The Greatest Commandment is still relevant to us. Indeed, nothing is more relevant. It stands as a summary of the final goal of the life of faith. We have begun to love God already (Romans 8:28). This is a first consequence of our salvation. Let us seek those means that the Holy Spirit will use to foster and nourish this love in us. It remains the center of all biblical religion.

The center of biblical religion is the recognition that there is one and only one true and living God, and that He is Jehovah. To say that Jehovah or Yahweh is the only true God is to say that He alone is worthy of worship. We must value Him always as an end and never as a means. He is the goal, the telos, of all that exists, including us. In other words, Yahweh alone deserves our absolute loyalty and our unconditioned trust.

We have a word for that kind of loyalty and trust. We call it love. Granted, we use the word love for other things too, but its highest and most proper use is for a relationship of loyal trust.

Thus, the Shema leads directly into the Greatest Commandment. Indeed, Jesus Himself made this connection. When a scribe asked Him which was the greatest commandment, Jesus replied by citing Deuteronomy 6:4–5. The lawyer got the point immediately: “Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:  And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength. . . , is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mark 12:32–33). The text of Mark labels this answer as “discreet” (12:34), implying that the scribe’s evaluation was correct.

If there is one and only one true and living God, then we are obligated to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We must love Him for Himself, and not merely for His gifts. If we love Him for His gifts, we are not really loving Him. We are loving the gifts, and we are making Yahweh into a means to the end of receiving them.

We are commanded to love Jehovah our God will all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The word all is decisive. If we love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, then we shall have no heart, soul, mind, or strength left over to love anything else. The love that God demands of us is an exclusive love. We must love Him alone.

This very exclusiveness creates a paradox, though. In the same breath that Jesus tells us to love Yahweh our God, He also tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves. What trickery is this? If I am already loving God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, then how can I have any love left over for my neighbor?

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