A Heart Of Love (Deuteronomy 6:5-6)

 


Tuesday, June 10, 2025


Psalms 92; 93

Deuteronomy 6:4-25

Acts 2:14-24


A Heart Of Love (Deuteronomy 6:5-6)


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.


I have heard, more than once, the idea that the God portrayed in each of our two Testaments in the Bible are two different Gods. You may have heard it yourself: that the God of the Old Testament is a violent, angry God, while the God of the New Testament is loving and gentle. It is an ancient idea, and we even have a name for it: the heresy of Marcionism. It is a heresy because it is not true, and it gets its name after the first person to suggest it publicly.


We need not accept this simply because the Church teaches it. We can see for ourselves, by reading our Bible, that in the Old Testament there is a lot from God (through his prophets in particular) about how much he loves us. And if we were to do a language study, we would discover that the one person who spoke about hell the most was none other than Jesus. And this makes one think: was Jesus comfortable with preaching hell only because there was so much foundational work already laid assuring us of God’s love? Hell is God’s warning, while love is God’s promise?


To be certain, the Old Testament certainly does have a lot of violence and tragedy within its pages. This is simply because it is true; what is human history more widely if not filled with moments of violence and tragedy? The difference between the history of the Old Testament and other histories that do not speak of God is that in the Bible we are constantly reminded that, in spite of human and natural disasters, God’s love persists and overcomes.


We may throw our hands up and wish that God would just snap his fingers and remove all evil from the world. Even though he has promised to do so at some point in the future, we are impatient, not to mention tired of the constant heartbreak. But the Bible’s message to us is not to concern ourselves with that, because that is God’s job, and he has it under control. Our job instead is to focus on God’s love. Surely that is a much easier job!


Where do you find God’s love in the events in your life? Where might you be able to bring more of God’s love into your life at the moment?


God of love, you have poured your love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit you have given to us. Give us eyes to see where your love is at work in the world and in our lives.

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