Matthew 22:36-40
36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’38This is the first and greatest commandment.39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Deuteronomy 6:4-5
4Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.5Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Luke 10:25-27
25On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Today I was reading the Matthew passage about loving God and loving others. Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 6 in the Matthew passage, but he uses mind instead of strength. I wonder why that is? Maybe because at the time he was talking with the religious leaders and scholars. With these guys they probably work with their mind and not much with their body. Yet, in the Luke passage it adds strength. However, the point is Jesus wants us to love him with our whole being. In my prayer journal I was writing this morning I laid out briefly what all this means.
Love the Lord with all your…
Heart: This is your emotions or how we feel. This is the trickiest thing because our emotions are not steady. One minute we are happy and the next minute we could be sad or mad about something. It all has to do with what is happening around us and how that affects us. Our mind can say ‘do not let that bother you’, but our heart does not listen. We must give our emotions to God, and He will help us keep them in check.
Soul: This is who you are. This is your whole make up from your experiences, your talents, your likes and dislikes. It is what makes you, you. For instance, I have an identical twin sister. We do not look exactly alike now as much as we did as kids. As kids we had the same friends and did the same things. We were very much alike. Yet we were two different people. We did not have all the same experiences. I was molested as a child and she was not. She fell off a cliff into a river and nearly drowned. She is still married, and I am divorced. Her life experiences are different than mine. We are two different people. So, what makes you, you?
Mind: Your thoughts are what Jesus is talking about here. Where are your thoughts? What do you have entering your mind and what do you dwell on? Where are you focusing throughout the day? God knows we must focus on our work when we are working, but He wants us to know He is there helping us through each day. Often when I am writing I often feel God helping say the right words.
There are other things God wants you to love Him with such as your body (this is the strength part) and how you take care of it. Your money, that is a hard one, but when you think about it, your money really belongs to Him anyways. Your career and your time. God wants to be a part of every part of you so you can thank Him and love Him the way He wants to be loved.
Neighbor: That is everyone else. It is the people in your family. Your church family, coworkers and friends. It is even your neighbors, yes, even the ones who really bug you! I have one neighbor who lives upstairs in my building who is the most annoying person on the planet. I am trying to love him! It is the people in your town, state, and country. It is even the people all around the globe. This is a hard one too but that is what God wants! If you read further in the Luke 10 passage Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan to illustrate who your neighbor is, it is anyone we need to show compassion on.
In the ten commandments the first part is about loving God and the second part is about loving others. No one loves everyone. But God showed us how to love by sending His son, Jesus. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God knew we were not perfect in following the ten commandments so He sent His Son into the world to die (take our place) for us so that we might be saved. In turn we can love Him with all our being and love other too!
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