One God exists eternally as three distinct persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Here's what that means and why it matters.

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The One Command That Changes Everything.

Q: Does the Bible Support Homeschooling?

The Bible puts parents in the driver's seat for spiritual education.

Q: What Does the Bible Say About Parenting?

The Bible's parenting advice goes way beyond 'spare the rod.' It's about modeling faith, not provoking anger, and weaving God into everyday conversations.

Q: What Is Deuteronomy About?

Deuteronomy at a glance — authorship, date, key themes, and why it's in the Bible.

Deuteronomy 6 — The sentence so important Jesus called it the greatest commandment

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Key Takeaways

📢 Chapter 6 — The One Command That Changes Everything ❤️

is still talking. This is part of his final address to — the generation that grew up in the wilderness and is about to the into a land they've never seen. Everything he's said so far has been building to this moment. Because in this chapter, he's going to give them the single most important sentence in the entire Old Testament. The one himself would later call the greatest commandment.

Inside this Chapter

Fear Love Faith Prayer Identity Gratitude

Events in this Chapter

Moses' Final Speeches and Death

Questions about this Chapter

application

Does the Bible Support Homeschooling?

application

What Does the Bible Say About Parenting?

theology

What Is the Trinity?

history

What Is Deuteronomy About?

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But before he gets there, he sets the table. He wants them to understand something crucial: these aren't rules for the sake of rules. This is a telling his children how to thrive.

Why Any of This Matters 🎯

started with the big picture. Here's why God gave these commands in the first place:

"This is the commandment — the statutes and the rules — that the Lord your God told me to teach you, so you can live them out in the land you're about to enter. The whole point is this: that you would honor the Lord your God — you, your children, and their children after them — by keeping his commands all the days of your life. And that your days would be long.

So listen, Israel. Be careful to follow through. Then things will go well for you. You will multiply and grow in the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you — a land flowing with milk and honey."

Here's what Moses was doing. He wasn't handing them a rulebook and saying "good luck." He was telling them the why before the what. These commands exist for your good. For your children's good. For your grandchildren's good. isn't a burden God puts on you — it's a path God built for you. The rules aren't the point. The relationship is.

The Most Important Sentence in the Bible 🔥

Parenting

And then said it. Six words that became the heartbeat of Jewish and the foundation of everything would later teach. It's called the — the word means "hear" — and it's still recited twice a day by observant Jewish people around the world:

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."

Then Moses told them what to do with these words:

"Keep these words on your heart. Teach them constantly to your children. Talk about them when you're sitting at home and when you're walking down the road. When you lie down at night and when you get up in the morning. Tie them on your hand as a reminder. Wear them on your forehead. Write them on your doorframes and your gates."

Think about what he's describing. Not a Sunday-morning-only Faith. Not a "check in with God when things get hard" arrangement. He's talking about a so central to your identity that it shapes every part of your day — your conversations at dinner, your walk to work, the last thing you think about before sleep, the first thing on your mind when you wake up. It's written on the walls of your home. It's visible when people walk through your front door.

We live in a world where our phones are the thing we check first in the morning and last at night. Our feeds shape our thinking. Our notifications interrupt our conversations. Moses was saying: let your awareness of God be that constant. Not as a burden. As the thing that orients everything else.

The Danger of Getting Comfortable 🏠

Now hit a nerve. He knew exactly what was coming — and it wasn't persecution or hardship. It was something far more dangerous:

"When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers — to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob — he's going to give you incredible cities you didn't build. Houses filled with good things you didn't earn. Wells you didn't dig. Vineyards and olive trees you didn't plant. And when you eat and you're full —

Be very, very careful that you don't forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

The Lord your God is the one you should honor. Him you should serve. By his name you should swear. Don't chase after other gods — the gods of the peoples around you. Because the Lord your God, who is right here among you, is a jealous God. His anger will burn against you, and he will wipe you off the face of the earth."

This is painfully relevant. Moses wasn't warning them about the hard times. He was warning them about the good times. It's not suffering that makes people forget God most often — it's comfort. When everything is going well, when the pantry is full and the career is humming and the house feels like home, that's when the drift happens. You stop praying because you don't feel like you need to. You stop gathering because you're busy. You don't consciously reject God — you just gradually stop thinking about him.

And the "other gods" part? It sounds ancient, but the principle is immediate. Nobody in your neighborhood is bowing to a statue. But the gods of the people around you — success, image, security, control, approval — those are everywhere. isn't always obvious. Sometimes it just looks like a life that works fine without God in it.

Don't Test the One Who Rescued You 🚫

then brought up a specific memory — and it wasn't a good one:

"Don't put the Lord your God to the test the way you tested him at Massah. Carefully keep the commandments of the Lord your God — his instructions and his statutes that he's given you. Do what is right and good in the Lord's sight. Then things will go well for you, and you'll enter and take possession of the good land the Lord swore to your fathers, driving out all your enemies, just as the Lord promised."

Massah was the place where , dying of thirst in the wilderness, basically said: "Is God actually with us or not?" After everything he'd done — the , the parting of the sea, the from — they looked at one hard moment and questioned everything. Moses was saying: don't do that again. Don't let a hard season erase everything God has already proven.

There's a version of this we all recognize. Things go sideways, and the first thought is: "Where is God?" Not because he's absent — but because comfort had become the baseline we expected, and anything less feels like abandonment. isn't the absence of hard questions. It's choosing to remember God's track record when the current chapter doesn't make sense.

When Your Kids Ask Why 👨‍👦

closed this chapter with something brilliant. He didn't just tell parents to teach their kids the rules. He told them to teach them the story:

"When your son asks you someday, 'What do all these rules and commands and statutes mean? Why did the Lord our God give us all of this?'

Then tell your son: 'We were slaves — Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. He performed signs and wonders — devastating and unmistakable — against Egypt, against Pharaoh, and against his entire household, right before our eyes. He brought us out of there so he could bring us here — into the land he swore to give our fathers.

The Lord commanded us to follow all these statutes and to honor the Lord our God — for our good, always — so that he might keep us alive, as we are today. And it will be counted as righteousness for us if we are careful to obey all of this before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.'"

Catch the structure of that answer. The kid asks "why do we have all these rules?" and Moses doesn't say "because God said so." He says "let me tell you who we were." The answer to "why obey?" is a story. We were slaves. God rescued us. He brought us somewhere better. And these commands? They're how we stay free.

That's still the best framework for passing on . Not "follow the rules because they're the rules." But "let me tell you what God did for us — and why these commands are the response of people who haven't forgotten." Every generation has to hear the story. Not just the theology. The story. Because rules without a story are just restrictions. But rules that come from a rescue? Those are a way of life.