One chapter, and it carries more weight than its length. Deuteronomy 6 holds the confession Israel would say every morning and evening for the rest of its history — Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD — and the command Jesus called the greatest of all: love God with everything you have. And it tells parents exactly how to hand that on.
A study in Deuteronomy 6 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 8 min read
The LORD Our God Is One LORD
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.”
Deuteronomy 6:4
This one line — the Shema, from the Hebrew for “hear” — is the bedrock confession of the Bible. In a world of many gods, one for each city and need, Israel is to know that there is one God, undivided, over everything. When a scribe asked Jesus which commandment was first, He began His answer by quoting this verse (Mark 12:29). Everything else stands on it.
With All Thine Heart, And With All Thy Soul
“And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart.”
Deuteronomy 6:5-6
The first response God asks for is not fear or obedience but love — and the whole person is enlisted: heart, soul, strength. This is why the law is not a burden to a right heart; obedience is what love does. And it starts internally: “shall be in thine heart” comes before any outward action. A commandment kept from the outside only is not yet kept.
Thou Shalt Teach Them Diligently Unto Thy Children
“And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”
Deuteronomy 6:7
Not a weekly lesson but a running conversation — at the table, on the road, at bedtime, at breakfast. Faith is passed on in the ordinary hours, by parents for whom it is already real. Note the order: the words are “in thine heart” first (verse 6), then taught. You cannot hand on what you do not hold.
“As a preparation for teaching His precepts, God commands that they be hidden in the hearts of the parents… In order to interest our children in the Bible, we ourselves must be interested in it. To awaken in them a love for its study, we must love it.”
Ellen G. White · Education, p. 187
When Thy Son Asketh Thee
“And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments…? Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.”
Deuteronomy 6:20-21
When the child asks why — why the rules, why this way of life — the answer God scripts is not a defence of the law in the abstract. It is a testimony: we were slaves, and He rescued us. Obedience is the grateful response of the rescued, and that is the story to tell. The Christian answer has the same shape: we were slaves to sin, and He brought us out.
