Deuteronomy 6:5

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God,.... Which is the first and chief commandment in the law, the sum and substance of the first table of it; and includes in it, or at least has connected with it,

And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. No JFB commentary on these verses.

Now he shows another spring or principle of sincere obedience to God, even hearty love to God, which will make his work and service easy; and that the fear he mentioned before, , was such as would consist with love to God, and not that slavish fear and honour which produceth hatred.

Deuteronomy 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.Ver. 5. And thou shalt love.] This shows the impossibility of keeping the law perfectly: Ita ut frustra sint sophistae, &c. The true Christian counts all that he can do for God but a little of that much he owes him, and that he could gladly beteem him. But what a wretched monk was that that died with these words in his mouth, Redde mihi aeternam vitam quam debes; Lord, pay me heaven, for thou owest it!

(5) With all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.—The word “heart” has been taken both as “thought” and “affection.” Hence, perhaps, the four terms, “heart, mind, soul, and strength,” which we find in St. Mark 12:30. Bashi says upon the expression “all thy heart”—“with both natures” (the good and evil nature). “With all thy soul” he expounds thus: “Even though He take it (thy life) from thee.” And “with all thy might” he paraphrases in a truly practical and characteristic fashion, “With all thy money, for you sometimes find a man whose money is dearer to him than his life (or body).” Or, as an alternative, “in every condition which He allots to thee, whether prosperity or chastisement. And so He says in David, ‘I will take the cup of salvation (deliverances), and I will call on the name of the Lord’ (Psalms 116:13); and again. ‘I shall find trouble and heaviness, and I will call on the name of the Lord’” (Deuteronomy 6:3-4.) It is an interesting illustration of the passage, though the verbal connection on which it is based will not hold.

Verse 5. Thou shalt love the Lord, c.] Here we see the truth of that word of the apostle, 1 Timothy 1:5: Now the END of the COMMANDMENT is LOVE out of a pure heart, &c. See the whole of the doctrine contained in this verse explained on Matthew 22:36-40.

5. and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God] Love, mentioned in JE as an affection between human beings (father and son, husband and wife, slave and master) and in H as a duty both to neighbour-Israelites and to strangers (Leviticus 19:18; Leviticus 19:34), is never in the Hexateuch described as entering into the relation of man to God except in D and deuteronomic passages, where it is enforced with impressive frequency and fulness as the fundamental religious duty; in the deuteronomic expansion of the Decalogue Exodus 20:6 = Deuteronomy 5:10; cp. Deuteronomy 7:9, also Deuteronomy 10:12; Deuteronomy 11:1; Deuteronomy 11:13; Deuteronomy 11:22; Deuteronomy 13:3; Deuteronomy 19:9; Deuteronomy 30:6; Deuteronomy 30:16; Deuteronomy 30:20 (of which only Deuteronomy 11:13; Deuteronomy 11:22 and Deuteronomy 13:3 are Pl.), and the deuteronomic passages Joshua 22:5; Joshua 23:11. It must be noted that prophecy had already used the term ethically (Amos 5:15 love the good) and religiously, for Hosea, besides frequently emphasising God’s love to Israel (Deuteronomy 3:1, Deuteronomy 9:15, Deuteronomy 11:1; Deuteronomy 11:4, Deuteronomy 14:4), and in terms so warm as to inevitably excite their love to God, describes also the relation of men to their gods as one of love and calls Jehovah the husband of Israel (Deuteronomy 2:7; Deuteronomy 2:13, Deuteronomy 9:10). In this also, therefore, we may venture to see Hosea’s influence on D, but D has developed it with an originality and fulness that are very conspicuous and potential in the O.T. and in the N.T. still regarded as final. To D love to God is the distinctive mark of His true worshippers, Israel’s necessary response to His mercies especially in redeeming them from Egypt (cp. We love Him because He first loved us, 1 John 4:19), their central obligation, motive and power to keep His laws; in Christ’s words, the first of all the Commandments (Mark 12:29 f.). See further on Exodus 20:6. with all thine heart, and with all thy soul] a favourite phrase in D. See on Deuteronomy 4:29 for meaning and list of instances. Here is added with all thy might, as in 2 Kings 23:25. ‘The One God demands the whole man’ (Smend, Rel. Gesch.2 286).

Since there is but One God, and that God is Israel’s God, so Israel must love God unreservedly and entirely.

5. Love the Lord thy God — This comprehensive requirement Christ calls the first and great commandment. And by its side he places the requirement to love our neighbours as ourselves. Leviticus 19:9.