Lesson 6: Using The Four Branches of Theology

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. —Deuteronomy 6:5

What Love of God Leads To (Gregory of Nyssa, c. 335–c. 395):

If one does not love God with all his heart and with all his soul, how can he care wholesomely and guilelessly for the love of his brothers, since he is not fulfilling the love of the One on whose account he has a care for the love of his brothers? —Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, vol. 3 of Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament, 284.

With The Whole, Not a Part (Basil of Caesarea, 330–379):

The expression, “with the whole,” admits of no division into parts. As much love as you shall have squandered on lower objects, that much will necessarily be lacking to you from the whole. —Mark, vol. 2 of Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament, 173.

This Is a Just Claim (Bernard of Clairvaux, 1090–1153):

Reason and natural justice alike move me to give up myself wholly to loving Him to whom I owe all that I have and am. But faith shows me that I should love Him far more than I love myself, as I come to realize that He hath given me not my own life only, but even Himself. Yet, before the time of full revelation had come, before the Word was made flesh, died on the Cross, came forth from the grave, and returned to His Father; before God had shown us how much He loved us by all this plenitude of grace, the commandment had been uttered, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy might” (Deut. 6:5), that is, with all thy being, all thy knowledge, all thy powers. And it was not unjust for God to claim this from His own work and gifts. Why should not the creature love his Creator, who gave him the power to love? Why should he not love Him with all his being, since it is by His gift alone that he can do anything that is good? It was God’s creative grace that out of nothingness raised us to the dignity of manhood; and from this appears our duty to love Him, and the justice of His claim to that love. ... I owe all that I am to Him who made me: but how can I pay my debt to Him who redeemed me, and in such wondrous wise? Creation was not so vast a work as redemption; for it is written of man and of all things that were made, “He spake the word, and they were made” (Ps. 148:5). But to redeem that creation which sprang into being at His word, how much He spake, what wonders He wrought, what hardships He endured, what shames He suffered! Therefore what reward shall I give unto the Lord for all the benefits which He hath done unto me? In the first creation He gave me myself; but in His new creation He gave me Himself, and by that gift restored to me the self that I had lost. Created first and then restored, I owe Him myself twice over in return for myself. —On Loving God, Chapter 5

All Parts Moving with Love toward God (Johann Spangenberg, 1484–1550):

Let all your thoughts, your words and works, your wit, reason and opinions be engaged in the things of God and give honor only to God. Focus everything you have toward God: body and soul, flesh and spirit, everything in your power, your members and more, your strength, your health, all your senses, externally and internally. In short, people should extend this love through their whole bodies and lives, through all their members, so that all parts of them from their head down to their feet, inside and out, move with delight and love toward God.... —Luke, vol. 3 of Reformation Commentary on Scripture: New Testament, 223.

The First Commandment Is about Both Faith and Love (Martin Luther, 1483–1546):

[T]he first [assertion of the First Commandment]... touches faith. No one can have one God unless he clings to Him alone and trusts in Him alone; otherwise he will be snatched off into a variety of works and will devise various gods. The second touches love, which follows from the first. For when we repose all faith in Him to whom we cling and understand that all things flow from Him alone and that we are in His care, then sweet love toward Him has to follow. —Lectures on Deuteronomy, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan, vol. 9 of Luther's Works, 68.