The Bible tells about a man who asks Jesus which is the most important commandment in the law. Jesus replies, "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.
This commandment, a part of what is referred to as the Shema by the Jews, is found in Deuteronomy 6:4, 5. A more literal translation of the first half of this verse from the original Hebrew is, "Hear, O Israel: Jehovah is our God, Jehovah is the One and Only." Many people tend to think of this verse as interchangeable with the first of the Ten Commandments, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Ex. 20:3. Unlike this commandment, which is stated in the form of a law prohibiting idolatry, the verse in the Shema is stated simply as a concrete fact and is a positive rather than a negative instruction.
The implications of the fact that God is One and the only God are profound. One infinite and eternal God doesn't leave room for any being or condition that is unlike God and not wholly governed by Him. This spiritual truth corrects what the physical senses and human reason present to us—suggesting that God is either absent or hidden and that we are cut off from our Maker.
