Love God with all your heart

Every day we're reading or listening to part of the Bible together and sharing thoughts with you. Today it’s Bern Leckie:

What did I like about today’s passage?

Deuteronomy has its weird, hard and controversial bits, for sure. But this, I believe, includes what Jesus pointed to as the Most Important Bit.

Central to it are the most famous laws in the Old Testament, the things Jesus asked people if they stuck to, the foundation of western legal philosophy, and ten solid points in a pub quiz if you can remember them in order. I love that Israel remembers them as God-given, the world’s first tablet download from the cloud, and that many still literally tie them to their bodies and write them on their door frames. I love that they were never merely human wisdom for peaceful living, nor the imposition of overbearing religious authority, but gifts from a loving God who also provided his land, unearned material, grace and freedom.

So which is the Most Important Bit, according to Jesus, the Greatest Commandment? It turns out to be the one which is hardest to legislate. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deut. 6:5) He calls it “the first” commandment (Matthew 22:38), although your pub quiz master might not accept his answer (check chapter 5 again!)

But what happens if we take Jesus’ word over anyone else’s? What if we choose to see love as the primary thing, the greatest, the foundation of all of the rest? Does that change the way we see the rest of the laws, or even the rest of life?

What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

The rules in Deuteronomy can seem like an onerous imposition, an impossible burden and, as New Testament teachers like Paul have pointed out, ineffective at producing a right relationship with God. They are more likely to convict us to death than spark us to life.

But seen the way Jesus relates them, with love as the primary thing, this isn’t simply a command from God which is impossible to measure. It’s what God has done and keeps doing first. God’s love brought everything into being, nourished Israel into a nation and provided his whole motivation to guide people into a good life and relationship with him.

With our experience of God’s love growing in us as the fruit of the Spirit, we can also grasp something these Israelites might have missed. God never intended his most important command to be impossible. His plan was to enable us to live and obey it by his grace.

What am I going to do differently as a result?

Marvel at God’s provision of all things so we can live out his commands, then seek to obey.

Who am I going to share this with?

My family and others I follow Jesus with.