The Sh’ma: All In
The Sh’ma says that God wants a total commitment of our heart, soul, and strength. The force driving such a bold commitment is love; but not our love, and certainly not the sensory, heart-throbbing love of films and literature.
Because we are all rebellious sinners, we should be utterly unloveable to a perfect and holy God.
He hates sin.
He despises our disobedient thoughts, words, and behaviors.
But here’s the part that is really hard to believe: God loves us in spite of our sin.
He loves us without consideration for our social status, the color of our skin, the language we speak, or our educational background. In return, he wants to be loved by us (2 Corinthians 4:14 ff.). The problem is, sinful people do not have the capacity to generate all-in, selfless love on their own.
Only the transformed hearts of people who have been changed by God’s love have that capacity; God’s Spirit gives it to them. What’s more, Hearts that have been transformed by God’s love will also begin to mimic his love for others.
God’s love is more powerful than any other force on earth. It’s power changes hearts, bringing them to life, remaking them to be more like the perfect image in which he originally made us.
One theologian wrote that his best attempt at translating the Hebrew phrase in the Sh’ma is, “Love the Lord with all you’ve got.”
Why? Because that’s the way God loves us. He loves us with his full being. In turn, we strive to love him with the same kind of selfless love that drove Jesus to the cross (1 John 3:7-10).
GROUP DISCUSSION
- What evidence has God given us to prove that he loves us with his whole being?
- How does the Sh’ma connect every believer’s love for God with the creation of human life on earth?
