Love Your Father with Everything
6 1 Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the judgments—that your Father commanded me to teach you, so that you may do them in the land you are crossing over to possess, 2 so that you may honor your Father, keeping all his statutes and his commandments that I command you—you and your children and your grandchildren—all the days of your life, and so that you may live long. 3 Hear then, Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you and that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as our Father, the Father of your fathers, has promised you.
4 Hear, Israel: our Father is one. 1 1 v4 Jesus affirmed this confession as the most important commandment (Mark 12:29). He also said, 'I and the Father are one' (John 10:30). 5 And you shall love your Father with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 Teach them diligently to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, and let them be as bands on your forehead; 9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
10 And when your Father brings you into the land he swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob—to give you large, fine cities that you did not build, 11 houses full of every good thing that you did not fill, cisterns already dug that you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are satisfied, 12 then be careful that you do not forget our Father, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 13 You are to honor your Father and serve him, and you shall swear by his name. 14 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you, 15 for your Father, in your midst, is a jealous Father — lest his anger flare up against you and he wipe you off the face of the earth. 16 Do not test your Father as you tested him at Massah. 2 2 v16 Massah: the place where Israel quarreled and tested our Father over lack of water (Exodus 17:1–7). 17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of your Father, and his testimonies and his statutes that he has commanded you. 18 Do what is right and good in the sight of our Father, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and possess the good land that our Father swore to give your fathers, 19 driving out all your enemies before you, as our Father has spoken.
Tell Your Children What He Did
20 When your child someday asks you, 'What are the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments that our Father commanded you?' 21 Then you shall say to your child: 'We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and our Father brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 And our Father gave signs and wonders, great and terrifying, against Egypt, against Pharaoh and against all his household, before our eyes. 23 And he brought us out from there, so that he might bring us in to give us the land he swore to our fathers. 24 And our Father commanded us to do all these statutes, to honor our Father, for our good always, that he might keep us alive, as we are this day. 25 And it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to obey this entire commandment before our Father, as he has commanded us.'