Sometimes the obvious can be missed. Funny, but it’s amazing how many times I have left things sitting in obvious places, or missed something on my dresser or closet I was looking for when it was right in front of me. We can be that way with G-d’s Word too.
For example, the point to the command to love G-d with all your being is to actually love Him. I know I sometimes miss that, and replace love with concepts such as feel emotions towards, do man’s definition of “good deeds,” pursue intellectually etc. Keeping actual love in our sights, and understanding what that means, might be easier if we also take notice of the order in which we are commanded to love Him. To refresh the memory, here’s the exact wording:
“Hear, Israel: the L-RD is our G-d; the L-RD is one: and you shall love the L-RD your G-d with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (Hebrew Names Version)
Notice that loving the L-RD with all your heart, soul and might seem to be in order? In other words, to properly love Him with all your soul and might, you must first love Him with all your heart. I’ll eventually run through what each looks like, but for now we’ll stick to step one: Loving with all your heart.
First, with all the heart, that is, with all our thoughts, desires, emotions, interests. In other words, with our core essence. Of its numerous uses in the Hebrew Scriptures, the heart can have faintness in it synonymous to overwhelming fear, be circumcised, be turned against others, have hate inside it, be an inspiration/home for desire, be obstinate, be home to G-d’s Word, seek Him, think to itself, be hardened in the context of shutting off giving to the poor, be proud, be glad, be grieved, can be poured out, be clean, praise G-d, possess understanding, and more. Out of all that defines us, much of the internal, unseen aspects seem to be encompassed by the heart.
So what is love? I Corinthians 13:4-8a gives a solid description, one we can apply to our hearts:
“Love is patient and is kind; love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” (HNV)
In other words, love sets self aside for others. In our current context, this means setting aside our hearts for G-d, doing what He wants and directing our hearts to Him, instead of using them for ourselves.
Once we love G-d with our heart, our desire will be to grow our love and our heart will be the foundation for the next stage (Proverbs 4:23 “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.” Matthew 12:34b “For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks). Meanwhile, the heart is not only the starting point for loving G-d, but for idolatry as well. In one of the passages that commands us to love G-d with all our heart, the contrast is also provided in Deuteronomy 11:16:
“Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them.” (HNV, emphasis mine)
Now, if we don’t love Him with our hearts, our good words and our man-inspired good deeds (done because others expect it) don’t mean much.
“The L-rd said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and with their lips to honor Me, but they have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear of Me is a commandment of men which has been taught; therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden.” Isaiah 29:13-14 (HNV)
Ouch, I’ve been there. It can be easy to say the right words, even to do what everyone around you expects, and miss completely the heart. Have you been there too? Maybe we should love Him with our hearts. With all our desires, emotions, thoughts. It’s similar to the love a man feels when he is “madly in love” with a woman. It seems almost every internal goal is summed up in that other person. It isn’t easy to do with respect to G-d, but it is the first step in the first of commands. But be of good cheer, we have help:
“It shall happen, when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations, where the L-RD your G-d has driven you, and shall return to the L-RD your G-d, and shall obey His voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul; that then the L-RD your G-d will turn your captivity, and have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples, where the L-RD your G-d has scattered you…
The L-RD your G-d will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love the L-RD your G-d with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live.” Deuteronomy 30:1-3, 6 (HNV, emphasis mine)
So take heart, and then love with it.
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NOTE: My use of the Hebrew Names Version is not necessarily a complete endorsement. Out of all of the non-copyrighted versions I looked at, it was the one I liked the best. I have not read the entire version, and therefore cannot endorse all of its translation.
NOTE 2: Some of you may wonder why I put hyphens in the middle of G-d’s name. It is an effort to respect it in case the text is deleted or is used for a use not befitting text that contains G-d’s name, and to avoid offending others who choose to write it that way as well.
