How do you react when someone says, “Hey, listen up!”? How do you respond when someone shouts, “Hey! I’ve got something to tell you!”? What do you do when someone says, “Pay attention now!”? That’s what the word Shema means: “Hear ye, hear ye!”
Many faithful Jewish persons (tradition says males) will recite this text from Deuteronomy twice a day. It is a prayer conversation with God in which the Almighty is speaking. The Lord is saying, “Accept this!” And by New Testament times, Jesus is pointing to this divine expectation and clarifies that loving God also means loving neighbor (Matthew 22:34-40).
There is not any “wiggle room” in this commandment. In Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (New Revised Standard Version), note the words “alone” and “all” (three times). That does not allow for any exceptions. And, if there be any doubt about it, Jesus makes it clear that loving God (fully) and loving neighbor (fully) are part and parcel of the same relationship.
But, don’t let one other point slip by: Jesus also calls for us to love ourselves (Matthew 22:39). When we look at another and say, “Child of God,” we look in the mirror and say the same. When we respect another as someone created in the image of God, we look in the mirror and say the same. When we acknowledge others as targets of God’s prevenient—seeking, preceding—grace, we look in the mirror and see the same.
Loving God. Loving neighbor. Loving self. Which is the hardest for you to do? Loving God can be tough because God can seem abstract. Loving neighbor can be tough because neighbor can be uncaring. Loving self can be tough because so often we fall short of our best.
Yet, here it is: “Shema!” “Listen!” “Hear this!” These love expressions flow from each other, don’t they? The “go” switch on all of this is God’s grace-giving love for God’s creation and for us God’s creatures. God has “flipped the switch” of love and now it is our turn: God, neighbor, self.
What Someone Else Has Said: Kenneth J. Collins (The Theology of John Wesley: Holy Love and the Shape of Grace, Abingdon Press) has written: “Though Wesley often simply employed the term ‘holiness’ to describe the end or goal of the Christian life, nevertheless, at key points in his writings, he broke out this language into the elements of holy love.”
Prayer: As you prepare this lesson, let your prayer begin: “Your love, O God, has set me free to love as You love...”
