The Lord Is One

The Lord Is One

There is only one God, and He is the Lord.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Ephesians 5:15-17; Colossians 4:6

The Lord is One. The Lord our God is one. There are no other gods. Nothing else must be allowed to command the devotion, attention, commitment, or energy which God commands from His people toward Himself. We only show that we deny the uniqueness of God and prefer our own wit and ways when we look to created things to provide us the meaning, purpose, and happiness only God can provide (Rom. 1:18ff).

Bringing His people to the true knowledge of Himself was the purpose of God’s redemptive work in delivering Israel from Egypt. In the same way, Jesus came to bring us life eternal, which is the knowledge of the living God and of His Son (John 10:10, 14:6, 17:3). The end of redemption is the knowledge of God. The response of those God has redeemed must be to love Him. The manner in which they demonstrate their love for Him is by obeying Him in all His Word.

The obedience God requires, and by means of which the redeemed gain the promises of God, must be an entire and complete obedience, emanating from a pure love for God. But why should we love God? First, because of His inherent beauty, goodness, and truth. God is a Being deserving of the love of every sentient creature, simply because of Who He is. Further, because He is our Creator, Redeemer, and Lord, and bears with us in our fallenness and folly, we must study to love Him supremely.

A “feigned obedience” (Ps. 81:15, NASB) to God will not do. He requires, and we must be careful to give, obedience that grows from a heart of love, love which we may daily nurture as we contemplate God in His Being and recall His mighty works on our behalf. It is not hard to love God, nor to obey Him, if we take the time to know Him as He intends (John 17:3).

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.