Deuteronomy 6:5-9
5 "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 "These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7 " You shall teach them diligently to your sons 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 up. 8 "You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead . 9 "You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
The verse I wanted to concentrate on here is the fifth verse. The reason I posted the other four verses is because I wanted to show the importance of verse five. We may do a little explanation of them however they could turn into a sermon by themselves.
Let's start off with talking about the word
love, using it in the biblical context might be a little bit different than what common man uses it today. Christ said:
Greater love hath no man is this, that a man lay down his life for his friends, John 15:13. You also recall John 3:16 where God's love is explained for mankind by the sacrifice of his own son. So the commandment here is for us to love the Lord our God unto death if need be.
In other words a love that is worth dying for.The next part may be a little bit repetitive, because when we look at our
heart and our
soul biblically we are talking about our inner self, our deepest feelings, our unspoken thoughts. Notice also that the word spirit is not used this is because there is a difference, even though they commonly interchanged in our language. Different words are used in the Old Testament to be translated into
spirit or
soul. I believe the reason that soul is used here in this text is that it is more of an external activity produced by the spirit. The word
spirit is used twice in Deuteronomy, in Deuteronomy 2:30 and Deuteronomy 34:9. Both times it is shown that it is God that controls the spirit and not man. This is also shown in Romans 11:8-10, where Paul tells us again that it is God that is in control of the spirit.
So what is being said in the text is that so much as God allows us to love, we should use all that is allowed. This is shored up by the last part of the text where He says and "with all your strength", not the strength given to your spirit by Him.
In verses six through nine we are shown how important this commandment is. We can discuss the meaning of binding this verse to our hands and forehead later, but right now was just say that we are being told that this should enter into every part of our life and that others will see this in the way we live and conduct ourselves.
JB
