Deuteronomy 6–8; 15; 18; 29–30; 34: Lesson 58

Deuteronomy 6:1–6

Loving God with All Your Heart

After guiding the Israelites for 40 years in the wilderness, Moses shared his final counsel with them before the Lord commanded Joshua to lead them into the promised land. An important part of Moses’s prophetic message was to “love the Lord thy God with all thine heart” (Deuteronomy 6:5). This lesson can help students understand how they can show their love for God.

Student preparation: Invite students to ask a parent, guardian, or Church leader to share some of their favorite nonverbal ways of showing that they love someone. It may be helpful to tell students that the lesson will focus on ways we can show our love for God.

Possible Learning Activities

Showing love

Consider using the following activity to help students brainstorm various ways they can show love.

1. In your study journal, write the name of a family member you love.

2. In 60 seconds, list under their name as many unique ways to show your love for them as you can.

Ask a few volunteers to share the name they wrote and some ideas they had for showing love.

When students are done sharing, invite them to read Deuteronomy 6:5 and share what they learn. (Students may share in their own words a truth such as: God commands us to love Him with all our heart, soul, and might.) You might suggest that students link or cross-reference this verse to the doctrinal mastery passage Matthew 22:36–39, where Jesus Christ emphasized its importance.

Consider writing Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in the middle of the board. Give students two minutes to come to the board and list different ways we can express our love for Them.

Then encourage students to share which of their classmates’ ideas stand out to them and why.

Ponder the following questions.

• What are your true feelings for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ? Why do you feel that way?

• What are some of the ways you show Them how you feel?

As you study the book of Deuteronomy this week, pay attention to impressions from the Holy Ghost. His influence can deepen your love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and teach you ways you can express that love to Them.

God loves us with all His heart

To help students learn from God’s example, they could be invited to link or cross-reference Deuteronomy 6:5 to 1 John 4:19. After reading verse 19, you might ask students to share ways God has shown His love for everyone or for them personally.

The following statement can help students reflect on God’s perfect example of loving us with all His heart. Consider displaying it and inviting a student to read it aloud. Then continue to display it while students discuss their answers to the questions below.

President Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles helped us better understand the true character of God.

The first great commandment of all eternity is to love God with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength—that’s the first great commandment. But the first great truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind, and strength. That love is the foundation stone of eternity, and it should be the foundation stone of our daily life. Indeed it is only with that reassurance burning in our soul that we can have the confidence to keep trying to improve, keep seeking forgiveness for our sins, and keep extending that grace to our neighbor. (“Tomorrow the Lord Will Do Wonders among You,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2016, 127)

• What do you learn from President Holland’s statement that could motivate us to show our love for God?

• What are some steps someone could take toward loving God “with all [their] might” if they don’t feel strong enough to do it yet?

Obedience is an expression of love

To give students a brief context of the book of Deuteronomy, consider displaying the image of Moses from the beginning of the lesson as you summarize or invite a student to read aloud the following paragraph.

After serving as a prophet of God for 40 years, Moses instructed the Israelites to make camp on the border of the promised land. Joshua would soon lead them across the border (see Deuteronomy 31:23). Moses was able to view the promised land from a mountaintop before the Lord translated him, or took Moses unto Himself without Moses dying (see Deuteronomy 34:1–6; Alma 45:18–19). The book of Deuteronomy contains Moses’s final counsel to the people, including inspired counsel about loving God and obeying His commandments.

Read the following passages, looking for similarities between what Moses taught his people and what Jesus taught His disciples about how to show our love for God.

Deuteronomy 6:1–6; 30:16

John 14:15, 21–24

• What did you learn about showing our love for God?

  If a student already listed “keeping the commandments” on the board earlier as one way to show our love for God, consider pointing it out. If they didn’t, consider adding it to the board.

• Why do you think keeping the commandments is a meaningful way to show Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that we love Them?

Loving God in our everyday lives

It may be helpful for students to discuss realistic ways they can express their love for God in their lives.

One way to do this is to show the video “If We Love Him” (3:57) (ChurchofJesusChrist.org). Invite students to pay attention to both the lyrics of the song and what they see youth in the video doing to show their love for God. Then invite students to share what they learned about ways to show our love for God.

Another option could be to give small groups of students a piece of paper with one of the common settings listed below written on it.

Display the following instructions and questions for groups to complete and discuss. (Depending on available time, groups could exchange papers with other groups and repeat the activity multiple times.)

Select one of these common settings: at work, at school, at seminary, at church, at home, at practice, with friends, on social media. How would you answer the following questions from your experience with this setting in mind?

• In this setting, how have you seen someone show their love for God?

• What are some appropriate ways to express your love for God in this setting?

• Is there anything that might make expressing love for God difficult in this setting? If so, how could we overcome it?

Conclusion

To conclude, you may want to express your love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

In addition to your testimony, you may also want to share the following statement and invite students to express their feelings for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in their study journal. Encourage them to act on any impressions they may have received from the Spirit during the lesson.

Elder K. Brett Nattress of the Seventy asked some important questions for us to ponder personally.

I testify that our Heavenly Father always remembers us and that He loves us perfectly. My question is this: Do we remember Him? And do we love Him? (“Have I Truly Been Forgiven?,” Liahona, May 2023, 68–69)

Additional Resources

How did His love for God help the Savior to endure His atoning sacrifice?

Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught:

If we love God with the full measure of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, our focus in life will be to fulfill His desires. No being, of course, has done that more fully and perfectly than our exemplar, Jesus Christ, who once observed, “The Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.” His highest priority was and is to glorify the Father.

That highest priority, that highest loyalty, enabled Jesus to see His Atonement through to its completion, to drink that bitterest of bitter cups to the very last drop. …

As Christ hung upon the cross, our fate, our immortality, and our eternal life hung in the balance, and the thing that tipped the scale in our favor in determining whether our very existence would have meaning was that Jesus Christ loved the Father with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength. (“The First Commandment First” [Brigham Young University devotional, Mar. 22, 2022])

“Which is the great commandment?” (Matthew 22:36)

President Dallin H. Oaks of the First Presidency explained:

When Jesus was asked which was the great commandment, He gave two. First was to love God, which we show by keeping His commandments. Second was to love our neighbor. We must do both, and that is not easy. Many of us have a tendency to give less attention to loving our neighbor and to overemphasize keeping the law (commandments). That is surely my tendency because of my legal training. After all, loving God and showing our love for God by keeping His commandments is the first great commandment. And of course, it is easier for us to judge ourselves and others on whether we are obeying the law. However, it is also vital for each of us to keep the second commandment, which is “like unto it,” to love our neighbors the way Jesus loves us. (“Stand for Truth” [worldwide devotional for young adults, May 21, 2023], Gospel Library)

What can we do to deepen our love for God?

The article “3 Ways to Develop Genuine Love for God” has ideas for how we can increase our love for God over time.

Supplemental Learning Activities

Alternative beginning to help students understand the context of Deuteronomy

You could begin the lesson by helping students relate to Moses giving his final counsel to the people he loved. This will also help students reflect on what matters most to them.

You could do this by displaying the following instructions and giving students two to three minutes to ponder or write their thoughts. Then invite a few students to share thoughts that aren’t too personal.

Imagine you will be moving away from your loved ones for an extended period of time or possibly forever. You can leave one short note of advice for them before you leave.

• What counsel would share with them? (You might want to include what you hope they will do or not do in the future, what you hope they will prioritize in their lives, or how you feel about Jesus Christ and His gospel.)

Then help students understand the context of the book of Deuteronomy by sharing the contextual paragraph from the lesson that is found just under the heading “Obedience is an expression of love.”

Examples of placing God first in our lives

Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave several examples of what placing the love of God first in our lives could mean in his talk “The First Commandment First” (Brigham Young University devotional, Mar. 22, 2022).

Consider printing copies of the sections of his talk under the following four headings. Invite small groups to study one section each and prepare to share ideas of how we can place our love for God first in our lives.

Putting the First Commandment First: “Keep My Commandments”

Putting the First Commandment First: “Feed My Sheep”

Putting the First Commandment First: Call upon Him; Feast upon His Words

Putting the First Commandment First: Accountability to God

Matthew 22:36–39: “The great commandment”

To introduce students to Deuteronomy 6:5 in a way that helps them understand its importance, ask them to quickly share with a partner what they would consider to be the greatest in the following categories (or other categories you might choose).

Movie

Vacation spot

Dessert

Hymn

Then invite students to read Matthew 22:36–39, looking for how Jesus Christ responded to a similar question.

Ask students if they know where we can find the first great commandment Jesus referred to. Invite them to mark Deuteronomy 6:5 and to cross-reference or link it to Matthew 22:36–39.