Deuteronomy 6:5-6

6:5 You must love ¹  the Lord your God with your whole mind, ²  your whole being, ³  and all your strength. ⁴ 

Exhortation to Teach the Covenant Principles

6:6 These words I am commanding you today must be kept in mind,

Deuteronomy 10:12-13

An Exhortation to Love Both God and People

10:12 Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you except to revere him, ⁵  to obey all his commandments, ⁶  to love him, to serve him ⁷  with all your mind and being, ⁸  10:13 and to keep the Lord’s commandments and statutes that I am giving ⁹  you today for your own good?

John 14:15

Teaching on the Holy Spirit

14:15 “If you love me, you will obey ¹⁰  my commandments. ¹¹ 

John 14:21-23

14:21 The person who has my commandments and obeys ¹²  them is the one who loves me. ¹³  The one ¹⁴  who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal ¹⁵  myself to him.”

14:22 “Lord,” Judas (not Judas Iscariot) ¹⁶  said, ¹⁷  “what has happened that you are going to reveal ¹⁸  yourself to us and not to the world?” 14:23 Jesus replied, ¹⁹  “If anyone loves me, he will obey ²⁰  my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him. ²¹ 

John 15:14

15:14 You are my friends ²²  if you do what I command you.

Romans 8:28

8:28 And we know that all things work together ²³  for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose,

James 1:25

1:25 But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there, ²⁴  and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out – he ²⁵  will be blessed in what he does. ²⁶ 

James 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From James, ²⁷  a slave ²⁸  of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. ²⁹  Greetings!

James 5:2-3

5:2 Your riches have rotted and your clothing has become moth-eaten. 5:3 Your gold and silver have rusted and their rust will be a witness against you. It will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have hoarded treasure! ³⁰ 

[6:5]  ¹ tn The verb אָהַב (’ahav, “to love”) in this setting communicates not so much an emotional idea as one of covenant commitment. To love the Lord is to be absolutely loyal and obedient to him in every respect, a truth Jesus himself taught (cf. John 14:15). See also the note on the word “loved” in Deut 4:37.

[6:5]  ² tn Heb “heart.” In OT physiology the heart (לֵב, לֵבָב; levav, lev) was considered the seat of the mind or intellect, so that one could think with one’s heart. See A. Luc, NIDOTTE 2:749-54.

[6:5]  ³ tn Heb “soul”; “being.” Contrary to Hellenistic ideas of a soul that is discrete and separate from the body and spirit, OT anthropology equated the “soul” (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) with the person himself. It is therefore best in most cases to translate נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) as “being” or the like. See H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 10-25; D. Fredericks, NIDOTTE 3:133-34.

[6:5]  ⁴ sn For NT variations on the Shema see Matt 22:37-39; Mark 12:29-30; Luke 10:27.

[10:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 10:4.

[10:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “to walk in all his ways” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “follow his ways exactly”; NLT “to live according to his will.”

[10:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 10:4.

[10:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “heart and soul” or “heart and being”; NCV “with your whole being.” See note on the word “being” in Deut 6:5.

[10:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “commanding” (so NASB, NRSV). For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, “giving” has been used in the translation.

[14:15]  ¹⁰ tn Or “will keep.”

[14:15]  ¹¹ sn Jesus’ statement If you love me, you will obey my commandments provides the transition between the promises of answered prayer which Jesus makes to his disciples in vv. 13-14 and the promise of the Holy Spirit which is introduced in v. 16. Obedience is the proof of genuine love.

[14:21]  ¹² tn Or “keeps.”

[14:21]  ¹³ tn Grk “obeys them, that one is the one who loves me.”

[14:21]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “And the one.” Here the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated to improve the English style.

[14:21]  ¹⁵ tn Or “will disclose.”

[14:22]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “(not Iscariot).” The proper noun (Judas) has been repeated for clarity and smoothness in English style.

[14:22]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “said to him.”

[14:22]  ¹⁸ tn Or “disclose.”

[14:23]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “answered and said to him.”

[14:23]  ²⁰ tn Or “will keep.”

[14:23]  ²¹ tn Grk “we will come to him and will make our dwelling place with him.” The context here is individual rather than corporate indwelling, so the masculine singular pronoun has been retained throughout v. 23. It is important to note, however, that the pronoun is used generically here and refers equally to men, women, and children.

[15:14]  ²² sn This verse really explains John 15:10 in another way. Those who keep Jesus’ commandments are called his friends, those friends for whom he lays down his life (v. 13). It is possible to understand this verse as referring to a smaller group within Christianity as a whole, perhaps only the apostles who were present when Jesus spoke these words. Some have supported this by comparing it to the small group of associates and advisers to the Roman Emperor who were called “Friends of the Emperor.” Others would see these words as addressed only to those Christians who as disciples were obedient to Jesus. In either case the result would be to create a sort of “inner circle” of Christians who are more privileged than mere “believers” or average Christians. In context, it seems clear that Jesus’ words must be addressed to all true Christians, not just some narrower category of believers, because Jesus’ sacrificial death, which is his act of love toward his friends (v. 13) applies to all Christians equally (cf. John 13:1).

[8:28]  ²³ tc ὁ θεός (Jo qeos, “God”) is found after the verb συνεργεῖ (sunergei, “work”) in v. 28 by Ì⁴⁶ A B 81 sa; the shorter reading is found in א C D F G Ψ 33 1739 1881 Ï latt sy bo. Although the inclusion is supported by a significant early papyrus, the alliance of significant Alexandrian and Western witnesses favors the shorter reading. As well, the longer reading is evidently motivated by a need for clarification. Since ὁ θεός is textually suspect, it is better to read the text without it. This leaves two good translational options: either “he works all things together for good” or “all things work together for good.” In the first instance the subject is embedded in the verb and “God” is clearly implied (as in v. 29). In the second instance, πάντα (panta) becomes the subject of an intransitive verb. In either case, “What is expressed is a truly biblical confidence in the sovereignty of God” (C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:427).

[1:25]  ²⁴ tn Grk “continues.”

[1:25]  ²⁵ tn Grk “this one.”

[1:25]  ²⁶ tn Grk “in his doing.”

[1:1]  ²⁷ tn Grk “James.” The word “From” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:1]  ²⁸ tn Traditionally, “servant” or “bondservant.” Though δοῦλος (doulos) is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[1:1]  ²⁹ tn Grk “to the twelve tribes in the Diaspora.” The Greek term διασπορά (diaspora, “dispersion”) refers to Jews not living in Palestine but “dispersed” or scattered among the Gentiles.

[5:3]  ³⁰ tn Or “hoarded up treasure for the last days”; Grk “in the last days.”