Learning to Love

"For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires." (Hebrews 4:12, NLT).

For the last three weeks I’ve written about how God’s Word has the life and power to touch and change us. This week I thought I’d offer a way we can practice what we’ve read.  

What does God want us to do or how does He want us to live after we come to faith? Said another way, what is His call on your life? Well, last Tuesday we read the answer to these questions in what may well be the most important verse in the Bible. In Mark 12:28 a teacher of the law asked Jesus, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

Jesus responded by quoting the opening words of the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and then added to it the command to love our neighbor (Leviticus 19:18). He concluded that “No other commandment is greater than these.” The man was commended for his own understanding of this commandment and was told that he was “not far from the kingdom of God.”

It was at this point that I could read no more. I was stopped. It seems to me that Mark 12:28-34 is a key passage, one that clearly could penetrate my own life and expose my own innermost thoughts and desires. With that in mind, I thought I’d unpack it a bit and then invite you to practice careful listening in the way you read it, meditate on it, use it to meditate on your own life and then pray it back to God. If you listen this intently to something God said was so important, what might you hear? How might it change your life?

The Shema gets its name from the first word—hear (shema is Hebrew for “hear” or “listen”). More than just allowing vibrations to activate your inner ear, biblical hearing includes paying attention and responding to what you hear. It makes me think of Jesus in Mark 4 and Luke 8 telling us to pay careful attention to what you hear or how you listen to His words. It is also the reason why the prophets said that God’s people have ears but don’t “hear.” In the Bible, to listen to God is to obey God. For the Hebrew mind, listening and doing are two sides of the same coin. So, to begin a statement with “Hear O Israel” is to say that the following words require our effort and action.

The command then identifies that what follows has to do with Yahweh, the personal name for Israel’s God. He is the one and only Lord who is self-existent—He depends on no one for any thing. What, then, is our response to this God over all gods, King of all kings and Lord of all lords?

around me, by how I love my neighbor. To love God is to obey His commands (Deuteronomy 10: 12-13; John 14:21). But this love is more than just robotic service, it also engages our inner being.

We are to love Him. In the Hebrew mind, love is an action. Words are cheap. I don’t just say I love you; I show I love you by what I do. Deuteronomy 10:18-19 says that God loves the orphans, widows and foreigners by giving them justice food and clothing and how God’s people are expected to follow His example. Jesus said that laying down one’s life for another (think of sacrificial giving) is the greatest expression of love. So, I show my love for God by how I love the people around me, by how I love my neighbor. To love God is to obey His commands (Deuteronomy 10: 12-13; John 14:21). But this love is more than just robotic service, it also engages our inner being.

We are to love Him with all our heart. Jesus’ culture understood the heart as the center of the human being. It is the home of thought and emotion, the place where desires are born and actions are determined. The heart represented the person’s whole being which is to be fully devoted to God. But our expression of love does not stop here.

We are also to love God with all our soul. The Hebrew understanding of soul was not like the Greek understanding (the part that survives after the body dies). For those speaking the Shema, the soul represented one’s life and body. It represented the full picture of their existence as a living, breathing, physical being. So, to love God with your soul is to devote your entire being—all the resources God has given you in your body and life—in an effort to love God and neighbor.

And finally, the Shema says that we are to love God with all our strength. In Mark’s version Jesus adds the word mind. What’s going on here? Well, in short, this is caused by a challenge translating Hebrew into Greek (what we read) or Aramaic (what Jesus spoke). Let me try to cut to the chase.

Asking if the “right” translation is strength or mind or something else is looking at this through a foggy lens. I look at it this way. As the final word in the list, the original Hebrew word (me’od) serves to intensify love, heart and soul and bring each one to its full capacity. Love Yahweh with all your heart—will, thoughts, desires and affections. Love Him with all your soul—with every part of your life and physical being. And finally, love the LORD your God all your “muchness,” powerfully devoting all you have, all you are and every experience you encounter as a way to love God and neighbor as yourself.

The Shema, and Jesus’ quoting of it, is a passage loaded with weightiness and meaning. What might God want to say to you through it? Are you willing to consider carefully how you listen to these words (Luke 8:18)?

I invite you to take some time this week to read Mark 12:28-34 a couple of different ways, reading for formation and not just information. Begin by meditating on this text through Lectio Divina (see "Reading for Formation" on 4/23).  The next day, let the Lord speak to you through your life as you use this passage to practice the Examen (see "Listen Through Your Life" on 5/1). And now that you have thoroughly listened to God’s Word, use your final day to let these words guide your prayers to God (see "Praying Scripture" on 5/8).

May the Lord bless your listening and your ongoing conversation with the One who is always lovingly at His work, molding you more fully into His image.

Growing with you,

Rob