What does Deuteronomy 5:7 Mean?

Verse Meaning

The first commandment5:7[source]

Because God had initiated love toward Israel by redeeming the nation ( Deuteronomy 5:6), the people were to respond appropriately by loving Him in return. This is the essence of God"s grace. He initiates love, and the only reasonable response is to love Him for what He has done (cf. Romans 12:1-2). God does not just love us when we love Him. More fundamentally, He loves us first (cf. Romans 5:10; Ephesians 1:4-5; 1 John 4:19). In the game of love, God always makes the first move. ^[1] [source]

This command was a call to respond to God"s love by remaining faithful to Him instead of turning from Him to love something else more than Him. Israel was to have no other gods before or beside Yahweh. The people were to worship Him exclusively. ^[2] [source]

This commandment applies to all people, not just Israel. Yahweh is the only true God worthy of love and worship for who He is and what He has done. He has reached out lovingly to all humankind with the provision of salvation (cf. Acts 14:15; 1 Corinthians 10:31; 1 Timothy 2:5; James 2:19; 1 John 5:20-21). The writer"s view of the earth as having living beings above the earth, on the earth, and under the water of the earth is consistent with all ancient Near Eastern cosmology (cf. Genesis 1). ^[3] [source]

Context Summary

The Law of God is for "all Israel." None are exempt. "Not with our fathers" means not with them only; Moses also uses the expression because many of the references of the Decalogue were to the settled life of Canaan. "Face to face," not in dark visions, but clearly and lucidly, Job 4:12-13. Our "face-to-face" vision is yet to come, 1 Corinthians 13:12; Revelation 22:4. Notice in Deuteronomy 5:5 the ideal mediator, Galatians 3:19; 1 Timothy 2:5.

Every soul has two givings of the Law. First, we stand under Sinai to be judged, condemned, and shut up to Christ as our only hope; then we come to it a second time, asking that the Holy Spirit should write it in our hearts, and make us to walk in obedience to its precepts, Galatians 3:23; Romans 8:4.

Adolphe Monod, on his death-bed, said: "Sin has two divisions; the evil that we have done and the good that we have left undone. As to the first, there is not a single command that I have not transgressed in letter or spirit; as to the second, it weighs on me even more than the first." [source]

Chapter Summary: Deuteronomy 5

¹  The covenant in Horeb
⁶  The ten commandments
²³  At the people's request Moses receives the law from God