With all your Strength!!–Scripture of the week.
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one![b] 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Deut 6.4-9
This week I have been pondering what it means to love and glorify the Lord in what I eat and how I exercise. I feel as if I have been taught how to glorify the Lord in the words that I say and the thoughts that I think but the thought of glorifying the lord in with my food is an after thought at best and not even on my radar at worst. That pondering led me to these verses.
For those of you who are looking at this passage and thinking some of it sounds familiar but it seems out of place, that is because this is the same passage Jesus was quoting when He was asked what the first and greatest commandment was. I am using the original Old Testament passage for a couple reasons.
1. Verse 4 might be the most powerful verse in the bible for us as Christ Followers! As Christ Followers we this should be our cry to one another. The Lord our God, the Lord is ONE!! Praise the Lord!
2. The following verses emphasize the importance of this command.
Ok so here is my take on this in regards to food. This is what the Lord has been teaching me this week.
We are to love the Lord our God with our food!! We are to love Him with our exercise!! How many of you have heard that from the pulpit in context to this passage of scripture? Not many. If so it was probably just a passing remark on the way to the bigger point of loving God with your thoughts, actions, and attitude. When we talk about this passage, and teach the principles implied therein, we are great to talk about loving the Lord with your heart (emotions, feelings, faith,), soul (praise, prayer), mind (thoughts, images, music), and strength (actions such as not sinning or doing good works). all of these things are true and important, however, I think we miss a crucial point the Lord was trying to make.
That point lies in the word “strength”. While yes it is important to do the right things and avoid doing wrong I think there is so much more to this word. If all He meant was doing good and not bad there were other words He could have used. Instead He used the word strength. This implies physical prowess and ability. I believe the Lord was telling us that we need to take care of ourselves physically. I want you to think about the Bible, especially the New Testament, and recall the multitude of times the church is told that they are at war. It is very clear that believers are fighting a battle everyday. The church is at war whether we are willing to admit that or not. Paul is extensive in his imagery of battle armor and preparation for battle.
You might say, “well he is just talking about a spiritual war, what does my physical body have to do with it.” The truth is–everything. Spiritual battles are physically exhausting. When you are under attack your energy gets taken so easily. Anyone know what I mean? When I lived in India the level of spiritual warfare was overwhelming. I experienced headaches, loss of energy, lack of stamina, and so many more things due to the spiritual battles that we faced. Let me ask you a question. Would you want to go into battle without being trained and prepared to fight? Absolutely not! So why do we think this is any different? If you aren’t physically prepared, you can’t fight.
You might be thinking that is is just an after thought and this isn’t super important to God. Think again my friend!! Jesus identified this as the first and greatest of commandments. More over, this passage makes very clear the importance of this scripture. Go back and re-read it! Seriously! Go! I will wait.
When correctly interpreting a passage, in any book, it is important to find the tone. this passage is pretty clear in its urgency and commands. Notice a few things,
1. the words “you SHALL” are repeated several times throughout the verses indicating a command to the reader of what they shall do in order to implement and obey this command.
2. He gives specific detailed instructions on how to implement and obey this command.
This is the greatest commandment and in order to fullfil it we must obey it in its entirety. Until I, we, learn to love the Lord with all our strength–actions, food, exercise etc, we are not obeying this passage and we are not Loving the Lord as we should.