The Greatest Commandment

By Jason Luke

Well, brothers and sisters, this is my first Sunday preaching the sermon. No place to run and hide now, we are in this together until it’s over, and if I’m honest, I am glad that I am in it with you guys!

Before we get started in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, I’d like to tell you a story from when I was a wee lad. So, my family and I were in Dallas, Oregon, visiting my Grandma Luke. If I remember right, my Dad, Mom, my brother Rob & my sister Lori were all there. Grandma Luke was an exceptional grandma. She loved and cared for all of us grandkids, and most conversations with her would have a gospel lens to it; she loved Jesus. If you knew me when I was younger, you would have known that I was loud, like “outside voice” all the time, loud. My volume knob worked intermittently, was finicky, or more likely just broken all the time, loud! As you can imagine, it brought a lot of heat and extra attention to my life at that time. And for probably the millionth time on that trip, someone was telling me to keep it down, Jason, or quiet down, Jason, or  a favorite from my siblings, pipe down, Jason, and my Grandma Luke turned and said to me,”Jason, you should be a preacher.” I looked at her as if she were asking me to do a chore and said,”Grandma, have Rob do it.” Well, it’s been close to 40 years since then, and my Grandma Luke is with Jesus now, but here we go!  

Let’s Read Deuteronomy 6:4-5 CSB, also known as the Jewish prayer called The Shema(Shmah}

The Shema is a daily declaration of faith in Judaism and is important for all of us as followers of Christ because the Old Testament and New Testament tell us that it is the greatest commandment and is absolutely foundational for our faith.

It goes: Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength.

In the first verse, it says the Lord is one. I want to briefly touch on some of the what and why for that verse. The Israelites to whom this was written came from Egypt, which was polytheistic; they had many Gods, and many of the surrounding nations were the same. The “one” used there is the same one used in Genesis when Adam and Eve are to become ‘one flesh”. I am not going to try to explain the Holy Trinity right now; I’ll leave that to someone else, another time. I am going to say that the language used affirms the Trinity. And I would say, where I would like this to land is this, people in our city may not be worshiping Baal, Asherah, Amun, or Ra, but we have a large list of other potential idols that are fighting for space in our lives, and whenever you let anything’s importance surpass God in your life. It is an idol. If you compartmentalize your life to keep God out of that portion of it, it has also become an idol. And as brother Jim said last week, the Lord is God, there is no other.

Before we get too deep into this scripture, I’d like you to imagine 3 people for me:

The first is the strongest person you know, have met, or seen on TV. Maybe it’s “Big Z”  who has won the world’s strongest man competition a bunch of times. Or maybe you’ve seen me take my groceries from the car to the house, in one trip, and were very impressed. Or watched John Kopta and the power team bend barbells and rip phone books. All of which are equally impressive! But when compared to the strength and power of God, there is no comparison. I can’t even think of a number big enough to multiply by to show how much more power and strength God has than we do.

The second person I’d like you to imagine is the smartest person you know, or have heard about, or has even lived in the last 1000 years. Issac Newton, arguably one of the most intelligent people, Einstein, Tesla, Leonardo da Vinci, all not too shabby on the smart people scale. Even with as intelligent as they were, comparing their intelligence with God’s is like comparing the power of an ant to the power of a KillaNova, which, as my son Cord tells me, is the colossal explosion of two neutron stars colliding. Or A lot more, like a lot, a lot!

It is easy for me to look at the Creator and the created and see there really is no comparison to His power and His intelligence & wisdom vs ours.

Now I want you to think of this third person, and this one is more personal; this is the person who loves or has loved you the best in this life. I want you to close your eyes and remember how good that love felt. When I close my eyes and think of that love, I think of warmth, comfort, the everything is going to be okay bear hug kind of peace that I get from that love. This brings a lot of emotions, and that’s good that it does. It is an amazing feeling to be well-loved by other people.

For me, it is easy to realize that God’s power, wisdom, and intelligence are far beyond ours. It is harder for me to remember that the same is true for His love. Just as we can’t fully understand how great His power and intellect are, we also cannot fully understand how great His love is. His love is exponentially more and better than the best love we have received from another person. God is Love, His love is perfect.

1 Jn 4:16 CSB  And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

Rom 5:8 CSB  But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God’s love for us is both His fundamental nature and for us, His greatest action, by His willingness to sacrifice for us when we didn’t deserve it.

1 Jn 4:19 CSB  We love because he first loved us,

Because of God’s amazing, perfect love for us, we are able to see, know, and feel what real love is. I really wanted to talk about how well we are loved by our God, before we start on how we are supposed to love Him, and how important it is to realize we would not know love if it were not for Him.

With the foundation of God loves us and it is an amazing, perfect love, we turn to the 3 ways this verse calls us to love God.

Sidenote, I heard cool pastors work a little Hebrew explanation into their message, so here it is!

1. Heart: Levav (luh-VAHV)

• The Scripture: Deuteronomy 6:5 — “Love the Lord your God with all your heart…”
• The Root & Meaning: In ancient Hebrew, Lev or Levav does not just represent your romantic emotions or feelings. To the Israelites, the heart was the center of human thought, intellect, and will.
• Sermon Point: We often hear people say, “Follow your heart” to mean “follow your feelings.” But a biblical call to love God with your Heart is a command to align your thought life, your logic, and your everyday choices with Him.

Here are some practical ways you are pointing your Levav towards God or not.

• The Media You Consume: The podcasts, news, and shows you stream, and how they shape your view and who you are looking to. Are you being discipled by your podcasts, social media algorithm, or by the Word of God?
• Your Private Thoughts: What you dwell on when you are alone, including anxieties, judgments, or daydreams, and are you holding those in or taking them to our good God?
• Your Decision-Making: How you weigh pros and cons for a career move or a major purchase—are you seeking God’s will or just personal comfort?
• Your Motivations: Why you do good things. Are you doing things to be seen, or out of a genuine desire to serve God?
• Your Conflict Resolution: The choice to forgive someone who wronged you, overriding your natural emotional desire for revenge. Do you feel justice is yours to deal out?
• The Levav is not defined by emotions and feelings, and it doesn’t mean to remove emotions and feelings either, but it means inviting God into every captive thought that you have.

2. Soul: Nephesh (NEH-fesh)

The Scripture: Deuteronomy 6:5 — “…and with all your soul…”

• The Root & Meaning: In modern times, we often think of the soul as a disembodied, invisible spark trapped inside a physical body. But the Hebrew word Nephesh literally translates to “throat,” “breath,” or “living being.” It shows up in Genesis when Adam becomes a “living soul”—a whole, breathing physical person.
• Sermon Point: Your nephesh isn’t just the spiritual part of you that goes to heaven; it is your entire physical existence. It’s your appetites, your literal breath, your unique personality, and your physical body. To love God with all your nephesh means to love Him with your physical presence, your vitality, and your very life—even to the point of laying it down. It means being fully alive for Him.
• Where can your Nephesh show up in everyday life:
• Your Physical Health: How you eat, exercise, and care for the physical body God gave you. We often talk about being good stewards of the resources God gave us, but did God not give us our bodies as well?
• Your Rest: How you sleep and whether you practice Sabbath, trusting God enough to actually stop working and rest in Him?
• Your Mundane Chores: Folding laundry, commuting to work, or mowing the lawn—doing these ordinary physical tasks with a spirit of worship and gratitude. All things unto Him.
• Your Words: How you use your literal breath (since nephesh translates to throat/breath), are you using them to either build people up or tear them down?
• Your Presence: Simply being physically present and attentive with someone, I feel like we are all in a rush these days and don’t have the time or give our full attention to things, people, or even God. And sometimes loving with your presence is to walk or maybe just sit with someone, right where they are at.

3. Strength: Me’od (meh-ODE)

The Scripture: Deuteronomy 6:5 — “…and with all your strength.”

• The Root & Meaning: This is the biggest surprise in the text. In almost every other place in the Old Testament, Me’od is not a noun at all—it is an adverb that means “very,” “exceedingly,” or “greatly.” Literally, the text commands the people to love God with all of their “muchness.”
• Sermon Point: How do you love God with your “very-ness”? It implies taking everything at your disposal—your capacity, your influence, your time, your talents, and your financial resources—and throwing the full weight of it into loving God. It is an overflowing, multi-faceted devotion that takes all your earthly power and redirects it toward heaven.
• When it comes to the Me’od, are the things on this list at God’s disposal or just yours?
• Your Finances: Your bank account, investments, budget, and how you practice generosity.
• Your Time: The 168 hours you get each week and what your calendar reveals about your actual priorities.
• Your Influence and Platform: Your social media reach, your title at work, or your reputation in the community, and how you use that in regard to the people around you.
• Your Home and Possessions: Your dining room table, your spare bedroom, your car, and your tools. Are they available for hospitality and helping others?
• Your Talents and Energy: Your skills and the literal physical/mental energy you have, where are you spending it?

So what does all that mean for us?
With everything we have, we are called to love God with our Heart, Soul, and strength.  With our hearts, Jesus tells us that it’s not just what we do that matters, but it’s what is in our hearts. The Levav applies to our  thoughts and motives we keep private,  our decision-making, and how we resolve conflict.  

Colossians 3:23 ESV “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men”

We are called to love God with our souls, our Nephesh, our whole person; we are to do everything unto the Lord. Your presence, your words, the mundane chores, your physical health, and even your rest, do unto the Lord.

And your strength, we see defined  earlier as resources, finances, possessions, our time, talents, and energy. But I really want you to think about it another way, too. Think about the Me-od, as the veryness, greatly, exceedingly, and muchness. All of those really point to the fact that we are called to love God with MORE than we realize now. Right now, there are things that you and I are holding on to that we don’t even realize we are, and our good Father who loves us perfectly wants those, too. He wants everything you can think of and all the things you can’t. Loving God is a process, and you may look at the list of ways we are called to love God and be overwhelmed. Good, me too. It would be far more concerning if you look at the list and think you have it all taken care of. Our good God gave us the Holy Bible, and it shows time and time again where His strength flourishes in our human weakness.

That’s the best part, our shortcomings and our weaknesses are not the end. Realizing you are not fully loving God in an area is good! It allows you to humble yourself before Him, humble your mind, humble your pride before the Lord our God, and He will meet you there. Whatever you are holding on to or thinking about right now, TAKE IT TO GOD. If you are trying to manage problems of this world on your own without taking them to God, that is a mistake.  

Psalms 121:1-2 CSB  I lift my eyes toward the mountains, where will my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

I have a couple of closing thoughts. The Bible has a lot of rules and commandments in it, but I challenge you not to look at them like earthly rules to restrict your freedom, but instead look at them as blessings!
CS Lewis said,”God’s love is not a King’s indulgence, but a demanding desire for the ultimate goodness and healing for those He creates”
It is because God loves us so much that these blessings are there. They are not there to stop you from having a good time, but are there like a cheat code for you to live your best life. The creator of the universe made us and these blessings for our good. The blessing-rules are the not-so-secret recipe to have the best life that our God prescribed for us! They are absolutely part of God’s perfect love for us.

And I wanted to chat a bit more about idols and loving God. Jim pointed out last week the idol of our cell phones. As a Generation X kid who grew up drinking water out of hoses and riding the rubber of my bike tires, we went from no cell phones to these. It still blows me away, the information and entertainment at our fingertips. But it is also extremely dangerous, and I would guess it gets more time and influence in all of our lives than we’d like to admit. And it is also really on my heart to add, Idols do not have to be a physical thing. And they can be really good things in our lives, but if we put anything above the importance of our relationship with God, IT IS AN IDOL, full stop. I think more people struggle with this than they would like to admit. I think money is a great example of this, but it doesn’t stop there. Careers & School, not above our relationship with Jesus. Marriage & Children are not above our relationship with Jesus. Sports are not above our relationship with Jesus. I would say that everything I listed and more can be great blessings and gifts from God in our lives, but they are NOT when we give them priority over the One who made and saved us.

I am not up here telling you I have this locked down; this message is coming from an imperfect sinner who couldn’t figure it out on my own. At one point in my life, I went to God humbled, on my knees. In my own wisdom and pride, I was trying to be a good husband, a good father. I read books and blogs and even the Bible to find how to be good at these things.  But in my heart, I had God as a priority, and I was moving around with other priorities. Good priorities. On the outside, my life was good, but when I read “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”, I did not feel the rest that those verses talk about. I went to God and cried out for help, and He didn’t answer me with audible words, but He told me He wants it all. So I try to make Him THE priority in my life, I try to have all things flow through Him. And guys, at times I fail, and life is still hard. But the Joy and the Peace that I have in my life now are the unmistakable mark of God working in my life.

There is nothing I want more for you in this world than to love God.

Our goal is to love God with everything we have, to have God be the influence in every part of our lives. In surrendering everything we have to Jesus, we are giving back to God what has always been His. Our heart, our breath, our everything. We just have to go to our Lord, and humbly give it back and say not my way, Lord, but yours.

I’d like you all to close your eyes right now, bow your heads, take a deep breath and let it out, humbly go to God. The God who loves us more than we can imagine, go to Him with whatever is on your heart. Maybe it’s something you are holding on to or a place where you have kept God out of. Let go of your pride, let Him know you are tired and want His peace and His rest. Ask Him to take back that part of your life that was always His and for Him to be glorified in all of your life. He is a good father, and He loves his children.

Proverbs 24:16 Though a righteous person falls seven times, he will get up, but the wicked will stumble into ruin.

Do not be discouraged; get back up and go to God. Again and again and again.