If you love me... (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

LOVING GOD:
The First Order of Priority—A Holistic Command (Deut 6:4-9)

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Dr. Paul Manuel—2008

Have you ever had the feeling, as you were getting ready for one thing, that you were overlooking something else? You wrack your brain, but nothing comes to mind. Finally, you say to yourself, "If it's really important, I'll eventually remember it." The truth is: You probably will. The only question is: Will you remember in time?

A husband and wife were on their way to a much-needed vacation. As is the case with most people, they had more to do before they left home than time would allow. Knowing the plane would depart with or without them, they decided to leave the bed unmade and the house in some disarray so as not to miss their flight. They rushed to the airport, made it through security, and boarded just in time. Finally, the jet reached its cruising altitude, and they could breathe a sigh of relief.... Then they both remembered something. "Oh my," the wife said. "I think I left the iron on. What if it starts a fire, and the house burns down!" That prospect, which so troubled her, did not have the same disturbing affect on her husband, who actually took the news quite well. "Don't worry, dear," he replied confidently. "The house will not burn down." "How can you be so sure of that?" she asked. "Because," he answered... "I forgot to turn off the water in the bathtub!"

What is important to you, and will you remember it in time to do something about it?¹

It is helpful, and usually easier for me to remember, when something is regular not occasional:

• The garbage goes out on Monday;
• Choir rehearsal is on Tuesday;
• Tai Chi class meets on Wednesday.

(Eighteen years in school probably hardwired my brain to a weekly [class] schedule.) That is probably true for most people. We like consistency, and it is when things are inconsistent, when they are only occasional, that we tend to forget—like turning off the iron or the faucet. Consistency also enables us to establish priority. When we know something is regular, we can fit it into our schedule with confidence. God may even have designed us to work best with consistency because He is consistent or, as theologians term it: He is immutable, unchanging.

Please turn to Deut 6, which contains in v. 4 one of the most important theological statements in scripture, the Shema, so-called because that is the first word in this Hebrew phrase.²

Moses is addressing a new generation of Israelites about to enter the Promised Land, and many commentators have assumed that in this verse he is contrasting the monotheism of the Israelites with the polytheism of the Canaanites:³ Israel, unlike its neighbors, has one God not many gods. The context, however, suggests that Moses may be declaring something more fundamental and relevant for this new generation.⁴ Moses is not talking about the quantity of God—how much of Him there is, one or many⁵—Moses is talking about the quality of God—that His character is always one and the same. No matter what else may change for the Israelites, God's nature is stable and reliable. Moses is stating here that the God of this generation about to enter Canaan is the same God their fathers knew in the wilderness, the same God who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, because "the LORD is one."⁶ Furthermore, because there is one God, there is also one law, which is why much of Deuteronomy ("second law") is a restatement of what Moses received at Sinai.

Is this fifteenth century B .C. conception of God's nature at all relevant to you in the twenty-first century A.D.? ...Indeed, it is. In fact, it is what makes the whole Bible relevant to you. That God is immutable, unchanging, means that He is dependable, that, like the Israelites, you can count on Him as well.⁷ This divine attribute makes the next command, to love Him, much easier to follow. If God were capricious or fickle, you could never be sure about His attitude toward you, because it would always be subject to change. He might be pleased with you one moment and displeased the next, perhaps for no apparent reason. You would always wonder when He might suddenly withdraw His support. He could keep changing the requirements for salvation or simply decide in the end to save no one. Thankfully, God is not like that, quite the opposite.⁸ Both His character and His commands are consistent.

Because God is dependable and, as the nation's recent history has shown, He is also good, Loving God is an appropriate response, and that is precisely what Moses calls Israel to do in the next few verses. God's people must allow the consistency of His love for them to establish the priority of their love for Him. Indeed, Moses considers it The First Order of Priority in their relationship with the Lord. This command is not just for Israel but for all God's people. Moreover, it is A Holistic Command in that...

I. Loving God involves all that you are (Deut 6:5).

Deut 6:5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Moses says that your love for God must be without reservation and without exclusion. He is not necessarily referring to various parts of man's makeup here, but simply stating that loving God must involve all that you are.⁹ Nevertheless, it may be helpful to understand what these individual terms represent. You must...

A. Love with your entire heart.

In scripture, the heart is the seat of emotion, intellect, and will. We recognize the heart as the center of emotion and often speak that way.

• To be broken-hearted is to have great sorrow or grief.
• A heart-warming experience is emotionally pleasing and encouraging.

Concerning intellect, though, we regard the head as the repository of our knowledge and understanding. Someone who thinks well has a good head on his shoulders, whereas someone deficient in gray matter (another figure) is a birdbrain or, simply, brainless. Nevertheless, for biblical writers, intellect resides in the heart.

• Hence, the author of Kings says that God gave Solomon "a wise and discerning heart" (1 Kgs 3:13).

Likewise, we refer to someone who is willful and stubborn as being head-strong or hard-headed. In the Bible, human will is also a function of the heart.

• So Moses described Pharaoh's stubborn refusal to let Israel go as a hardening of his heart.¹⁰
• By the same token, God says He will give His people "a heart of flesh" (Ezek 11:19; 36:26); that is, a willing determination to serve Him.

To love God with your whole heart is to involve all your feelings, thoughts, and decisions in devotion to Him. Does your love for God reflect your whole heart? Various aspects of this are easier for some than for others, yet they must all play a role if you would love God entirely.

• You may not be an overtly emotive person, but there should be moments of passion in your relationship with God. I am not one to display my feelings, yet there are occasions when I stand before God that I am lost in wonder or exultant in joy, sometimes to the point of tears, because I recognize in some small way who He is or what He is doing.

• Loving God with your whole heart involves your emotions.

• You may not be a particularly meditative person, but there should be moments of reflection in your relationship with God. Loving God is not a vague feeling or a mindless surrender to the Spirit's moving; it focuses on the person of God and on the fact that you can know Him. In truth, you cannot really love Him if you do not also know Him, and to know Him you must apply whatever intellectual capabilities He has given you to that task.

• Loving God with your whole heart involves your mind.

• You may not be an especially assertive person, but there should be moments of intention in your relationship with God. Do not always wait for Him to come to you. Take the first step yourself in establishing communication. This is not presumption but a desire to be with Him. You generally enjoy the company of those you love and arrange your life so that you can be with them. Should you not do the same with God?

• Loving God with your whole heart involves your will.

Devoting your heart to this task involves all aspects of your personality. You must embrace Him with your feelings, ponder Him in your thoughts, and engage Him on your initiative. You must love with your entire heart. You must also...

B. Love with your entire soul.

In contrast to the heart, the soul is the inclination or yearning a person has, as in having an appetite or craving for food (Waltke 1980:588-589).¹¹ The object of such yearning can also be God, which the opening verses of Ps 42 express.

Ps 42:1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God.... When can I go and meet with God?

It is in this sense that Moses employs the word soul here. You are to love God with a longing and intensity that compels you to seek Him. You are to recognize that He alone can fill the spiritual void, the realization that there is more to life than what you see around you.¹² You must love with your entire soul.

The command to love God "with all your heart and with all your soul" appears several other times in Deuteronomy, as well as elsewhere in scripture.¹³ To these two aspects of your nature, though, Moses adds a third.¹⁴ You must...

C. Love with your entire strength.

Love is not passive; it requires action, in and out of religious settings. The psalmists often refer to 'body language' in worship, that devotion is external as well as internal:

• Sing and shout for joy,
• Kneel and bow down,
• Lift and clap hands,
• Play instruments and dance.¹⁵

(I realize I am treading on thin ice suggesting that to Baptists.) The Jewish practice of davening (swaying) during prayer is a physical application of David's declaration in...

Ps 35:10a My whole being [lit. "all my bones"l will exclaim, "Who is like you, O LORD?"

Such exertion also applies outside worship. As in any relationship, your communion with God requires effort to sustain it; and above all relationships, this one is worthy of investing your full physical resources.¹⁶ However you expend your energy in other endeavors, you must give God no less. You must love with your entire strength.

Loving God is A Holistic Command, involving all that you are—spirit, soul, and body—all that constitutes you as an individual.¹⁷ It is a task to which you must give yourself with total abandon. It must also be obvious, because...

II. Loving God involves all that you do (Deut 6:6-9).

Deut 6:6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Love and obedience go hand-in-hand. Obedience to God is how you demonstrate love for God.¹⁸ The apostle John said,

1 John 5:3a This is love for God: to obey his commands.¹⁹

Notice that obedience is not something God imposes on His people. Yes, He has certain requirements they must meet, but the motivation for compliance is not compulsion. God does not force you to obey Him, which is why disobedience and rebellion are always possible. He wants your devotion to be voluntary, to spring from within because of your love for Him. Like love, obedience properly proceeds from the inside out; so Moses states that God's commands must first "be upon your hearts" (Deut 6:6).

Internalizing God's word is an aspect of spiritual growth in which many believers are sorely deficient. We do not meditate on, and even less do we memorize, scripture. Yet, how else are we to make it part of us, so that our knowledge of God may increase and His counsel may be readily available to us when the need arises? Often we give up before we even start.

I'm too busy. There's not enough time in my day to add one more task, like meditating. Memorization is even worse. I've tried, but it leaks out faster than I can pump it in. I have trouble remembering my own phone number.

Although it would be nice if we could devote a portion of our day's agenda to the contemplation of God's word, meditating does not require that kind of scheduling. Likewise, memorizing need not be an arduous task, like preparing for an exam.

Choose something that is simple yet significant, perhaps just a single sentence, like v. 5 from this chapter. Then, after selecting your passage, do two things:

• First, record it: Write it on a 3x5 card or a slip of paper and put it in your pocket or on your desk or on the refrigerator, any place handy. The mere act of writing it helps to reinforce it.²⁰
• Second, review it: Read it over occasionally, thinking about it for a moment or two. What does it mean, and why does it matter?

In this way, memorization and meditation complement each other. Gradually you will become more familiar with the passage and will see what it teaches about God, as well as various ways you can apply it. After a while, you will remember it. Take your time; there is no rush. You face no deadlines and no tests. When you are ready, move on to another portion of scripture. You may not be able to recall all you have worked on, but in the process you will have been placing God's word 'upon your heart.'

Once you begin to internalize His commandments in this way, you can take the next step. Obedience that demonstrates love is not mere compliance with God's wishes. His commands must be prominent in your life in a way that promotes them to others, and having them on your heart allows you to do that without hypocrisy. Moses lists four ways that God's people can direct others to obedience as well.

The first way is in the beginning of Deut 6:7. You must...

A. Teach what He commanded.

If others are to profit from what you have learned about God, then you must communicate that, especially to the next generation. Children depend on the wisdom and knowledge of their elders, and it is important to teach them what God has taught you. There are two basic settings for the educational process, the formal structure of a classroom and the informal environment of the home. It is the second of these to which Moses refers here, to the responsibility parents have for the spiritual education of their children, instructing them in God's precepts. To neglect that is to leave them ill-prepared for what they will face as adults. You must teach what He commanded.

The second way to direct others to obedience is in the rest of v. 7. You must...

B. Talk what He commanded.

God's commands are worthy topics of conversation; so Moses says that you should take every opportunity to speak about them. We often confine our discussion of biblical subjects to religious contexts, like a church service or a Bible study. That kind of limited consideration of what God has said implies that we think it has little bearing anywhere else. If you believe that God's word is for all kinds of situations, then you should talk about it in all kinds of situations: wherever you may be—at home or away—and whenever you get the chance—from the beginning of the day to the end. You must talk what He commanded.

A third way to promote God's word is in Deut 6:8. You must...

C. Tie what He commanded.

Moses says God's commands should not only be evident in your conversation, they should be part of your clothing. Traditionally, Jews have understood this passage literally, so they place copies of these verses in two small boxes with leather straps attached. They are called phylacteries, and observant Jews wear them on their forehead and left arm during the morning prayer.²¹ A modern application of this practice might be the T-shirts and jewelry with biblical messages printed on them.²² Whether Moses intended this literally or figuratively, it gives different meaning to the phrase "tie one on." You must tie what He commanded.

A fourth way you publicize God's precepts is in Deut 6:9. You must...

D. Transcribe what He commanded.

That is, write them in places where people will see them, high traffic areas, like the gate to your community and the door of your home. Traditionally, Jews have also understood this passage literally. They place a copy of these verses in a case called the Hebrew word for doorpost, where they affix it.²³ While in Jerusalem, I noticed a couple of houses that did not confine the passage to a small container but painted it on the doorposts in bold letters. A modern application of this practice might be the plaques of biblical verses people hang in their homes.²⁴ Again, it is uncertain whether Moses intended this literally or figuratively. In any case, it indicates that your commitment to God's ordinances should be obvious to visitors. You must transcribe what He commanded.

God's precepts are not some personal and private code of conduct. They are to be prominent in your life, and it should be evident to others that you regard them as important. You are also to promote them with your life, encouraging others to recognize the value of ordering their priorities by them. Keep in mind that...

• The purpose of these steps is not display, as some Pharisees in Jesus' day applied them, drawing attention to themselves.²⁵
• The purpose of these steps is devotion, the sincere expression of your commitment and of your desire to direct attention to the Lord.

Moreover, the procedure Moses describes for externalizing what God commands—teach, talk, tie, transcribe—strengthens the earlier process of internalizing what God commands. That is, as you relate God's precepts to others, you reinforce those precepts for yourself.

The people of Israel are poised to enter the Promised Land, and Moses knows they will have to establish priorities if they are going to succeed. Those priorities will be different for different individuals, even as many precepts are different for different occupations—farmers, laborers, soldiers, priests. Heading everyone's list, though, will be the same item. God's people must allow the consistency of His love for them to establish the priority of their love for Him. That is, regardless of what a person does for a living, Loving God must be number one. The same is true for you. He must be the primary object of your affection and devotion, which entails all you are and involves all you do—it is A Holistic Command. He deserves nothing less, and nothing less will do. Is He The First Order of Priority in your life?

For a pdf including Bibliography and Endnotes see here.