I recently came across a study stating that today’s society is obsessed with happiness. I am not surprised since most of us have this idea that the purpose of life is to pursue happiness. Some say the path to a happy life is success, which is why many people search for the ideal job, the dream house, and the perfect partner. But, somewhere along the way, instead of feeling fulfilled, we feel anxious. The more we pursue success, the more the vacuum grows.
Study shows that chasing happiness can actually make people unhappy. Come to think of it. Life seems to be better nowadays compared to twenty or thirty years ago because we now have modern technology that didn’t exist back then. Life is more convenient now. And yet, more people feel unhappy, lonely, and depressed.
According to research, what causes despair is not a lack of happiness, but a lack of meaning in life. It’s still possible to feel despair even when you’re happy. Many psychologists define happiness as a state of comfort and ease—feeling good in the moment. Meaning, however, is deeper.
The renowned American psychologist Martin Seligman says meaning comes from belonging to and serving something beyond yourself, and from developing the best within you.
When you serve something bigger than yourself and when you do things to improve yourself, develop your skills, and your character, you will have a higher chance of having a meaningful life. And when I encountered this study, I said, “The Bible has this information all along.” Where exactly can we find this information? I would say the Shema.
Also referred to as ‘Shema Yisrael’, the Shema is the central affirmation of Judaism. It means “hear” in Hebrew. It is equivalent to the Muslim’s call to worship, Adhan, which interestingly, also means “to listen, to hear, to be informed about.”
The Shema first appears in the Book of Deuteronomy, and it says,“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
It’s important that we understand the significance of these words because they don’t just amount to a prayer. The Shema is the Hebrew people’s pledge of allegiance to Yahweh. It was Moses who spoke the Shema as a command to the people of Israel when they were in Moab, forty days before they entered the Promised Land.
The Shema was a reminder to Israel to stay obedient to God and to remind them of God’s covenant with them. The Jews recite the Shema twice a day, combining it with other passages from the Torah. By reciting the Shema, they are affirming that their allegiance is to Yahweh and no other god, and that they will worship and love him with everything.
Where is our allegiance? Is it to Yahweh or is it to the world? Where is your devotion? Is it to God or is it to your idea about who God is? Is it to your ministry? Is it to the church? Is it to your religion? No wonder we are unhappy. No wonder we are unfulfilled.
Here’s my proposition: the Shema could be our foundation for a meaningful life. Do you want to know what the meaning of life is? Go to the Shema. Do you want to live a meaningful life? Go to the Shema.
Context of the Passage
Matthew 22:34-39 34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself”
The background of this passage was that Jesus was teaching the people with a parable. The Sadducees then tried to debate with him about the resurrection. They didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead and tried to test Jesus with a difficult question.
The Sadducees were responsible for the maintenance of the Temple cultus, or all the elements of Temple worship. Their main function was to preside over the sacrifices, which were conducted at the large altar inside the Temple complex. There were living quarters for priests in the complex as well. They organized the three major Jewish religious pilgrimage festivals, Passover, Shavuot (Weeks), and Sukkot (Tabernacles). Priests rotated in serving in the Temple.
Jesus silenced them by saying that God is the God of the living and not of the dead. When the Pharisees heard this, they got together and came up with their own question to trap Jesus. These religious leaders hated Jesus so much that they would do everything to get rid of him. They sent one expert in the Law who asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was.
The Jews are said to have divided the law into “greater and smaller” commandments. Which was of the greatest importance, they had not determined. Some held that it was the law respecting sacrifice; others, that respecting circumcision; others, that pertaining to washing and purifying, etc.
It was a trick question because if Jesus prioritized one law over the other, He would be saying that the other laws were not that important. And that would be a huge mistake because the Pharisees considered all laws equally great.
But Jesus was more clever. He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Fast forward to verse 46, Matthew says, “No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.”
Now, I would like to focus on the words of Jesus, because besides the Shema, he added another commandment. First, let’s break down his first statement, which is about loving God.
How Do We Love God and Love People?
All Your Heart
We must love him with all our hearts. The word “heart” in Hebrew is liev, which means “thoughts” or “feelings.” You should make up your mind who you’re going to love—The world or God. As Christians, we should have an all-consuming love for God. If we don’t, then we should ask ourselves whether we have truly been regenerated. To love God with all your heart means to love him with your will, your passions, affections, desires, and thoughts.
All Your Soul
The Hebrew word for “soul” is nephesh. It goes further than just your own soul, but constitutes your progeny—your children and their children. We are supposed to love God in a way that our kids will know. It should infect them like a virus.
Your love for God has to be contagious, connecting with your children. We are also to love him with how we talk, and what we do with our hands, and how we utilize our talents, and how we react to challenges — our entire being is to display that we love God. – John Piper
All Your Strength
The Hebrew word for “strength” is me’od. It means “might,” “muchness,” and “force.” The Shema calls us to love God forcefully, with all that we’ve got.
It’s also interesting that Jesus used the word “mind” instead of “strength.” The Greek word he used was dianoia, which means “intellect,” “mind,” “insight,” and “disposition.” One way we can love God is by developing critical thinking in the church. When we study God’s word, filter the messages we receive from anyone, and investigate the truth, we are loving God with our minds. Are we doing that?
To love God with all our strength is to love him with everything we have available—including our family, our house, our properties, our clothing, our time.
When I was a teenager, I would wear torn clothes, thinking that it was cool. My mother said something to me that I would never forget. She said, “Don’t wear torn clothing because other people would think that you’re a bum.” What she actually meant was, “Be careful how you present yourself to the world because you represent our family.” It’s the same thing with loving God.
As Christians, we represent Christ to the world, and loving God with all our might means presenting our best self, not just in character and deed but in appearance. It has to be holistic.
Why Should We Love God?
As mentioned earlier, the Shema is Israel’s pledge of allegiance to God. I’m not talking about the Shema itself, but the application of the Shema, which is loving God. Why should we love God? Because the true sense of happiness is meaning, and meaning is anchored in loving God. In him we live and move and have our being.
In him we live…
Meaning, he formed us. Meaning, by him we live. He upholds us. He nourishes us. All our existence is through His care.
and move…
We derive strength to produce motion from him. We derive our energy to exert effort from him. We owe him the ability to perform even the slightest motion, even our ability to move our eyeballs—we owe it to him.
and have our being…
In the original Greek, it simply says the verb “are.” We “are” in Him. We are not if not for him. Our meaning is in him. Our essence is in him. So what makes us think that we can find purpose, happiness, and meaning apart from him?
God has called us out of darkness. He brought us out of Egypt, which represents the system of the world. But how come many of us want to go back to Egypt? How come we try to find happiness and meaning in the world? The worst part is that we try to bring the culture of the world into our church.
We try hard to be cool Christians. We try hard to be relevant Christians. But the phrases “relevant Christian” and “cool Christian” are actually oxymorons. The world hates us. The only people who are truly attracted to us are those who seek the truth.
If people are attracted to the church primarily because it is relevant and cool, then we are in trouble. The moment the fun stops, the people leave. When there is no true discipleship in the church, the church stops growing.
Let us love God and hate the world. I’m not saying you should hate people. I’m saying you should hate the worldly system that wants your allegiance. Our allegiance must be to God.
Love Your Neighbor As You Love Yourself
Loving oneself is innate to humans. We were born loving ourselves. We don’t need to be told to love ourselves. Now, there are times when we don’t feel like we love ourselves. That’s why we sometimes have negative self-talk. We say things like, “I’m stupid.” “I’m not deserving.” But generally speaking, there is no person in this room and in the entire world who doesn’t love themselves. In fact, the Bible says that in the last days, people will be lovers of self (2 Timothy 3:2).
For men shall be lovers of their own selves; that is, the generality of men shall be persons that will neither love God nor men, in comparison with themselves; charity, which seeketh not her own, shall wax cold, men shall be wholly for themselves.
Self-care is important. That’s why we have Shabbat. We rest one day a week from all our work. But because we are obsessed with pursuing happiness, we put too much emphasis on self-care. Many people even abuse the words “mental health” and “trauma” as an excuse for “self-love” and “self-preservation.”
That’s why Jesus said, “As you love yourself, so should you love your neighbor.” He didn’t just say “love your neighbor.” That’s easy to do. Serve in the community. Give to the needy. He said, “As you love yourself, love your neighbor.” The phrase “as you love yourself” makes all the difference. Giving to others doesn’t necessarily mean we love them as much as we love ourselves. It could mean we’re just being civil. The lawyer didn’t ask Jesus about this, but Jesus took the opportunity to educate the lawyer.
You see, we often stop at loving God. We go to church, we sing songs to God, we listen to some preaching, and then we think that we have loved God. But Jesus said, if you think that loving God is important, well, there’s another commandment that is just as important, just as pure, and just as useful—Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
We claim to love God, and yet we don’t know how to treat others with respect. What’s worse is that we sometimes use God and his word to serve our own agenda. Something is wrong with our spirituality if we behave in this manner. So, what does it mean to love your neighbor as you love yourself?
Whatever basic needs you believe you have—food, air, water, shelter, clothing—you need to be willing to give to your neighbor when they need it. Not only that. Whatever desire you have—the desire for promotion, prestige, and influence—when God blesses your neighbor with these things, you should be happy for them and not envy them.
Praying for the success of people you don’t like is the best example of loving your neighbor. We would never pray for or wish harm upon ourselves, so we should never wish harm upon our neighbors.
If you’re working for a company, and you’re not doing your job well, are you loving your neighbor? No, you’re not. If you’re making friends only because you want to sell them something, are you loving your neighbor? No, you’re not. If you’re inviting people to come to church, only because you’re interested in the numbers, are you loving your neighbor? No, you’re not.
Loving your neighbor doesn’t necessarily mean that you lay down your life for them. It doesn’t necessarily mean visiting them and giving them gifts. It means practicing the Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12): Do unto others what you want them to do unto you.
The Believer’s Destiny: Finding Meaning in Loving God and People
There was a study done by two men, one from the University of Singapore and the other from Duke University, that observed the relationship between three types of well-being and volunteering.
The three types of well-being are social well-being, which refers to our relationships with other people; hedonic well-being, which means personal happiness; and eudaimonic well-being, which refers to one’s sense of identity and purpose.
The study concluded that people with higher volunteering hours had a higher sense of eudaimonic well-being. What does this tell us? Serving others with a pure motive, which is the essence of loving your neighbor as yourself, increases our sense of meaning.
If we feel that our lives lack meaning and purpose, then we should start loving and serving God. If we can’t find time to volunteer, whether in church or outside the church, being kind and respectful to others is the least we can do. And if there is one evidence that we love God, it’s by loving our neighbor. We cannot separate these three things: Loving God is loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.
The question that remains is this: How do I get myself to love God and my neighbors? Theologically speaking, you can’t apart from God. If Christ is in you, if you have been regenerated, then you can. Otherwise, you need God’s power to work in your life first.
No one, indeed, will voluntarily and willingly devote himself to the service of God unless he has previously tasted his paternal love and been thereby allured to love and revere Him. — John Calvin
Therefore, if you are a Christian, the fruit of love for God and neighbor is expected of you. If you are a Christian, this is your destiny: to find meaning in loving God and loving others. If you’re not a Christian right now, you have to understand that this is your design. All men are born and live for the express purpose of learning to know God, and those who do not direct the whole thoughts and actions of their lives to this end fail to fulfill the law of their being.
Let us pray.
Father, we ask you to open our eyes to see that meaning and purpose are found only in loving you and obeying your commands, that our lives will only have meaning if we choose to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Allow us to experience your love through your Holy Spirit so we can love you in return. If we love you right now, if we have any affection for you right now, it is only because you have loved us first and have shown us your grace and compassion. It was you who loved us first with all your heart, mind, and strength, and you demonstrated that love for us by sending your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, to redeem us and to translate us from darkness to the kingdom of light. Amen.
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