Love as the Stream That Turns All Life's Wheels

Moses closes the legislation of Deuteronomy by weaving together the themes that have run through all preceding movements—much as the final burst of a great symphony gathers up its component threads. The inmost essence of the law is revealed in a single, lofty conception: 'to love Jehovah thy God.' This is the sovereign commandment, to which even the minute regulations of Leviticus are subordinate.

Maclaren observes that the motive for this love is not arbitrary demand but tender memory—the declaration 'Jehovah, thy God' draws out affection through contemplation of His self-revelation in loving dealings with Israel. The Old Testament system, properly understood, is profoundly spiritual: it places the very heart of religion in love to God.

Yet love does not remain sentiment. Maclaren employs a striking image: love is 'like a powerful stream' that 'turns all the wheels of life in conformity to His will.' Obedience flows from love as its inevitable result and test. When Paul later proclaimed that 'love is the fulfilling of the law,' he merely repeated what Moses had already established—that 'to walk in His ways' and 'to obey His voice' follow necessarily from loving Jehovah thy God. Love is the only authentic parent of real obedience; obedience is love in motion.

This dissolves the false tension between heart and deed. The law is not burdensome legislation imposed from without, but the natural channel through which the waters of genuine love must flow. Every commandment becomes not a weight but an opportunity for the lover of God to express his devotion in concrete action.