Can love be commanded? Study Deuteronomy 6 with context, apologetic analysis, and cross-references.
Dr. Lucas D. Shallua Commentary · DEUTERONOMY 6 — THE SHEMA: LOVE GOD WITH EVERYTHING
Not in the sense of manufacturing emotion — but covenant love is a settled orientation, a choosing of the whole person, cultivated by memory, practice, and gratitude. Ancient covenants routinely commanded loyalty-love; Deuteronomy deepens it: the command rests on the prior love ("who brought you out"). We love because he first loved us — the structure of 1 John 4:19 is already here.
The Shema's claim is exclusive monotheism: no other gods, no division in Israel's God. Christian faith affirms that oneness absolutely — one God, one LORD — while confessing from the fuller revelation that the one God's self-existence is eternally Father, Son, and Spirit. Jesus himself recites the Shema (Mark 12:29) and includes himself within its demand and devotion, a claim his earliest Jewish followers found scandalous precisely because it honored, not diluted, the Shema's oneness.
Deuteronomy 6 follows the Decalogue (ch. 5) as the exposition of covenant life: what the law looks like when loved rather than merely obeyed. The chapter's structure is devotion (vv. 1–9), testing (vv. 10–19), and transfer (vv. 20–25). Jesus will call verse 5 the greatest commandment (Mark 12:29–30) and quote verses 13 and 16 in his wilderness temptations (Matt 4:7, 10). The Shema became Judaism's twice-daily prayer, still recited morning and evening.
The Shema's daily recitation is the oldest continuous liturgical practice in the world — attested in the Mishnah (Berakhot 1:5), practiced by Jesus himself (Mark 12:29), and unbroken in Jewish life for well over two millennia. The tefillin boxes found in the Judean Desert caves (Nahal Hever, first century) contain Shema texts — material confirmation that the practice of binding these words was already literal and widespread in the Second Temple period. The mezuzah tradition likewise has continuous attestation.
This study preserves the hard questions, explanations, context, apologetic note, and references from Dr. Shallua's Commentary.