The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.
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.
Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 6:5-9
Deuteronomy 6:5 provides one of the most famous verses and teachings in all the Bible: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
A teaching so important that when Jesus is asked which commandment in the Law is the greatest, this is the exact verse He quotes. (Along with a second that is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.“)
But if you haven’t read the teaching that follows Deuteronomy 6:5 recently, today is a good day to do so.
Because here is what God says concerning it: These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 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. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
How important is this, the Greatest Commandment? So important that we ought to teach it to our kids, talk about it when we sit and when we are walking, dwell on it when we go to bed, write it on our hands, and put it in a place where we see it every time we come home or leave home.
In other words, this commandment ought to be in front of us night and day, all the time, wherever we go. This teaching should have a visible presence in our lives at all times.
But if I’m being honest, I’m not sure of the last time I saw it. Much less spent significant time teaching it to my kids or meditating on it for my own life.
It would be wise for each of us to spend a bit more time focused on it specifically.
And so today, I want to end with that opportunity. Before you finish reading this devotional, focus your faith on this teaching:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, I love You today. Help me focus my attention more on this commandment. And teach me what it truly means to love You with all my heart, soul, and strength. Amen.