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37 He said to him, " "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. (Matthew 22:37-38 NRSV)
Twelve. An important number. It's the number of the followers called by Jesus to His disciples. Most heard from Jesus' lips, "Come. Follow me." All said yes. None knew the extent of the commitment they were making in saying yes. Not one of the twelve asked to be released. They all followed Jesus for three years and after Jesus' resurrection and ascension into Heaven, still followed. All died for their faith because of the love they had for Jesus.
Today we will look at the first of Jesus's Twelve Major Teachings to the Disciples in hopes of you and me becoming like the original twelve an becoming true followers at Jesus' invitation to transform the world. I want Jesus' teachings to impact our lives in positive and contagious ways, so that in time, you and me will reach at least eleven more and have a band of brothers and sisters to continue the unfinished work of Jesus. I want us built up spiritually and theologically. If you're willing, please continue reading. If you're not, thank you for stopping by and I pray God bless and protect you in whatever path you choose to follow Jesus. Pray for us.
The first major teaching of Jesus was from His own Bible, the Hebrew Scriptures we call the Old Testament. We first find this in Deuteronomy 6:4–5: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.” The Hebrew word for "Hear" is Shema and is called "The Shema." Years ago, in Florida, in a Jewish store I made a purchase and the store owner placed in my bag a small copy in Hebrew of The Shema. It was his way of witnessing to his faith. He has "heard," and wants others to hear. And beyond hearing comes obeying and following what the commandment teaches. It was what Jesus held as very sacred and important: We must love God completely. As the ancients wrote it, Jesus taught it and lived it, for it was central to His faith; loving God.
The commandment says this love begins in our heart. With the love that the heart produces, we lift it up to God. Completely. With whatever capacity we hold in our heart should be that which we have towards God. From God we have received all things, and it is only fitting that we return that love to Him. For the Jews, this commandment is recited morning and evening; as a reminder, as a prayer, as a guide for the day's objectives and goals. Could you make that part of your morning and before-bed prayers? Imagine the day and the sleep you will have as you remind yourself of the need we have to love God completely.
In Hebrew thought, the heart — levav — was not primarily the seat of emotion. It was the seat of the will, the place where decisions are made, where intentions are formed, where the self most essentially chooses. To love God with all your heart is to ask that your deepest wanting be reoriented — that what you reach for first, what you return to when no one is watching, what your life quietly orbits — be Him.
This is where most of us feel the gap most acutely. We know what our hearts actually reach for. We know what fills our idle thoughts, what we turn to for comfort, what we quietly treasure above all else. Loving God with the whole heart does not mean those other loves vanish entirely — but it means they are ordered beneath the one love that holds everything together. It means asking, again and again: Lord, be the center. Be what I want most.
The second part of the commandment says we shall love the Lord our God with all our soul. The word here is nephesh — breath, life-force, the animating essence of a person. It carries the sense of everything you are, not merely what you think or decide. Some of the ancient rabbis taught that loving God with all your soul meant loving Him even if He required your very life — that nothing, not even survival, would be withheld from this love.
For most of us, the daily application is less dramatic but no less costly. It means that no part of us is held in reserve, no corner of our life quietly marked off limits to God's claim. Our ambitions, our fears, our identities, our private selves — all of it offered, all of it available. This is not a single dramatic surrender but a thousand small ones, made over the course of a lifetime. It means asking: Lord, have all of me. Even the parts I haven't shown anyone. Again, imagine making this a part of your morning and evening prayers? What could become of you?
The final part is to love God with all our mind. The Hebrew word meod is unusual here — it more literally means "muchness" or "abundance," and it carries a sense of force, energy, and resources. Love God with everything you have to bring: your strength, your time, your money, your attention, your energy at its best rather than its leftover dregs.
This dimension is perhaps the most practical and the most convicting. It asks where we actually spend what we have been given. Not in a spirit of anxious accounting, but in a spirit of honest examination: does the way I spend my days reflect someone in love with God? Does my energy go toward knowing Him, toward the people He loves, toward the work He has given me? To love God with all your might is to ask that nothing be withheld on the grounds of cost.
What makes this commandment finally livable is the recognition that we cannot fulfill it on our own — and that the God who commands it is also the one who produces it in us. The whole of Deuteronomy 6 is set within the framework of God's prior love: He brought them out of Egypt, He chose them, He remained faithful across generations. The commandment to love does not come as an entrance requirement. It comes as a response to love already given.
And so this great commandment becomes, finally, a great prayer. We hold up to God the love He requires of us and confess: I cannot do this. Not fully. Not consistently. Not in my own strength. And we ask Him to do in us what we cannot do ourselves — to reorder our hearts, to claim our whole selves, to become the one our lives increasingly orbit.
This is not a prayer prayed once. It is the prayer of a lifetime, renewed each morning, returned to each time we drift.
PRAYER: Loving God, You alone are worthy of this love, and I confess that I have given You so much less. My heart wanders to smaller things. My soul holds back corners I am afraid to surrender. My strength goes to a hundred lesser purposes. Forgive me, and do what I cannot do for myself: draw me back to You. Reorder what I love. Claim what I withhold. Fill me with a love for You that is not manufactured by effort but kindled by Yours. Make the Great Commandment the great story of my life. Amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! OUR CALL TO ACTION: Make the repetitiion of this prayer a daily thing at first awakening and right before bed. Make it a part of your daily prayer life!
I love you and I thank God for you! You matter to God and you matter to me. Build someone up with your faith!
Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr. TOMORROW: Love Your Neighbor As Yourself!
