Hear, O Israel! - Part 1

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

There is so much packed into here. So much that I will break this into a few blogs. For this first post on this scripture, let's start from the top.

"The Lord our God, the Lord is one."

We have one Lord, He is God, and there is no other God but the one true God.

For us, and possibly for Israel at the time, this statement is a true and powerful reminder of who the Lord is.

"The Lord our God, the Lord is one."

No other god can be God.

These days there are so many religions, and the test of a good religion among secular society is how well it tolerates other religions. But “tolerate” is not an accurate word for what they mean. Instead, their definition of tolerate is: accept as an alternate, equally valid truth.

As Christians, we go beyond tolerating others who don’t know the truth that is Christ Jesus: We love them. But we cannot go so far as to condone religions that claim a god or gods who are not the true God proclaimed in His Holy Word. That would be blasphemy, because “the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

For those who have accepted the Gospel of Christ Jesus and have been redeemed by His blood, it is simply not possible to condone anything else as truth.

"The Lord our God, the Lord is one."

Nothing in this world can be God.

As much as things have changed, they have stayed the same. People don’t need to accept or condone another formalized religious tradition to worship another god as lord in their lives.

People put money first in their lives. People value status or power or prestige over God in their lives. People need the nicest homes, clothes, jewels, etc. more than they need God. And these things become gods to them.

They can live without prayer, but they cannot live without their smart phone. They can live without the Bible, but they cannot live without the current fashion. They can live without the love of God, but they cannot live without the adoration of others. This is more subtle, but this too is blasphemy, because “the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

"The Lord our God, the Lord is one."

Society doesn't define God.

This is nothing new. Our society will gladly allow us to be Christian, so long as we accept other religions as equally valid, and we value what society values. Basically, we can be Christian so long as we are not actually Christian.

What I’m calling for is not a battle cry for Christians, but a remembrance of who our God is, and thereby who we are. We are children of the one true God. Many in our society will not be able to understand that. Many in our society will not tolerate that. Many in our society will not condone that.

But what society thinks or feels doesn’t change the truth.

“The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

And all the children of God said …

AMEN