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Loving God
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There is no greater
commandment than to love the LORD our God with all of our heart, soul and
might. Here are just some of the ways that God commands us, in the Torah, to
love Him. |
 To
believe that God exists.
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out
of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
(Exodus 20:2)
This is the starting point for all Believers. If
one does not believe that God exists then there
is no reason for Him to pursue believing
anything else in the Bible. One must also know
who this God is and what He expects of us.
Anyone can claim to believe in "god" but if one
doesn't believe that He is the God who brought
us out of Egypt then he is not the god of the
Bible. This also, by the way, presupposes that
God's people are the people of Israel.
And without faith it is impossible to please
Him, for he who comes to God must believe that
He is and that He is a rewarder of those who
seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)
To
affirm that the God of Israel is the one and
only God.
Hear, O
Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!
(Deuteronomy 6:4)
Not only do we need to believe that God exists,
we must also believe that He is the only God who
exists. This is one of the primary beliefs that
sets us apart from the pagan nations. Embedded
within this commandment is the understanding
that God is not affected by His creation. While
there is certainly much mystery surrounding the
concept of the Word (John 1:1), especially the
Word incarnate, but this does not negate the
fact that LORD alone is God and there is no one
like Him.
"What commandment is the foremost of all?"
Yeshua answered, "The foremost is, 'HEAR, O
ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD.’” (Mark
12:28b-29)
To
love God with all of your heart, soul and
might.
You shall love the LORD your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all
your might. (Deuteronomy 6:5)
Our Master said that this is the most important
commandment and is one of two commandments in
which the whole of the Scriptures depend upon.
If we are not committed to loving God with all
that is within us and all that we have dominion
over, than we won't be willing to do any of the
commandments. We can love God by studying and
doing the things He has commanded us to do. In
reality, there is really no other way to show
our love for Him. For when we devote ourselves
to things that are outside of the scope of Torah
we no longer love God the way He commanded us
to.
"Teacher, which is the great commandment in
the Torah?" And [Yeshua] said to him, " 'YOU
SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR
HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR
MIND.' This is the great and foremost
commandment. The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' On these two
commandments depend the whole Torah and the
Prophets." (Matthew 22:36-40)
To
fear the LORD.
You shall fear only the LORD your God; and
you shall worship Him and swear by His name.
(Deuteronomy 6:13)
You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall
serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear
by His name. (Deuteronomy 10:20)
Fearing God means to know that He is always
watching over us and that He knows our hearts.
In the same way we would be careful not to do
anything sinful in front of our earthly fathers,
so too, we should always be aware that our
heavenly Father watches over us. A healthy dose
of the fear of God results in knowing our place
and obeying God out of a heart of gratitude.
Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to
discipline us, and we respected them; shall we
not much rather be subject to the Father of
spirits, and live? (Hebrews 12:9)
The conclusion, when all has been heard, is:
fear God and keep His commandments, because this
applies to every person. (Ecclesiastes 12:13)
To
walk in the ways of God.
The LORD will establish you as a holy people to
Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the
commandments of the LORD your God and walk in
His ways. (Deuteronomy 28:9)
Just as God is merciful, gracious, forgiving,
loving, kind and a whole host of righteous
attributes, so too, we should seek to be all
those things. God does not lie and never goes
back on His word. God forgives us before we even
ask for forgiveness. We must continually assess
our lives and see how we can change to become
more like God. As disciples of Yeshua, we can
look to Him for an example because He said:
So Yeshua said, "When you lift up the Son of
Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do
nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these
things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent
Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I
always do the things that are pleasing to Him."
(John 8:28-29)
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved
children. (Ephesians 5:1) |
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To
sanctify the LORD.
You shall not profane My holy name, but I
will be sanctified among the sons of
Israel; I am the LORD who sanctifies you,
(Leviticus 22:32)
To sanctify the LORD refers to being a good
representative of God in the world, so that
God's reputation is upheld. As Believers, we are
the light of the world; we are to shine the
light of God’s revelation in this world. What
this means is that depending on the way we live,
we will either be making God’s name common or we
will be sanctifying it. When we act like the
rest of the world, we are showing that our God
is not different than any of the other “gods.”
When we are holy, set apart, we show that our
God is the one, true and unique God. The
traditional understanding extends this to point
that one should die rather than intentionally
sin. This is, perhaps, the utmost amount of
devotion one could give to God.
Let your light shine before men in such a way
that they may see your good works, and glorify
your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)
To
not do anything that could result in a
desecration of God's name.
You shall not profane My holy name, but I
will be sanctified among the sons of
Israel; I am the LORD who sanctifies you.
(Leviticus 22:32)
In Jewish though, a person’s name is not just
referring to the various letters and sounds but
refers more specifically to a person’s
reputation, authority and character. Therefore
not only should we never do anything that would
result in God’s actual four-letter name to be
desecrated, even more so should we never do
anything that would cause God’s holy reputation,
authority and character to be desecrated. The
Sages say that we should die rather than commit
idolatry, sexual immorality or bloodshed. On a
more everyday level, this would refer to not
doing things that would cause others to think
wrongly of God or of Believers in general.
To
show reverence for God's Sanctuary.
You shall keep My sabbaths and reverence My
sanctuary; I am the LORD. (Leviticus 19:30)
In our modern world, most Believers are not even
aware that when Messianic faith was birthed, the
Temple was the central place of worship. Even if
this is known, the Temple is usually regarded as
a relic of the past not worthy to be given any
thought. The Torah, however, commands us to
revere God’s sanctuary. In the most literal
sense, this commandment is only applicable when
the Temple is standing as it would refer to not
entering the Temple in a ritually impure state.
There is a sense that we should remember the
Temple and its service, for this is the
institution of God and it’s the place where our
Master and His disciples worshipped God. All
Believers should pray and long for the
rebuilding of the Temple, so that we can worship
God as He commanded us to.
Day by day continuing with one mind in the
temple, and breaking bread from house to house,
they were taking their meals together with
gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God
and having favor with all the people And the
Lord was adding to their number day by day those
who were being saved. (Acts 2:46-47)
To
not destroy holy things or erase the holy name
of God.
You shall not act like this toward the LORD
your God. (Deuteronomy 12:4)
The Israelites were commanded to erase the names
of the false gods of the Land that they were
entering. The commandment of not acting like
this towards God is a logical addition made by
Moses. Traditionally, this only applies to the
four-letter name of God. God's name should never
be audibly pronounced (though, in fact, this is
not currently possible since the pronunciation
of God's name is not actually currently known),
especially in casual speech. Hebrew books
containing the Name of God should be treated
with respect and should never be casually tossed
around or thrown away. In modern observance, it
is sometimes the practice to even treat the
English circumlocutions with respect by adding a
dash where the vowels would be, thus, if they
were to be erased, they would not actually be
erasing a name of God.
To
not add or take away anything from the
commandments of the Torah.
Whatever I command you, you shall be careful
to do; you shall not add to nor take away from
it. (Deuteronomy 12:32)
It’s sad that both of the major religions that
are based
upon the Bible have historically violated this
commandment. Orthodox Judaism, with its notion
that the Oral Torah is on the same level as the
Written Torah and the historic Christian Church
which has disregarded many of the commandments
of the Torah.
To be sure, many things within Orthodox Judaism
which might seem like additions are actually
simply their interpretation of the actual
commandment. This is actually legitimate and
should not be seen to be a violation of the
commandment to not add to the Torah. Additional
fence laws, however, when put on the same level
of authority as the actual commandments of God
is a violation of this commandment.
Historic Christianity, on the other hand, has
violated the commandment to take away from the
Torah. Traditional Christian theology has in
essence taken away very large portions of the
Torah. The Sabbath, Festivals, kosher laws,
rituals and much more are all regarded as no
longer authoritative at all. This commandment
secures that God never intended the Torah to be
done away with. To say that Yeshua or the
Apostles taught the whole or part of the Torah
was done away with is saying that they were in
violation of this commandment.
It is the duty of Messianic believers to reject
both of these notions and accept all of the
Torah as authoritative, neither adding nor
taking away from the commandments of the Torah. |
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