The SHEMA Project
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 NIV
The Shema is not just a prayer but a declaration of faith, reminding Jews of their covenant with God and the importance of living according to His teachings. It is a call to listen to God's word and to live a life guided by His commandments.
The Shema derives its name from the Hebrew imperative translated “hear”, the command with which the verse begins. The Lord called on His people to listen, to receive the truth about Him so that the truth might mold and shape the way they lived.
What kind of life should God’s people build on this foundation? First, a follower of Christ should exhibit a life of wholehearted devotion to the Lord. Immediately after the declaration of God’s uniqueness and unity, Moses writes, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (v. 5).
Love is a central characteristic of obedient discipleship. When a Pharisee asked Jesus to identify the greatest commandment, the Savior quoted Deuteronomy 6:4–5. God is one, and we must love Him with our whole being. Christ then added a second command by quoting Leviticus 19:18. We are also to love our neighbor as ourselves (see Matt. 22:35–40; Mark 12:28–34).
Second, the life of a disciple is to be a life of reflection. Moses does not merely emphasize the need for devotion but states that if we love the Lord (Deut. 6:5), we are to love and meditate on His Word. “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart” (v. 6). the Scriptures are to be “in thy mind to remember them, and meditate upon them, and in thy affection to love and pursue them.”
Christian discipleship should involve both meditation on and memorization of the Bible.
INSTRUCTION
Third, devotion and reflection should lead to instruction. The Israelites were to teach God’s Word to the next generation (Deut. 6:7). They were to talk about the Scriptures when they were at home, when they were out accomplishing their daily tasks, when they went to bed at night, and when they got up in the morning. They were to keep the Scriptures close to the forefront of their minds, always within reach (vv. 8–9).
Our Christian discipleship should be no different. God calls us to live a Bible-saturated life so that the truth of Scripture fills us to overflowing and spills from us in our speech. Then, by speaking God’s powerful Word, we make other disciples, men, women, and children who love the Lord and seek to walk in the way of devotion, reflection, and instruction because they, too, serve the only true and living God.
This is the path of discipleship. This is the path of the SHEMA.
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