Deuteronomy 6:5

Deuteronomy 6:5, in plain English

Love God with your complete self—your emotions, your soul's deepest convictions, and all your strength and resources.

Why it's here

This isn't a soft, sentimental idea of love. The Hebrew word is about devoted commitment and passionate allegiance. Moses is saying your entire being—what you feel, what you believe, what you do and how you spend yourself—should be oriented toward God. Not split loyalties, not half-hearted obedience. All of you.

Who's speaking

Moses

Where it sits in the story

Jesus later calls this the greatest commandment. It's the answer to why any of this matters. It's not about rules for rules' sake—it's about relationship. God wants you, not just your compliance.

The scholarly reading

You must love the LORD with your entire being—emotions (heart), essence (soul), and capacity for action (strength)—in a love that is total and undivided.

Language and setting

The command to love (aheb) God stands in stark contrast to ancient Near Eastern religious sensibilities, which typically emphasized fear, propitiation, and mechanical observance rather than affection. The Hebrew construction—'all your heart' (levav), 'all your soul' (nephesh), 'all your strength' (meodcha)—employs a merismus, a rhetorical device enumerating parts to signify totality. Augustine, reflecting on this verse, argued that such love must precede and motivate all subsequent obedience; medieval mystics like the author of the Zohar saw it as the experiential realization of the monotheistic affirmation in verse 4. The intensifying repetition of 'all' (kol) three times creates an emphatic crescendo.

Voice

Moses

Significance

This command transforms covenant relationship from juridical obligation into passionate devotion. It becomes the hermeneutical key for understanding all subsequent commandments in Deuteronomy—they are expressions, not violations, of love for God. In Christian theology, Jesus elevates this command to supreme importance, linking it inseparably with the love of neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40), a synthesis that recalibrates the entire ethical framework.

3Hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you.

4Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One.

5And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

6These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts.

7And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Read all of Deuteronomy 6 — Hear, O Israel. Love the Lord with everything. Teach your children. Bind it on your hands. Write it on your doorposts. Let it become your life.