Everything
By the time Jesus walked on the earth, the original ten commandments had been expanded to at least 613, and some scholars claim that it was more like 633. Either way, those are really big numbers! Now, it can be really easy to pull the rug out on those who have walked before us, and when we come to learn the magnitude of expansion on a set of rules that seemed so simple, straightforward, and clear, we can be even more tempted to do so. I know that I’m guilty of it and have needed and will need to repent of that posture and attitude again.
Why you ask? Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is why. Here’s what it says.
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
The people and the leaders of Israel took this command to love God with all their might very seriously. And they saw their keeping of the commands of God as an act of love, devotional, and worship. Here is another way of putting it, Israel’s obedience was not to spring from a barren legalism based on necessity and duty. It was to arise from a relationship based on love.[1] They were trying to love God with their everything. So, to make sure that they kept the laws, they began to define and give boundaries to them. Over centuries the original ten expanded exponentially. And, just like them, how often do we make the law, moral obedience, and our performance the object of our worship instead of God? It is why Jesus told the people that the religious leaders tied up “heavy burdens” for them (Matt. 23:4). And he also said that his burden was light (Matt 11:30). Jesus doesn’t get rid of the ten commandments, he simply reminds us of their position and the position of God. God is to be loved with our everything, and Jesus makes that possible for us.
In fact, Jesus makes this point even more poignantly in Matt. 22:36-40. A religious leader asks him what the most important commandment is. Now, don’t forget the importance of keeping the law in connection to loving God… this was an essential question. What is Jesus’ answer? Deuteronomy 6:5… You are to love God with your everything. Now, Jesus will go on to do a curious thing, and that is just like Jesus. He will give what appears to be a second command, but it is actually an application, “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Do you see what Jesus did there?
- What’s most important? Love God with your everything.
- How will you know that you’re doing that or that the love of God is taking root in your heart? It will come out in your public life and the way you treat others. In fact, this is what the whole Old Testament is all about.
Wow, what a statement from Jesus!
Sixty-some years after his ascension, Jesus will remind the church in Ephesus that they, too, had misplaced and misprioritized the object of their affection and worship. Jesus will encourage them to recover the love they had for God at first. A love that was filled with passion and life.
For you and me, it can be really easy to pull the rug out from those who have gone before us. We can trick ourselves into thinking, “We or I’m not like them and would never do what they did.” That is woefully naive. We are in many ways just like them and have the same struggles. With that reality, let us ask two questions:
- Have I made something that is good the object of my worship, and misplaced God?
- Am I as convinced as Jesus is that I am to love God with my everything?
Remember, Jesus makes loving God with your everything possible. Abiding presence is a gift of grace. Praise God for that!
[1] J. A. Thompson, Deuteronomy: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 5, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1974), 138.