How Do You Love God?

The last four blog entries have been about different aspects of the Greatest Command:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.
—Mark 12:30 (NASB95)

As a teen we had a few cliché answers when asked about heart, soul, mind and strength:

• Heart = Emotions
• Soul = Inner being (whatever that is)
• Mind = Intellect
• Strength = Physical

Those associations might carry an element of truth, but they didn’t translate to daily life. I wish someone had pointed us to the example of King Josiah! (See last week’s blog entry.)

Now, did you notice the extreme repetition?

Jesus could have given us the short list: heart, soul, mind and strength. Yet, the repetition of and places emphasis on every single element in the list. Love God with all your heart…
   ...and that’s not all; there’s more...soul…
   ...and that’s not all; there’s more...mind…
   ...and that’s not all; there’s more...strength.

And it is not just that you love God with your heart, soul, mind and strength, but...

• ALL your heart and...
• ALL your soul and...
• ALL your mind and...
• ALL your strength.

So, how does that translate to daily life?

First, love is not a mere emotion. Love is a conscious choice desiring a relationship.

The one who loves God has made a conscious decision to pursue a relationship with God. He will do whatever it takes to initiate and maintain that relationship. It is an intentional decision that becomes the filter through which all perceptions, thoughts, life decisions, purpose, daily choices, speech and behaviors pass. It is a resolute and determined choice that generates a deep conviction that cannot be shaken.

Your love for God governs your relationship with family, not vice versa. God rules in your choice of career and the individual jobs you take, the friends you make, the way you spend your money, and even the way you vacation.

The threat of losing your relationship with God keeps you from being lax about sin. It cools your anger, encourages patience, curbs coarse language, removes envy and jealousy, dampens temptations to lie, steal, cheat, gossip and lust.

Your love for God gives you energy in life. He motivates you to get out of bed, to look at each new day with awe and wonder, to enjoy life in contentment without coveting the lives and possessions of others. Your love for God gives you purpose in your dead-end job, in your unfulfilling relationships, and in your mundane life.

Your love for God turns your listless daydreaming into thoughtful actions for others. Your love for God doesn’t let youth hold you back, doesn’t let the busy years exhaust you, and doesn’t let age wear you down. Regardless of your age, health, income, position, education and all else, your love for God moves you to love others.

Your love for God compels you to bow in awe and to stand in praise. You listen to Jesus because you love God. You embrace God’s people because you love God and they love God. Your love for God defines you, and you don’t worry about what other people think or how you look.

Your love for God gives you insight into this life and a vision of hope that peers into eternity!

Mark Stinnett

April 25, 2921

Loving God With ALL You've Got

At the ripe old age of 18...yes, 18, not 81, King Josiah initiated a restoration project. His father and grandfather had allowed the temple of God to fall into ruins and idolatry to run rampant throughout the land. Josiah commissioned men to restore the temple, sparing no expense.

During the restoration, a copy of the Law of Moses was found, brought to the king and read to him. His reaction was not one of joy but of shock and horror. He knew immediately that God’s people had strayed from the Law and were deserving of God’s wrath.

Through a prophetess God sent word to Josiah that because of his humility and his proper reaction to the reading of the Law, His divine wrath would be withheld during the king’s lifetime.

The king then gathered all the leaders of the people, along with the people of the nation of Judah, and had the Law read to them.

The king...made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people entered into the covenant.

—2 Kings 23:3 (NASB95)

Then King Josiah began a tremendous restoration project, not only restoration of the temple, but also restoration of the relationship between the nation of Judah and God. The king…

• Brought all the vessels and idols devoted to foreign gods and goddesses out of God’s temple and burned them. He ground all that was left into dust.
• Broke down all the high places and altars devoted to foreign gods as well as the housing directly associated with the idolatry.
• Destroyed Topheth, in the valley of Hin-nom, the place where children had been sacrificed to the god Molech.
• Gathered the priests who had served the foreign gods, presumably Levites, and did not allow them to serve at the altar of God, yet allowed them to live among their brothers and eat the food according to the Law.
• Slaughtered the high priests of the foreign gods and removed mediums and spiritists.

Then King Josiah restored the Passover, and it was a celebration unlike any before it, going all the way back to the days of the judges.

Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him. (v. 25)

With passion and unwavering commitment King Josiah turned toward God. He loved God with all his heart. At age 18 he stepped forward and, with unflinching determination, carried out a great restoration. He loved God with the very essence of his being; he loved God with all his soul. His restoration was marked by careful planning, with intentional and deliberate actions. His purpose was rooted in what he read in God’s word. He loved God with all his mind.

In restoring God’s temple, there was to be no accounting, that is, no tracking of expenditures. When destroying idolatry, Josiah went so far as to demolish, burn and grind into dust the things associated with idols. Nothing was left to restore idolatry. He loved God with all his might.

Young King Josiah is a picture of the greatest command, to love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength!

Mark Stinnett

April 18, 2021

Do You Love God With All Your Mind?

As kids we were taught to put our hand over our heart when reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. The pledge was supposed to come from the heart, not the blood-pumping organ, of course.

Mind is much easier—point to your head, right? Or is that your brain? Mind, brain???

What does it mean when Jesus said that you should love God with all your mind?

When younger we got away with saying that Jesus was referring to one’s intellect. That sounded smarter than saying that Jesus wanted us to love him with all our thinking. Still, my friends and I didn’t know what that meant.

It’s true that intellect and thinking are associated with the mind. But what does that mean?

In the Old Testament the Hebrew word heart is translated as both heart and mind. There isn’t really a separate Hebrew word for mind. So, when the word heart appears in the Hebrew text, translators have to decide whether heart or mind makes sense for English readers. (You might find it interesting that an Israelite could have a gut feeling just like we do, only it came from the belly or from the kidneys.)

In the New Testament there is a Greek word that corresponds to the English word mind. As you would expect it describes thinking and understanding.

Paul taught that the church should have the same mind, instead of one person standing out with a haughty mind. Humility of mind is set against selfish conceit.

The Bible describes a depraved mind that is deprived of the truth but also a renewed mind that is transformed by being presented to God as a living and holy sacrifice. The mind can be fleshly but also led by the Spirit.

Paul reminds us in Colossians that we were “formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds.” (1:21) He later described the fleshly mind as “delighting in self-abasement [false humility] and the worship of angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen.” (2:18) In contrast, he encouraged, “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things of the earth.” (3:2)

Conviction is found in the mind.

With the mind we sing. With the mind we pray. The mind instructs and receives instruction.

The mind is that part of an individual that is most closely associated with the spirit.

The mind is the part of us that thinks and understands. However, the word Jesus used for mind in His instruction was built off the usual word for mind, yet with a prefix suggesting an active element. It is the same word Peter used in when he encouraged, “Therefore, prepare your minds for action…” (1 Peter 1:13) and in his second letter when he said that he was “stirring up your sincere mind….” (3:1)

When Jesus admonished, “Love the Lord your God with all your mind,” He was looking deeper than mere thought. It was active thinking. It was more akin to the purpose, intent or planning of the mind that results in taking action.

It is the difference between thinking and being thoughtful. Thoughtfulness implies thought that anticipates the needs and wants of others. It suggests movement of the mind toward activity based on the thought.

Loving God with your mind implies intent followed by action.

Do you love God with all your mind?


Mark Stinnett

April 11, 2021

Do You Love God With All Your Soul?

 

Define soul.

The writer of the book of Hebrews wrote:

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 

 —Hebrews 4:12 (NASB95)

That tells me that if I want to learn something about the soul and how it differs from the spirit, I should open my Bible instead of consulting the dictionary. Here are some things I found when trying to better understand soul.

The Hebrew word for soul is often translated with a personal pronoun: I, my, myself, you, yourself, anyone, them, themselves, etc.

In both Old and New Testaments soul is often translated life. This is different than spirit, which is breath or life essence. Soul seems to be more the essence of being.

In the creation sequence (Genesis 1) and in the instruction following the flood (Genesis 9), living creatures were literally living souls, and that includes bugs, birds, beasts and fish.

Next, consider Genesis 2:7.

Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Literally, “man became a living soul.”

Consider also Leviticus 17:11, an explanation following a prohibition of eating blood:

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.

Literally, “the soul of the flesh is in the blood” and “it is the blood by reason of the soul that makes atonement.”

I’m not sure that it means that the soul is literally in our blood any more than we think that our emotions are literally in our hearts. Yet, there is a connection between soul and blood!

The soul…

• Experiences bitterness;
• Is knit to another in love;
• Can be troubled, grieved, tormented;
• Gains knowledge and understanding through life’s experiences;
• Has appetite and hunger not associated with the physical body, i.e., good desires and evil desires (lust);
• Rejects and abhors things;
• Can sin, swear, act unfaithfully;
• Bears guilt and receives punishment;
• Can also be purified and saved for eternity.

The soul is the essence of our human being describing our identity. It incorporates our will, intent, desire. The soul is that part of our being that chooses.

In Colossians 3:23 the Apostle Paul wrote:

Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men.

Heartily is literally, from the soul.

God desires your love from the very essence of your being. It is love by choice. It is intentional love. It is love that is resolute, determined, and unwavering. It is by your will that you love.

Jesus said,

Love the Lord your God with all your soul.

Mark Stinnett

April 4, 2021