Habit 6: Love GOD with all your heart
Since before the creation of the universe the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit—have delighted in and loved one another. Out of an overflow of this love our relational God created humans. We are created by relationship, for relationship. God created us to love. We are designed to give our first love, our worship, to the only one worthy of it: our Creator, our King, our Lord. But because of the great human problem of sin, we’ve instead chosen to give our first love and worship to false gods—to idols. An idol is anything (even a good thing) that’s more important to you than God (sin is parasitic—sin attaches to something good that God has created and distorts it). Our love of idols dishonors God, enslaves us, and hurts others. Jesus came to set us free from our misdirected loves and empower us to be a people who love God first—with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
MEMORIZE
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ - Mark 12:28-30
STUDY AND DISCUSS DEUTERONOMY 6:4-9 (THE SHEMA) AND MARK 12:28-34.
What are the two different contexts of these two passages? What differ-
ence do you notice in how Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6, and what do you think this is about? Create a list of reasons why you think Jesus calls this the most important commandment of all. Then, create a list of why we often struggle to live our lives in accordance with what’s most important, why we put other loves first. What connections can you make among these passages, your stories that you shared (Habit 3), current events in our culture, and the core book you are reading? What do the last few verses of the Deuteronomy text, Deuteronomy 6:6-9 teach us about discipleship, and what connection do you see here between our main discipleship verse, 1 Thessalonians 2:8?
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