Greatest commandment
What’s the greatest commandment? Anyone who has been around the teaching of Jesus, for any time at all, knows the answer. Jesus answers the question with a quote from the Law, from Deuteronomy 6:4-5: “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.”
It’s worth noting that, on the authority of the Son of God himself, the thing most important for a believer to know and embrace, comes out of the Old Testament, specifically out of the Law. Beyond the general nudge to pay attention to the Old Testament, we might take a further hint that, in pointing us so emphatically to this commandment, Jesus has an expectation that we’ll look into the whole passage. Because Moses goes on to give insight into how it works in real life.
This love starts with taking the words to heart (verse 6). That means the command is not just known, it’s embraced, internalized.
We’re to teach it to our children (verse 7). More than that – diligently teach it to them.
We’re to talk about it at home. And talk about it when we’re on the road. End our day and begin our day talking about it (verse 7).
The next instruction isn’t quite as clear. We’re to bind it on our hand and tie it around our forehead (verse 8). Orthodox Judaism developed phylacteries as their way of implementing the instruction. Leaving such literality to the side for the time being, there’s surely a metaphor here. Binding the commandment to love God onto our hand must mean putting it into practice in what we do, and not just sometimes. And binding it on our forehead must mean practicing it in what we think. It’s easy to reduce this instruction to a ritual, but I don’t think Moses intended it that way. He intended us to think loving God, and do loving God. Being intentionally bound to do so.
We are to write the command on doorposts and gates (verse 9). Tradition has made this into the mezuzah, but I suspect what Moses was really teaching was to put God’s words in places where we’ll see them, to remind ourselves. Today he might have said to put them on wall plaques and refrigerator magnets, maybe subscribe to a verse-of-the-day. Because we need continual reminding, don’t we?
All of this, as I see it, is part of loving God with all the heart. He will go on later in the chapter to talk about how to love God with all the soul, and then how to love Him with all the strength we have. But there’s one final point in the heart section.
In verses 10-12 he issues a serious warning. The people Moses is talking to are going to be prosperous when they’re given the land, and that’s going to put them at risk. Moses cautions, “Take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” This concept is echoed by Jesus, who warns how hard it is for the well-off to enter the Kingdom. Not impossible, as Jesus also points out—but very hard.
No less than the people of Israel, we’ve been brought out of slavery—in our case slavery to sin. Jesus and the apostles make a pretty big point of this. How could we forget it? But we do. Our love for God is diluted if we’re distracted by the things of this life. We don’t stop loving Him, but it becomes less than all of our heart.
How can we take care, as Moses urges, to not let this happen? He’s just given us some tools. Taking God’s words to heart. Teaching them—which requires knowing them ourselves. Talking about them within our family. Putting His words where we’ll see them and be reminded.
Loving God with all our heart and soul and strength is far more than having a warm fuzzy feeling. It’s good to have warm feelings, don’t get me wrong. But what Jesus says, endorsing Moses’s instruction, is that it’s a whole-life thing. All the heart. All the soul. All the strength you have. How? He has several practical suggestions. The big one, easy to say but a lifelong challenge to do: Don’t forget.
Love, Paul