“You shall therefore love the LORD your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always.
Moses is speaking his last words to Israel on the edge of the promised land. The word "therefore" looks back at what God had already done for them, and everything He now asks — charge, statutes, rules, commandments, kept always — rests on one thing: love.
Where this call sits in Moses' argument
The chapters before this one press obedience again and again. One writer traces the flow of the book and notes what chapter 11 adds:
William KellySo obedience is pressed on them in a most moving way. And in Deuteronomy 11 love is pressed too, in the presence of His wonderful ways of mercy as well as judgment. All of this was so that they might enjoy the good land.
Love is not an extra requirement laid on top of the commandments. Moses names it first because it drives the rest. That order was also the road to enjoying the good land.
Love as the power behind the keeping
The verse names love first, then the keeping. A commentator explains why that order matters, and what Israel's own history proved:
Leslie M. GrantThis chapter shows the results of obedience, set against the consequences of disobedience. It begins with the command to love the Lord their God (v.1). That love is, of course, the power that drives them to keep God's statutes. Yet, though told many times to love the Lord, Israel did not respond to this. For love cannot be legislated, as Israel learned by experience. It must be spontaneous and voluntary.
Why a list of rules can never do the work
If love is the engine, rules must do some other job. One writer says plainly what that job is:
William KellyNo person becomes obedient by good rules. What is it then that produces it? The heart must be filled with right motives; and what brings this about? Love for a person gives a sense of duty to him, and acts on the heart. This makes obedience easy. Rules are never the power but only the tests of obedience in certain cases.
The same writer adds that where the heart loves, even a wish of God's with no direct command shapes what we want. Where love is missing, everything is soon forgotten.
Obedience is not legalism
Some readers flinch at a verse like this. They hear any call to keep commandments as a way of earning standing with God. One commentator answers that objection:
C. H. MackintoshIs there anything of the legal element in this? Not a trace. Love and legality have nothing in common; they are as far apart as the poles… Suppose it were taught that we must earn the high position and relationship of children of God by our obedience. Then the solemn charge of legality would be fair. But to attach such a label to Christian obedience is, we repeat, a serious moral mistake. Obedience could never come before sonship. But obedience should always follow sonship.
Where the love itself comes from
If no one can force love, the command raises an obvious problem: how is it ever kept? One writer sets the demand of the law beside what God has done to produce the love He asks for:
James BoydThe law, with all its threats, could not get this from the mere child of Adam. God has obtained it by His work of grace in our hearts. The law demanded love from man, but never got it. But God has obtained it by revealing His great love to us in the death of His only begotten Son: "We love Him because He first loved us." We do not love Him because threats of wrath force us to. This never produced love in any human heart. Terror it did produce, but not love. Love produces love where that love is valued.
The weight of "always"
The verse does not say keep them now, or keep them at first. It says always. The verses right after it recite what God did in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness. A commentator explains why Moses turned to memory here:
C. H. MackintoshMoses felt it was of the very highest importance to keep all the mighty acts of the Lord clearly before the hearts of the people, and to engrave them deeply on their memory. The human mind wanders and the heart is unsteady. Israel had seen God's solemn judgments on Egypt and on Pharaoh. Even so, they were in danger of forgetting them, and of losing the impression those judgments were designed to make and were so well suited to make.
Summary
- Love first. The verse opens with love, not with the list. Love is the power that drives obedience, and everything after it depends on it.
- Love cannot be legislated. It has to be spontaneous and free. God told Israel many times to love Him, and they never did.
- Rules test, love drives. Rules are never the power of obedience, only its test. Love for a person makes obedience easy.
- Love is drawn out, not forced. Threats never made a heart love God. God's love, shown in the death of His Son, does — "We love Him because He first loved us."
- Then obedience, always. Obedience never comes before sonship; it follows sonship. And it holds out when God's mighty acts stay fresh in memory.