The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Babylon (6)
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Deuteronomy 6:5 NASB
Shall love – How are we supposed to express our love toward God? You will notice that I did not ask, “How are we supposed to express our love for God?” That is the common question, but it misses the point. The opportunity to fulfill this commandment isn’t found in elevated spiritual contemplation or assent to theological intricacies. Fulfilling this commandment is found in social actions, in behavior toward others even if the Other is God Himself. In other words, I demonstrate my love for God by practicing loving acts toward others. And, of course, the purpose of all the commandments is to provide me with a clear guide about the character of loving acts. That’s why so many of the commandments are social. How I act toward others reveals how I really love God.
Recently I received an announcement about a course on the “Biblical Doctrine of Salvation.” In the course description I read, “. . . the dilemma of how to view pious Jewish people who live in accordance with the Torah and confess to be pursuing the God of Israel while at the same time denying that the Yeshua of the Gospels is the true Messiah and the only means of eternal salvation.” Of course, I can’t read the author’s mind, but this sentence certainly sounds as if he believes living in accordance with the Torah and pursuing the God of Israel is not sufficient for salvation. Apparently, in order to the “saved,” every Jew must become a Christian, or at least Messianic. Frankly, I can’t find biblical justification for this idea, although I am certainly aware of the theological justification. It seems to me that Yeshua endorses Moses in every respect (“For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the Law, until all is accomplished!” Matthew 5:18 NASB). How, then, can we ignore the role of the Law in loving God? If “salvation” means “getting to heaven,” perhaps an antinomian gospel might replace Torah obedience, but it doesn’t seem as if the biblical goal is “getting to heaven.” The biblical goal is enjoying unimpeded fellowship with God. That’s heaven. And that goal requires practice, the entire purpose of the Law. “Finding this joy and defining its nature is the essence of the religious quest.”[1]
Luzzatto comments on the quest for true joy: “For this world is the only place where the Mizvot can be observed. Man is put here in order to earn with the means at his command the place that has been prepared for him in the world to come.”[2]
The idea that joy comes to us in the form of the commandments is counterintuitive, especially for us in the post-Enlightenment world of the West. We are accustomed to thinking of joy in terms of spontaneity and release from obligation rather than in terms of taking on obligations and fulfilling them. Yet, if we aspire to an authentic Jewish spirituality, we will encounter it precisely in this seemingly counterintuitive mode. . . saintliness, cannot be understood apart from the concept of love. A Hasid is a lover, and the experience of a lover is one of being encumbered. For one who truly loves, it is the commandment-like need to provide goodness for the beloved that turns love from sentiment to substance . . . the Hebrew term hasidut.[3]
Let me put it bluntly. If you want to be “saved” and “go to heaven,” then join a church. But if you want to experience joy in fellowship with God and men, keep the commandments.
Step 6: Joy comes in serving another. Who do you serve?
Topical Index: Law, commandments, joy, fellowship, saved, heaven, Deuteronomy 6:5
[1] Ira F. Stone, in Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Upright, p. 17.
[2] Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Upright, p. 17.
[3] Ira F. Stone, in Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Upright, pp. 17-18.
