deuteronomy 6.4-9

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD 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 might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

The obedience God requires, and by means of which the redeemed gain the promises of God, must be an entire and complete obedience, emanating from a pure love for God. But why should we love God? First, because of His inherent beauty, goodness, and truth. God is a Being deserving of the love of every sentient creature, simply because of Who He is. Further, because He is our Creator, Redeemer, and Lord, and bears with us in our fallenness and folly, we must study to love Him supremely.

A “feigned obedience” (Ps. 81.15, NASB) to God will not do. He requires, and we must be careful to give, obedience that grows from a heart of love, love which we may daily nurture as we contemplate God in His Being and recall His mighty works on our behalf. It is not hard to love God, nor to obey Him, if we take the time to know Him as He intends (Jn. 17.3).

Pure love for God embraces and involves our entire being. Our goal must be to love God with all our soul and strength. This means that our minds, hearts, and consciences must be daily consecrated and devoted to loving God, and all our strength of body – whether exerted in words or deeds – must reflect and express the love we have for Him.

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Deuteronomy 6.4-9

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD 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 might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Ephesians 5.15-17; Colossians 4.6

The Lord our God is one. There are no other gods. Nothing else must be allowed to command the devotion, attention, commitment, or energy which God commands from His people toward Himself. We only show that we deny the uniqueness of God and prefer our own wit and ways when we look to created things to provide us the meaning, purpose, and happiness only God can provide (Rom. 1.18ff).

Bringing His people to the true knowledge of Himself was the purpose of God’s redemptive work in delivering Israel from Egypt. In the same way, Jesus came to bring us life eternal, which is the knowledge of the living God and of His Son (Jn. 10.10, 17.3). The end of redemption is the knowledge of God. The response of those God has redeemed must be to love Him. The manner in which they demonstrate their love for Him is by obeying Him in all His Word.

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If you missed yesterday's column, please read "Warning against Going Beyond" in the archives.  John

Deuteronomy 6.1-3

“Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Luke 1.6; Ephesians 6.1-3; James 1.22-25

“This” refers to “all the way that the LORD your God commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess” (Deut. 5.33), as well as everything which is to follow. Notice again how Law and promise are intertwined. These must not be separated. If we desire to know God’s promises (live in the land) we must hold fast to what He has revealed (all that He has commanded).

If we do what God commands – He Who has redeemed us by grace through faith – we will realize what God has promised. This is how we demonstrate love and fear of God, and this is how we enjoy the benefits of full and abundant life. Obedience keeps us on the path of promise – here typified by the “land flowing with milk and honey” – and leads to ever higher stages of promise realization.

All these statutes associated with the first commandment thus emphasize the role of grace, faith, and obedience within the covenant of the Lord. There is no separation of promise and law, grace and obedience, faith and love. These all define the way of covenant faithfulness and full and abundant life in the redemptive grace of God.

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Deuteronomy 12.32

“Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.’”

1 Corinthians 4.6; Revelation 22.18, 19

God cannot emphasize enough the importance of full, complete, and continuous obedience to His Law. Israel is to “be careful” to do so, reading the Law, studying and discussing it, looking to her elders and judges to explain and apply it, and dutifully keeping their steps within its path (Ps. 119.59, 60). In order to secure the further benefits and blessings of God’s covenant, Israel must not omit any part of the Law, even though it is difficult to understand or hard to bear. Nor must they add anything to it, thus presuming to improve on God’s revelation by their own wits.

Paul would tell the churches in his day the same thing – not to “go beyond” what was written in the Word of God, but to keep their obedience within the framework of divine revelation. And John warned any who would add to his words, the last of the apostolic generation, of judgment to come on those who presume to add their own words to God’s as of equal standing.

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Will we ever get this right?

Christians can change the world.

The hot weather takes it out of me.

We’re not likely to make something that lasts simply by accident.

The Kingdom advances one body, one struggle, one moment at a time.