Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you. Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Deut. 6:3-4

Having considered the attributes mentioned in verse 5, loving God with all our: heart, soul and strength. There is one more thing we must understand, without it we will never truly Love God. We must ‘hear’ the Lord our God. Now some might consider this as nothing more than a preface, and introduction to the command to love God. On the contrary it is the very foundation. Without understanding this, we will never be able to fulfil the command. Consider this, before God instructs His people in the way they should go, He first reveals Himself to them. Take the Ten Commandments as an example. We might jump to the first of the ten commands ‘You shall have no other gods before me’ (Ex. 20:3). Logically it is first in the order and of vital importance, this is true. But it isn’t how the ten commandments start. Before God asks anything of His people first, He reveals Himself, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (Ex 20:2).

Without a revelation of ‘who’ God is, the commands will become burdensome. God’s commands can only be truly obeyed out of a love relationship with Him. In John 14 Jesus reveals Himself, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me’ (John 14:6).  A few verses later He says ‘If you love me, keep my commands’ (John 14:15). As before, the command follows the revelation of who God is.

This is of vital importance; we must recognise that obedience comes from Revelation rather than our own Determination. We don’t get anywhere in life by trying harder. Jesus never asked his disciples to ‘try harder.’ Over these past few days, we have seen the ways we are to love God, and for some it will surely have seemed like a lot. Some may have asked, ‘how am I supposed to do all this?’ All we must do is look at Jesus and the love He has shown us when He died on the cross. There is no greater act of love than this. If we will only realise the depths of what Jesus has done for us, loving Him in return becomes easy. Before we can even attempt to love God, we must first understand we are truly and deeply loved by God. He who has been forgiven much, will love much! (Luke 7:41-47).

- Joseph Jone