Do you love God with ALL?

It is common for Christians to declare that they love God with everything … “all to Jesus I surrender” is the song upon our lips.

But do I truly love the Lord our God with EVERYTHING?

In this video, we dive into the “shema” of Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and examine the biblical command to love God with ALL our heart, soul, and strength.

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Do you truly love God with everything?

Do you love God with everything? If you’re a Christian you might be quick to say “yes!” but in this episode, I want to look at three key areas of our lives that God says we are to love Him with everything.

In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses gave the great call for God’s people to “listen” (Hebrew: shema). In what became the most popular verse in ancient Israel (and even to this day), Moses said:

“Hear, O Israel! Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one!   You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” – Deuteronomy 6:4–5

When Jesus was asked how to summarize the Old Testament (and what the greatest commandment was), Jesus gave the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4–5).

In short, God’s people are called to love Him with everything.

Love

Daniel Block defines the Hebrew word “love” as:

Hebrew אָהַב denotes the fundamental disposition of commitment within a covenant relationship that seeks the well-being and the pleasure of one’s covenant partner, often without regard for oneself. Although passion is obviously not absent from the word אָהַב, as used in Deuteronomy, this is not primarily an emotional term, but an expression of covenant commitment demonstrated in action. ⁽¹⁾

That Hebrew word is often used to denote “to set one’s affection on” or “have strong feelings for.” 

The Greek word (agapaō), means “to cherish, have affection for, take pleasure in, to prize … to have a great affection or care for or loyalty towards.”

The emphasis in Deuteronomy 6 is that our love for God is to be covenantal, voluntary, and emotional (passionate) … and should be in three key areas.

1. Love God with ALL your heart

• Ancient Concept of Heart

• No word for “brain” … so used “heart” for the mind

• There is a word for “mind”

• Scholar – [The heart is] the seat of the intellect, will, and intention. You think in your heart, and your heart shapes your character, choices, and decisions. It is also the center of the human being as a moral agent … // Christopher J. H. Wright, Deuteronomy, ed. W. Ward Gasque, Robert L. Hubbard Jr., and Robert K. Johnston, Understanding the Bible Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 99.

• Why did Jesus add “mind”?

• Mark 12:29–31 – Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”     

•     — Difference with Greek mentality – mind is separate

3. With all your soul

• Found over 700x in OT and is translated in more than 20 different ways in most translations

• life, soul, person, mind, heart, creature, body, dead (corpse), will, desire, 

• Literally “throat” (neck)

• There is a Hebrew word for “throat” and “neck” but nephesh is the entirety 

• Because it comes from the idea of what goes through your throat (air, food, etc)

• Comes to mean: creature, life, person, living being, physical life

• Me as a living, physical being

• Connects the head and central organs = the central part of me

• What is the “soul”?

• Living, breathing, physical being

• Your entire being, including the totality of your physical person

• Scholar – “The soul” is better translated as “life” or “self.” This included the whole inner self with all its emotions, desires, and personal character (Ps 103:1). // Gary Harlan Hall, Deuteronomy, The College Press NIV Commentary (Joplin, MO: College Press Pub. Co., 2000), 138.

4. With all your strength

• Shows up in OT nearly 300x but as an adverb (descriptor word)

• Adverb: exceedingly, much

• Genesis 1:31 – God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

• Genesis 17:2 – I will establish My covenant between Me and you, And I will multiply you exceedingly.

• 2x as a Noun (substantive): might, force, abundance

• Deuteronomy 6:4-5: Hear, O Israel! The LORD is 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.

• 2 Kings 23:25 – There was no king like him [Josiah] before or after who turned to the Lord with all his heart and all his soul and all his might, according to all the Law of Moses.

• Scholars suggest one of two (or both) concepts:

• 1. Resolve and strong commitment (muchness, exceedingness, intensity)

• 2. Physical resources and possessions

5. Love God with everything

• Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (NRJ amplified) – Shema, O Israel! Yahweh is our God, Yahweh alone! You shall love Yahweh your God (with a covenantal, voluntary, passionate love) with all of your inner person (mind, will, emotions, desires, and intensions), with the whole of your life (all that you are), and with everything you have (talent, ability, possessions, money, time, etc).

• » 361

• * A total devotion unto the Lord

Footnote Reference ⁽¹⁾

FOOTNOTES

(1) Daniel I. Block, How I Love Your Torah, O Lord!: Studies in the Book of Deuteronomy (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2011), 83.

Photo Credit: Kevin Carden

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