“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” (Deut. 6:4-5). This is the shema, which Jesus named “the great and first commandment” in the Law (Matt. 22:36-38). God’s entire Torah –His Teaching for His people – is built on this command to love Him. Yet can love be commanded?
With God, love is an action, a deliberate choice to prioritize another – especially through self-sacrifice. “When Israel was a child, I loved him,” God said, “and out of Egypt I called my son” – even though, “the more they were called, the more they went away” (Hos. 11:1-2). Because God loves us when we don’t deserve it, loving Him is not burdensome (cf. 1 Jn. 4:19, 5:3). That kind of love is more than a feeling – but it is still emotional, too. You can’t read the Psalms without recognizing that. “I love you, O LORD, my strength,” David sang in celebration of his lifelong relationship with God (Ps. 18:1). He was a man after God’s own heart – and he clearly felt the love.
So, when the shema says to love God “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might”, appreciate that we are being commanded to love Him with everything we are. With our hearts means taking actions to love God with our thoughts and feelings. You can’t say you love God and ignore His commands – but you also can’t keep “the great commandment” without emotion. That last part might come as a surprise to some of us: doesn’t emotion lead to inauthentic conversions or produce worship that is just a self-gratifying show? If we were brought up to see it that way, we need to know that God sees it differently: He commands love with our hearts.
We are also commanded to love God with our souls – with what makes us alive. Instead of our usual compartmentalized lives – work life, home life, social life, and spiritual life, to name a few – God commands that we love Him with all of it…and then some. Because loving God with our might kicks it up a notch. It is the same Hebrew word as when God saw everything that He had created and declared that “it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). We love God with our very – our talents and wealth, our occupation and interests – anything and everything that makes us who we are.
The whole of God’s teaching for us is built on this foundation. When loving Him with our all is our starting place – our first commandment – everything else falls into place.
Learn more ways to build your life on Christ through our series Firm Foundation.