LOVE FROM THE HEART (2)

“And you shall LOVE the Lord your God with ALL YOUR HEART, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” – Mark 12:30

Life’s first and greatest commandment is LOVE from the HEART: ^“Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall LOVE the Lord your God with ALL YOUR HEART, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment” (Mk.12:29-30). Yesterday, we meditated on Jesus’ expression of the word “Love” as Choice and Commitment; and the Focus – loving the Lord our God. Today, we’ll examine “How” to obey the Law of Love: to love with our HEART, and our soul, mind, and strength – with everything we have and everything we are.

The first instruction is to love God with our whole HEART – the core of who we are, including our WILL, which drives our choices, behaviour, and actions. The heart is the origin of all that we do: “A good person out of the good treasure of his HEART bring forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things” (Mt.12:35). Good choices, good conduct, and good actions come from a heart that’s committed to God. We can tell where a person’s heart is, based on what they say and do: “Therefore by their fruits you will know them” (Mt.7:20). God wants our will, choices, behaviour, and actions to align with His Word and His Will.  

God’s Love in our hearts is evidenced in honourable behaviour: “having your conduct honourable among then Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation” (1Pet.2:12). A heart committed to God has a hunger to do the Word of God; to practically apply the Word of God to life. James 1:22 says, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” The tongue also reveals the heart: “If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his TONGUE but deceives his own HEART, this one’s religion is useless” (Jam.1:26).

We are to love God with our Soul, which includes our feelings. We must love God passionately. The term “soul” is closest to what we would call emotion and is the word Jesus used when He cried out in the Garden of Gethsemane the night He was arrested: “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me” (Mt.26:38b). The soul relates to emotions, feelings, attitudes, and convictions. Jesus is demanding that our emotions, feelings, attitudes and convictions express passionate love for Him. God wants us to love Him and things of God excitedly. To love God with all of one’s soul is also to follow one’s convictions based on the truth one knows and understands: “for whatever is not from faith is sin” (Rom.14:23b). We must also love God with renewed attitude.

We are to love God with our Mind: Our intellect, thinking, and understanding. There are certain aspects of God’s will that we would not understanding without a change of thinking: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom.12:2).  To love God with all our mind means to allow Him to change the way we think. To love God is to fix our thoughts on what is true, honourable (ethical, respectable), right (authentic, genuine), pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praise-worthy (Phil.4:8). Such a mind is not thinking about how to get revenge, ways to lie, or assuming the worst of others. To love God with your mind is to take every thought captive (2Cor.10:5).

Finally, we are to love God with our whole Strength: All of the physical and mental passions and practical actions of our body and being! Beloved, do you love Jesus above everyone and everything else? Do you love Him with all that you are and all that you have?