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You know the feeling of walking into a conversation already talking. Someone asks how you are, and you are three sentences in before you notice you never heard the question.
Most of us do that with God. We arrive with the list — the asking, the thanking, the saying sorry, the trying harder. Love God more. Love God better. It is all output, and by Thursday it is exhausting.
So it is worth asking a small question with a strange answer: what is the Shema, and why did Jesus begin there? When a man asked Him to name the single greatest commandment, Jesus did not open with the word love. In Mark’s account, He opened with a command to listen.
What Is the Shema?
The Shema is a short passage from Deuteronomy 6:4-9. In Jewish practice it is recited morning and evening, and it is traditionally among the first things a Jewish child is taught to say. That matters to say plainly: this is not an old relic we are borrowing. It is a living prayer, prayed today, by people who have never stopped praying it.
The name is simply the first word of the passage in Hebrew. Shema means hear, or listen. The prayer is named after a command to listen.
Here is how it opens, in the King James Version:
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
— Deuteronomy 6:4-5, KJV
Read the order again, because the order is the whole thing. Hear first. Love second.
The Line Jesus Started With
In Mark 12, Jesus has been fielding trap questions all day. Then a scribe who has been standing there listening — Mark says he came up “perceiving that he had answered them well” — asks a real one: which is the first commandment of all?
Jesus answers:
The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
— Mark 12:29-30, KJV
He was asked for one commandment. He gave the Shema — opening line included.
There is also a quiet addition in there worth catching. Deuteronomy 6:5 names three things: heart, soul and might. Jesus names four: heart, soul, mind and strength. The mind gets added. Whatever this kind of love is, it was never meant to skip your thinking.
What Matthew Leaves Out
Now put Matthew’s version beside it:
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
— Matthew 22:37, KJV
No “Hear, O Israel.” It begins at love.
Luke tells it a third way. In Luke 10:27 it is not even Jesus who recites the commandment — a lawyer says it back to Him, and he leaves the opening line out too.
So the listening line appears in one account of three.
Here is the part that is easy to miss, and it is not about the words at all. It is about who was asking.
- Matthew 22:35 — “a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him.”
- Luke 10:25 — “a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him.”
- Mark 12:28 — a scribe who, “perceiving that he had answered them well,” asked him.
In the two accounts where the man is openly described as testing Jesus, the listening line is absent. In the one account where the man is described as asking because he liked what he had just heard, Jesus starts with Hear.
Be careful with that. The Bible does not say Jesus chose differently on purpose, and it would be overreaching to claim it does. The text only shows the pattern. But once you have seen it, it is hard to unsee: the command to listen turns up for the man who was already listening.
The Detail Almost Nobody Reads Twice
Mark does not stop at the answer. The scribe replies — and watch which half of it he repeats back first:
Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he.
— Mark 12:32, KJV
He repeats the hearing part. Not the loving part. The oneness — the thing you receive before you do anything at all with it.
And Jesus tells him: “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.”
Sit with that for a second. The man had not done anything yet. He had not served, given, fixed his life or changed a habit. He had heard something correctly and said it back, and that was the thing Jesus commended. It is the same pattern as Jesus’ very first ask of the disciples, who were chosen to be with Him before they were sent to do anything.
Then Mark closes the scene: “And no man after that durst ask him any question.” The trap questions stopped. The one conversation that began with hear was the one that ended the arguing.
Love Is the Second Move
The greatest commandment doesn’t start with love. It starts with listen.
Think about what that order does to the commandment.
If the greatest commandment began at “love God,” then love would be a job. Something you generate. You would check your output every day and mostly come up short — which, honestly, is how a lot of us experience faith on a tired week. More effort, more guilt, more effort.
But “Hear, O Israel” puts something ahead of your effort. Something is said first. You receive it. Then you love — and what you love with is what you were just given, not what you manufactured on your own.
And the Shema is unusually specific about where that hearing is supposed to happen. Deuteronomy 6:7 says to talk of these words “when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”
Those are not prayer times. Those are the four hinges of a completely ordinary day: eating, travelling, sleeping, waking.
Which means listening was never meant to be a slot you have to find in a schedule that has no room in it. You do not need a quiet house, a free hour, money, or a spare room. You already have all four of those moments today. You will have them tomorrow. Listening is a posture you carry through hours you are living anyway.
That is also why slow, unhurried reading tends to do more for people than more reading — the old practice of reading scripture slowly enough to actually be fed by it is really just the Shema’s instruction applied to a page.
A good place to start: The Beginner’s Guide to Feeling God’s Presence Every Day. It is a short free video guide and PDF for noticing God in the ordinary parts of a normal day — the sitting, the walking, the lying down. Get the free guide. Free.
Actions to Take
- Read Mark 12:29-31 out loud, slowly. Stop at the semicolon right after “Hear, O Israel.” Sit in that one beat before the word love arrives. Two minutes, and the pause is the point.
- Write the line where your eyes already go. “Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD” — on a scrap of paper taped by the door, on the back of a receipt in your pocket, on your lock screen so it beats the notifications. Deuteronomy 6:9 said to write it on the doorposts; the point was putting it where you already look.
- Pick one hinge. Just one. Sitting down to eat, heading out the door, lying down tonight, or waking tomorrow. Attach one sentence to it today: God, I’m listening. Not all four. Choose the one you already do without thinking about it, because that is the one that will survive the week.
Journaling Prompts
- Where are you currently trying to love God by producing something for God? What would change if the first move were simply to receive?
- Of the four moments the Shema names — sitting, walking, lying down, rising — which one are you least present in? What usually has your attention there instead?
- When you picture God speaking to you, what do you assume the first words would be? Where did that assumption come from?
A Prayer You Can Pray Right Now
God, I come in already talking. I almost always do. Before I try to love You today, let me hear You — at the table, on the road, lying down tonight, waking up tomorrow. Make me still enough to catch what You are already saying. And let what I hear be the thing I love You with, instead of something I have to work up on my own. Amen.
One Question for You
Mark keeps the “Hear, O Israel” line in. Matthew leaves it out. What do you think gets lost when the greatest commandment starts at love instead of listen? Leave your answer in the comments — we read every one.
Share This
- The greatest commandment doesn’t begin with “love.” In Mark 12:29 Jesus begins it with “Hear, O Israel.” Listening comes first. Love is the second move.
- Just learned the Shema — the prayer Jesus quoted when he was asked for the greatest commandment — is named after its first word, which simply means “listen.” Matthew leaves that opening line out. Mark keeps it. I have been thinking about it all day.
- Deuteronomy says to carry God’s words when you sit, when you walk, when you lie down, when you rise. Not a quiet-time slot on a schedule. The four ordinary hinges of a day I already have.
Questions People Ask About the Shema
What is the Shema?
The Shema is a short passage from Deuteronomy 6:4-9 in the Hebrew Bible, beginning “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” It takes its name from its first Hebrew word, shema, which means “hear” or “listen.” In Jewish practice it is recited morning and evening, and it is traditionally among the first things a Jewish child is taught to say.
What does the word “Shema” mean?
Shema is Hebrew for “hear” or “listen.” It is a command rather than a description. It is the opening word of Deuteronomy 6:4, and the whole prayer is known by it.
Did Jesus quote the Shema?
Yes. In Mark 12:29-30, when a scribe asked which commandment is first of all, Jesus answered by quoting the Shema — beginning “Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord” before the command to love God with all the heart, soul, mind and strength.
Why does Matthew’s version of the greatest commandment leave out “Hear, O Israel”?
Matthew 22:37 records Jesus’ answer beginning directly with “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,” while Mark 12:29 includes the Shema’s opening line first. The Bible does not explain the difference. One observable detail is that Matthew 22:35 and Luke 10:25 both describe the man asking as testing Jesus, while Mark 12:28 describes a scribe who asked after hearing Jesus answer well.
Where does the Shema say to remember God’s words?
Deuteronomy 6:7 names four ordinary moments: “when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” Deuteronomy 6:9 adds writing them “upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.”
If a question like this comes up while you are reading, you can also talk it through with our free What Jesus Teaches assistant, which answers questions about Jesus’ own words. It opens in ChatGPT.
