Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD
Deuteronomy 6:4 is a very important text in Scripture. It was the basic confession of faith of Judaism and was to be recited both morning and night. Deuteronomy 6:4 says, “Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD.” He is self-existent. He is singular. He is the only God. In Mark 12 Jesus was asked by a scribe, one who knew the Scriptures, “Which is the first commandment of all?” Jesus answered that the first of all the commandments is, “Hear, O Israel; The LORD our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.” He went on to say, “The second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”
Many times people say, “I’m not doing the right thing, but at least I love Jesus. I have this feeling of love in my heart.” The truth is, there is a pendulum swing from slavery to sentiment and back again. The ditch on both sides of this issue is sentiment. Love is just a feeling. There is feeling that says, “I love Jesus,” and slavery which says, “I keep all the rules, so I love God.” Both are a caricature of the truth. Love is a decision that produces action and, yes, can produce a feeling.
Not long ago, I was in a store that had a lot of knickknacks and so on. There was one that said, “I love Jesus, but I drink a little.” That attitude is, quite frankly, godless. Whether you think it is okay for a believer to drink or not, that is a cavalier, careless attitude that belies the basic statement. “I love Jesus, but…” as if I’m saying, “I have this feeling. Don’t give me the rules.” One might say, “I love Jesus, but I indulge in pornography” or “I love Jesus, but I have hated in my heart.” No, I’m sorry. That is not love of Jesus.
Now, might a person be doing bad things and not know better? I suppose that is true. Could a young Christian love the Lord and not know all that Jesus would have him do? That is possible. Is it possible someone can have a genuine love for God but fail and fall? Yes. The point is that love is more than a sentiment and a feeling. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.” God does not distinguish love for God and obedience to God. Love is more than a sentiment.
There are a couple of elements you find consistently with the idea of love of God in this text. First, there is fear. Verse 2 says, “That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes.” Verse 5 says, “Love the LORD thy God,” and then verse 13 says, “Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.” He is the only God to whom we swear allegiance, follow, serve, obey, and reverence, and therefore love. You say, “I thought you said that love is more than sentiment. Isn’t fear a feeling?” Yes, but it is more than that. Here it is talking about reverence for the singular God and that has results. If I really love God, that means I love Him for who He is, have reverence for Him.
That results in the second element, action. So, fear and action are part of loving God. Do is one of the key words of Deuteronomy 5 and is not forgotten in Deuteronomy 6. The first verse says, “Now these are the commandments, the statues, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it. Verse 24 says, “And the LORD commanded us to do all these statues, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day.” This is do, do, do.
Romans 13 gives us the definition of love. It says, “He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.” How do you keep the law? Love. Then verse 9 says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal…” If you love God, then, Deuteronomy 6:14 and following says, “Ye shall not… ye shall not…ye shall… and thou shalt…” There are a lot of commands that are actions. Love means to reverence and obey God. It is doing.
I love the way Romans 13 says, “And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” If I truly love God, I am not going to have to have a long list of rules. There are right and wrong and commands, but if I love my neighbor, I don’t need to have a list of rules that govern my actions. Rules may not hurt, but the point is that if I love Him, I am going to do right by Him. Love does what is right. So, there is action.
Someone says, “I love God, but I drink a little, gossip a little, and watch things I shouldn’t.” No, don’t tell people you love God. Loving God is not a feeling primarily. It is a decision, an action. Yes, it perhaps results in a feeling, but it is more than that. Love is more than a sentiment; it is gratitude. You find this over and again. Verse 10 says, “And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land…to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, and houses full of all goods things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not…Then beware lest thou forget the LORD…” They were to fear, serve, and be in allegiance to Him. That is gratitude.
Remembering who God is and what He has done will shape how you feel. A lot of times we think, “I should love God.” That is the point. When we think of all God has done for us, how He loves and is partial toward us, yet He is merciful, what kind of ingrate would casually say, “Well, I love Jesus, but I do whatever I want to do.” That is not gratitude, therefore it is not love. Moses said, “When you come into the land and gain all these things God gave you, don’t forget God. Remember God in gratitude.”
There are people who are survivors. They have been in a rotten church that gave them the idea that if they just keep these rules, then they are good Christians. There are others who think, “I love Jesus. I have this feeling, so it doesn’t matter what I do.” Both are extremes that do not fit what God wants. There is nothing you can do to make God love you more and there is nothing you can do to make God love you less. God’s love is a matter of His character and not yours. God’s love has never been the question, but yours is. The question is not, “Does God love me? but “Do I love God?” It is a feeling, but it is more than a sentiment. It is reverence, obedience, and gratitude to God.