I Love God - Love God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. Then, love your neighbor as yourself. The Commandment to Love has FIVE (5) ways to be fully executed before it is fulfilled.
Love the Lord Your God
To love the Lord our God with “all our heart” is NOT enough to fully please Him in our daily walk. It takes much more than that. It actually takes loving God five (5) different ways to fully please Him and to fulfill His calling upon our life.
Let’s step through the five ways that are given to us by the Lord Jesus Himself in Mark 12:30-31 (that He combined together and quoted from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18).
And you shall love the Lord your God:
With All Your Heart
What does it meant to “love God with all your heart” as being distinguished from the other parts and functions of our make-up?
The Hebrew word for “heart” is lebab, which means: To be enclosed as the interior or center, hence, the heart. In the Greek, the word is kardia. It means: The seat in the center of man’s inward life - the place of human depravity or the sphere of divine influence. Both meanings point to that which gives man “life”: The depraved nature of spiritual death - which by nature is our life.
With All Your Soul
The Hebrew word for “soul” is nephesh. It means: A breathing creature - whether a person, animal or creature of the sea. The Greek word equivalent is psuche, in which we get our prefix-word, psycho, for words like: psychology, Psuche means: Breath - voluntarily but gently (basically, being alive). The “soul” of a man always refers to the”lower element” of man in relationship to the “heart,” the “higher element.”
Instead of retaliating and showing the person who hurt you “how it feels,” you choose to be kind in the midst of showing them what they have done wrong and how they have hurt you. Instead of giving up hope in a situation, you choose to hope and seek a way through regardless of whether or not it turns out exactly as you want. Instead of choosing to be angry, you choose patience - long suffering and endurance. This, is loving God with all your soul.
With All Your Mind
Though Jesus states in Mark 12:30 to love God “with all your mind,” the word for “mind” is not mentioned in Deuteronomy 6:4 from where He quoted the Scripture. In fact, when the Scribe quoted that same Scripture back to Jesus in verse 33, He used a different word for “mind” than the one Jesus did. Nevertheless, Jesus accepted it as valid because of its similarities.
The Greek word Jesus used for “mind” is dianoia, which means: Deep though, exercising the mind, to think through.
Loving God with all our mind means
That EVERYTHING we put in or allow in our minds is right, true and moral.
That we align our conclusions and decisions based upon the commandments of God and the written Word of God in all situations.
With All Your Strength
Loving God “with all your strength” speaks of the “ultimate expression” of our heart, soul and mind being released together through our bodily functions. It is the outward expression of what is going on within ourselves to the outside world through our sight, speech and physical actions.
The Hebrew word for “strength” is meod, which means: Vehemently (implying whole - with everything you got). Its root meaning is: A poker to rake, move quickly and turn-over hot coals. Basically, it means to reach into a hot situation and turn things around or aligning them to be right.
And Love Your Neighbor as Yourself
All that goes on within our heart, soul and mind and exerted out of the body as strength is then focused towards God, ourselves, and others - our neighbors. At times we have used this “strength” for good, and at other times, for bad.
To “love your neighbor as yourself” means: Someone who is near you, your sphere of influence. Jesus gave the example of being a “good Samaritan” as assisting someone we may meet on the road of everyday life who needs help. If we would help ourselves out of situations that we find ourselves in, then we should help them also. These are our neighbors.
Love the Lord Your God
To love the Lord our God with “all our heart” is NOT enough to fully please Him in our daily walk. It takes much more than that. It actually takes loving God five (5) different ways to fully please Him and to fulfill His calling upon our life.
Let’s step through the five ways that are given to us by the Lord Jesus Himself in Mark 12:30-31 (that He combined together and quoted from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18).
And you shall love the Lord your God:
With All Your Heart
What does it meant to “love God with all your heart” as being distinguished from the other parts and functions of our make-up?
The Hebrew word for “heart” is lebab, which means: To be enclosed as the interior or center, hence, the heart. In the Greek, the word is kardia. It means: The seat in the center of man’s inward life - the place of human depravity or the sphere of divine influence. Both meanings point to that which gives man “life”: The depraved nature of spiritual death - which by nature is our life.
With All Your Soul
The Hebrew word for “soul” is nephesh. It means: A breathing creature - whether a person, animal or creature of the sea. The Greek word equivalent is psuche, in which we get our prefix-word, psycho, for words like: psychology, Psuche means: Breath - voluntarily but gently (basically, being alive). The “soul” of a man always refers to the”lower element” of man in relationship to the “heart,” the “higher element.”
Instead of retaliating and showing the person who hurt you “how it feels,” you choose to be kind in the midst of showing them what they have done wrong and how they have hurt you. Instead of giving up hope in a situation, you choose to hope and seek a way through regardless of whether or not it turns out exactly as you want. Instead of choosing to be angry, you choose patience - long suffering and endurance. This, is loving God with all your soul.
With All Your Mind
Though Jesus states in Mark 12:30 to love God “with all your mind,” the word for “mind” is not mentioned in Deuteronomy 6:4 from where He quoted the Scripture. In fact, when the Scribe quoted that same Scripture back to Jesus in verse 33, He used a different word for “mind” than the one Jesus did. Nevertheless, Jesus accepted it as valid because of its similarities.
The Greek word Jesus used for “mind” is dianoia, which means: Deep though, exercising the mind, to think through.
Loving God with all our mind means
That EVERYTHING we put in or allow in our minds is right, true and moral.
That we align our conclusions and decisions based upon the commandments of God and the written Word of God in all situations.
With All Your Strength
Loving God “with all your strength” speaks of the “ultimate expression” of our heart, soul and mind being released together through our bodily functions. It is the outward expression of what is going on within ourselves to the outside world through our sight, speech and physical actions.
The Hebrew word for “strength” is meod, which means: Vehemently (implying whole - with everything you got). Its root meaning is: A poker to rake, move quickly and turn-over hot coals. Basically, it means to reach into a hot situation and turn things around or aligning them to be right.
And Love Your Neighbor as Yourself
All that goes on within our heart, soul and mind and exerted out of the body as strength is then focused towards God, ourselves, and others - our neighbors. At times we have used this “strength” for good, and at other times, for bad.
To “love your neighbor as yourself” means: Someone who is near you, your sphere of influence. Jesus gave the example of being a “good Samaritan” as assisting someone we may meet on the road of everyday life who needs help. If we would help ourselves out of situations that we find ourselves in, then we should help them also. These are our neighbors.
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