Monday, May 23

Monday

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.  Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 

– Deuteronomy 6:4-5

This verse is known as the Shema, it means "hear" in Hebrew.  The whole sentence reads, "Shaw-MAH Yis-raw-ALE! YAH-weh El-o-HEEM, YAH-weh Ekh-AWD!"  To translate, "YAH-weh" is the proper name of God. "Hear, oh Israel! Yahweh is Elohim, Yahweh is one!"  This is the central prayer of the Jewish faith.  It was, and still is, the first portion of the OT that a Jewish boy or girl commits to memory.  As Christians, we have been taught about the Trinity - that God is one God in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Some people have claimed that this verse denies any notion of the trinityYou see, the singular word for "god" in Hebrew is "El." When two gods are being referred to, the word used is the dual form, "Ella." When speaking of three or more, the word is "Elohim."

Rabbi Simeon ben Joachim, commenting on the word Elohim: "Come and see the mystery of the word Elohim; there are three degrees, and each degree by itself alone, and yet notwithstanding they are all one, and joined together in one, and are not divided from each other." Martin Luther commented on this verse "He must be strangely prejudiced indeed who cannot see that the doctrine of a Trinity, and of a Trinity in unity, is expressed in the above words."

The Hebrew clearly states that God is one, yet several. How does that work?  No one can explain it adequately, because any physical description we use - or concept that our human minds can grasp will inevitably diminish the truth of God.  God is not like an egg or an ice cube or a three leaf clover!

All we can truly say is this:

1.        The Bible clearly shows that the Father is God, that Jesus is God, and that the Holy Spirit is God.

2.        The Bible clearly shows that the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit are not the same Person.

3.        The Bible clearly says that God is one God.

Now, if you are able to put all of those facts together into an easily understandable equation, you probably haven't thought about it hard enough!

Why does all of this talk about who and what God is really matter?

Because knowing who God is enables us to love Him well and to act towards Him rightly: We must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.  God wants a complete love for us; a love that is appropriate, because He loved us completely: We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).  He doesn’t want us to love our confused and half-baked ideas of who He is.  God wants us to know Him as He is and to love Him as He has revealed Himself to us in His word and through Jesus! 

What God most wants from us is our love.  We often think God demands a hundred other things from us - our money, our time, our effort, our will, our submission, and so forth - but what God really wants is our love.  When we really love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, and mind, then everything else is freely given to the Lord.  If we give the Lord all the rest - money, time, effort, will, and so forth - without giving Him our love, it is all wasted - and perhaps, is even lost. 

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.    - 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Jesus called this the great commandment (Matthew 22:37-38); and He said the second commandment was like the first, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. When we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind, we will find it much easier to love our neighbor as ourselves. 

BUT, the first command must come first!  There is a very important principle for us here.  Our first priority as Christians is to love God with all that we are!  The moment we begin to neglect this, we go wrong in our hearts and in our lives.

C.S. Lewis called this the principle of “First Things” – “You can’t get second things by putting them first. You get second things only by putting first things first. Put first things first and we get second things thrown in: put second things first and we lose both first and second things.”  God is first, and everything else is second to Him!

This is what Jesus meant when He said, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matt. 6:33)

Oh God, help to keep you first above all else in our hearts - Amen.

 Jeff Frazier