Loving God with Your Everything
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
Deuteronomy 6:4
The verse “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and might” is one we hear a lot. If you grew up in church, you probably had it memorized, and guess what? So did God’s chosen people.
This verse is a part of the Jewish Shema which is a prayer the Israelites would recite every morning and every night. You also probably know that when Jesus came on the scene, He said it was the first and greatest commandment. It was the anthem of generations of Jewish people, and Jesus Christ declared it was the first and greatest commandment when asked. We can conclude that it is important, but what does it mean? What does it look like to love God with all of your heart, soul, and might?
Before answering this question, we must note that the reason Jesus had to die was because we could not do this. We only love because He first loved us as it says in 1 John 4:19. We must never forget that our love for God is impossible without His love for us.
With All Your Heart
First, with all of our hearts. Loving God with all of your heart means for all your affections and desires to be directed towards God. If you are fully devoted to Him in all our longings, love for Him will fuel our will and decisions. During Biblical times, it was assumed that all emotional and intellectual activity took place in the heart. There was no separation of the heart and mind. They were one. Not only was God demanding all affections but also for our will and thoughts to be intertwined with those affections.
As I was thinking about this verse, I was struck by the adjective “all”. We are to love God with all of our heart. Throughout scripture, we see God call his people to “wholeheartedly” follow Him. We also see the Psalmist cry out, “Unite my heart to fear your name.” (Psalm 86:11). I think this tells us something important about our hearts. What we can gather from this is that our hearts are naturally divided! Not only do we see this truth displayed in scripture, but we feel it too. So we may be able to say that we love and long for God, but what else do we long for? What stirs our affections and drives our decisions? God is calling us to love Him with all of our heart.
So how do we love God with all of our heart?
Later in Deuteronomy 6, we see that part of God’s command is for the people to “teach”, “talk about”, “remind”, and “write these words down”. “In the morning and in the evening”, “in their houses”, “as they go on their way”, and “on their hands, doorposts, and gates” (v 5-9). It sounds like the Lord understands our hearts better than we do. He knew His people would need constant reminders of who He was and how they were called to live.
Because of this, we must constantly tend to our hearts. They are like gardens that we must tend to and care for. Beautiful gardens do not sprout up on their own. Just as our affections for God will not naturally grow. Gardening is intentionally cultivating beauty- removing weeds, pruning limbs, and watering plants. Each small action aids in cultivating the beauty of the garden. Without this intention and effort, a garden would be unhealthy, overgrown, and neglected. The teaching, talking about, and reminding God commanded is the tending we must do to our hearts in order to keep our affections beautiful.
Are you tending to your affections for Him or depleting them of nutrients? If you're not tending to them, why not? What can you do to nourish your affection for Him alone?
With All Your Soul
So loving God starts with our heart, but it doesn’t stay there. I have a friend who just got a garden plot in the middle of the city. Her goal for the year is to have one bouquet that she can bring home for her family. Chances are that if she tends to and cares for her garden, then her goal will be met! Likewise when we cultivate a heart full of affections for God, those affections produce fruit! Our love for God moves outside of our own heart.
The verse goes on to say that we are to love God with all of our soul. The translation doesn’t fully convey to us the original meaning. In Hebrew, the word used here is nephesh which is more accurately translated to living being.
Our soul is not a part of our being but our entire being. We do not have a soul; we are a soul. Loving the Lord your God with all of your soul means to love Him with all of your physical, living, and breathing being. Everything about us as a person is to declare love for God!
But what does it even look like to love God with all of our being? Think about all the things you do on a daily basis with your physical body. We talk, we laugh, we walk, we eat, we work, we serve, we dress, we exercise. We solve problems and care for other people. We do a lot of things. And you can display love for God in all of them!
What would it look like if we allowed love for God to shape every action and word that flows from our being?
How would our speech change? Would we rejoice more than we complain? Would your jokes still demean those around you or would you find more wholesome ways to make people laugh? Would you speak negatively about others or honor people with the way you speak?
How would our diet, exercise, and service change? Would we see discipline in our bodies as opportunities to grow in our spiritual discipline? Could denying ourselves sweets or junk food help us deny temptations to sin? Would we see washing dishes, cleaning our home, or doing laundry as opportunities to reflect on how God has cleansed us from all of our sin?
I encourage you to slow down and think about what you do! Outside of your quiet time and ministry, how can you allow love for God to shape what you do in your physical body?
With All Your Might
So as affections for the Lord fill our hearts, our actions follow suit which leads everything in our life to be stewarded out of love for Him. The last portion of this verse has many different translations. Love the Lord your God with all your might, strength, or mind.
Again, we will go back to the original translation to accurately understand this command. The Hebrew word used here is “me’od” which directly translates to muchness or very. It is used several other times throughout scripture including when God said that creation was “very” (“me’od”) good. So, love the Lord your God with all of our “muchness”? What many have concluded this to mean is to love God with everything we have available to us!
God already covered our hearts, physical body, and now he takes it to the next level by commanding us to love him with everything at our disposal. What this comes down to is stewardship.
We are stewards of opportunities, possessions, giftings, relationships, and wealth. Everything in our life has been given to us by a good Father for us to steward!
This truth is echoed in Deuteronomy 6:10-12.
“And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
We are quick to forget where the good things in our lives come from. God makes sure to point out how everything good they would be given in the Promised Land would be just that… given to them.
One of my favorite passages in all the Old Testament is found at the end of 1 Chronicles 29. After all the people had given to the building of God’s temple, David cries out in praise to God in front of the people and says,
“But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding. O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own. I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. In the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things, and now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you.”
The people gave freely what they had because they knew it belonged to God anyways! And this is key…they did not offer up their riches reluctantly but freely with joy! And so should we. Our talents, our families, our homes, our wardrobe, our hobbies are all opportunities to steward what has been given to us. Not for our glory but His!
What has God given you to steward? What in your life are you holding onto as “yours”? Your plans? Your relationship? Your future career? Your talents? Your money? In what ways, do you need to recognize that you are only a steward, not an owner?
The Goal
The action commanded in this verse is to love. My goal in writing this is not to implore you to simply do more but to love God more- to have love for our Risen King and Savior in every corner of your lives! The good news is that we do not love through our own strength. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul says that the love of Christ compels him. Another translation says that the love of Christ controls him. It does not say that his love for Christ compels him. The love of Christ compels him. It is Christ’s love for Him that leads Him to lay down his entire life in love for Christ. Let’s follow Paul’s example.
Are you captivated and compelled by God’s love for you? How would your clothing, speech, entertainment, work, hobbies, and spending change if so? Do you see doing chores, joking around, and homework as opportunities to display love for God? What corners of your life have been untouched by the gospel and your love for King Jesus?
