The Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) calls us, as it did Israel, to love God with our whole being. Jesus called this the greatest commandment of all. Our ability to do this has been hampered by the bondage to sin (Romans 7). Jesus Christ has come to set us free from that captivity and to bring us who are exiled home to Himself. He has come to free us so we can love God by pouring out His Spirit within our hearts. With this freedom, wrought by the Son and the filling of His Spirit, we can now live out the Shema.
“Hear (Shema), O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (NASB)
From “The Master’s Table” by H. Lamar Smith
