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In the movie City Slickers, a dusty old cowboy named Curly (Jack Palance) gives advice to a middle-aged urban man named Mitch (Billy Crystal) who has lost his way. With his lifted index finger, Curly says, “The secret to life is this, this one thing; stick to that.” Mitch asks, “What is the one thing?” Curly answers, “That’s what you have to figure out.”
Our Lord answers a similar question in Mark 12:28–34: “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus begins His answer with the words of Deuteronomy 6:4: “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.’” Then come the familiar words from the following verse: “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.” The most important commandment in Scripture begins with this one thing: “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
The word one has the obvious meaning of single in number. Eve was formed from one of Adam’s ribs. An elder is a one-woman man. There is one God. But the word one also has another nuance. Sometimes one carries the overtone of “only,” “alone,” or “unique.” For example, in Genesis 22:2, God says to Abraham, “Take your son, your only [literally “one”] son Isaac.” Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. But Isaac was the child of promise, the only son who would inherit the covenant blessing. When 2 Samuel 7:23 says that Israel is “the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people,” it means that Israel is the only nation on earth whom God has redeemed. Zechariah praises the Lord as the King over all the earth, who “will be one and his name one” (Zech. 14:9), which means that the Lord is alone glorious, as is His name. When a man and woman “become one flesh,” they cleave to one another and forsake all others (Gen. 2:24). Their bond is not just one in quantity but unique in quality. Jesus takes up this same nuance in His answer in Mark 12.
The scribe affirms this same idea when he says: “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him” (Mark 12:32). Since the scribe “answered wisely,” Jesus commends him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (v. 34). But there is something else here that should catch our attention. This is the one and only instance in which Jesus refers to the Great Commandment (Deut. 6:5) by beginning with the preceding verse (v. 4). The verses bring together what we should not separate—namely, the connection between the Lord as the one and only God and the call for us to love Him with our entire self. God alone calls for our complete devotion. He is the supreme object of our worship, obedience, and love.
The summons of the Great Commandment is simple: give to God what He alone deserves. Since there is no other god, we offer ourselves to Him entirely, including our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The chief words of the Bible, which describe who we are in totality, are piled one on top of another to convey the depth of our commitment to love God. We are to love Him with all that we are and all that we have. We love God with all our soul and offer to Him everything in our life, which is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). We love God with all our mind, and so we take every thought captive to obey Christ (2 Cor. 10:5). We love God with all our strength, so we press forward and persevere in accord with the immeasurable greatness of His power at work in us (Eph. 1:19; Phil. 1:6; 3:13–14). We love God with all our heart, and so we offer every function of the heart to God. The heart is special. Like other biblical words (“soul,” “spirit,” “conscience”), “heart” describes the unity of who we are within. But unlike these other terms, “heart” is complex, since it includes our mind, desires, and will. To put it another way, God’s Word attributes everything we know, love, and choose to the heart (Ex. 4:21; Deut. 1:28; Prov. 3:5; Matt. 6:21; 15:19; Rom. 2:5; Eph. 1:17–18).
God made these distinct functions of the heart to work together in service to the One who makes them new. We are giving to God all our heart when our mindset is shaped by the pure light of God’s truth, when our deepest desires seek their satisfaction in Christ, and when the strength of our will sets itself on following Christ. That being so, the Great Commandment calls us to love God chiefly, incomparably, and singularly. It means praying with Asaph: “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” (Ps. 73:25). It means following the example of Mary, whom Christ praised for choosing the good portion, because only “one thing is necessary” (Luke 10:42). This is what Christ meant by the “pure heart” that has eyes only for God and will be blessedly rewarded when it sees God in heaven (Matt. 5:8). Everything within us has already been redeemed by Christ and is being renewed by the Holy Spirit. Even so, every Christian looks for that final redemption of our heart. By God’s grace, we know Him truly, love Him sincerely, and follow Him resolutely in this life. But at the dawning of the final day, every thought, every desire, every choice will be consecrated in heaven’s perfected blessedness. Finally, we will love the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit without fault, without distraction, and without end, worshiping the Lord—the one and only God—as He deserves.