Loving God with All Your Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength

Today, I'd like us to review a story from the life of Jesus. And in this story, the Son of God stresses what is the most important thing for His followers to obey in their lives. So therefore, I suppose it should be pretty important for us to think about, to learn about. If you'll please turn to Mark 12, verse 28 through 31. Mark 12, 28 through 31. So the scenario we're about to read is recounted in Matthew, in Luke, and here in Mark. And if you combine the stories, what we find is that Jesus was approached by a scribe who was also a teacher of the law. And according to the story, according to Matthew, this man had been spending time with the Sadducees and the Pharisees. And he came to Jesus with the expressed intent of testing him. So as you know, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they were not comfortable with Jesus Christ. They felt threatened by Him. They eventually conspired to kill Him. But right now, they were content trying to expose Him as a fraud. And that's the focus of this lawyer's question. It's basically trying to trip Jesus up. I'm sorry, Mark 12 and verse 28.

Now, one source I read said that there were 613 laws in the Old Testament, regardless of the number. Experts of the day in God's law would spend hours arguing this question. And Jesus responded by pointing out two commandments that weren't even in the same book of the law. He said, Jesus answered him, So Jesus responded without hesitating, and He gave what was an answer in total accord with the Mosaic law. What Jesus quoted as the first, or the greatest of all commandments, was part of the Shema, which comprised text of three different sections of Scripture. There's Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 9, Deuteronomy 11, 13 through 21, and Numbers 15, 37 through 41. And the second greatest commandment about loving our neighbors comes from Leviticus 19, 18. So three different books of the law are being referenced here. My focus today is going to be on the first, what he called the greatest commandment. So the Shema. The Shema is the centerpiece of a twice daily morning and evening Jewish prayer service. It would be the most familiar section, most quoted, most copied set of Scriptures in Jewish culture. Jesus certainly heard this prayer from his parents many, many times when he was growing up. To give you an example of how common it would be, the Shema was part of the Scriptural text that was copied on small pieces of parchment called phylacteries. You've probably seen people with those. It would either be one on the forehead or on the left arm during prayer. In a similar way, copies of the Shema were placed in the mezuzah. So think about small boxes the Jews attached their doorposts. So if you go by an Orthodox Jewish or you see them worshiping, you would have probably seen both of those still being used today. I'd like you to now turn to Deuteronomy 6, verse 4-6, and let's read the original text that Jesus was quoted. So again, context. Deuteronomy was written for the purpose of refocusing Israel after wandering for 40 years. They were a pilgrim people. They were becoming a settled people. They were moving into a land that was covered by idolatry. And as a result, God was trying to remind them who their Savior was. He was refocusing them. Deuteronomy 6, verse 4, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. So everyone knew these verses already. What was Jesus teaching when he highlighted this set of scriptures as preeminently important?

I think a challenge that we all face along the way is when something becomes routine, we can either miss the intended meaning or we can take it for granted. And I would argue that's what Jesus is doing here. Jesus was saying the greatest, the first commandment, is the commandment of Jesus that all of you recite every day. It's the one you bind on your arms and your forehead every day. You walk under when you go into your house every day, but you're not really getting or living out what God says is most important.

Now, I refer to this as the Shema. In Hebrew, the word here at the beginning of Hebrews 6.4 is Shema.

It starts this phrase. Now, it means something different than how you and I use the word here.

Shema wasn't just describing something auditory, but also involved obeying. Many times in the Old Testament, if you're looking at words you read as obey, it's the word Shema.

It's the same word. So, to the Jew to hear was to obey. They were the same.

It assumes responding as a given. Now, the next thing we notice in the phrase is the Lord is one. Please understand this is not trying to calculate the number of beings in a Godhead. That's covered in other places in Scripture. That's not what's being discussed here. In Hebrew, there are no verbs. So, what's literally written is Eternal One. YHVH one. Others' translations say God alone. God unique. God unique.

So, the thought being conveyed is there is no other.

What's being described is the Eternal is the only Savior God. He deserves our soul allegiance.

That's what's being referenced. Now, the Scripture Jesus quoted next goes on to describe how we should love God. But I want to reflect a little bit, because when I reflect on this one, there's probably a little bit of ouch that comes with this. But I think as humans, we most often speak of how much God loves us.

Right? For God so loved the world that he gave his only son. But we often fail to think in terms of how much we should feel love toward God.

Turn to Psalms 84 and verse 2. Psalms 84 and verse 2. It's common in our prayers, right, to talk about a lot of concerns, a lot of needs, a lot of wants. And God wants us to talk about these things. But we often forget to take the time to tell God how much we love him. And as Christians, we can do actions. We can keep observations, you know, we can keep a Sabbath and a feast. We can do stuff. We can even give offerings. We can even serve others. But for a lot of people, this idea of emotionally loving God, people struggle with. People struggle with. It's something that's hard to wrap their mind around. But that's, I'm turning you to David because that's the opposite of what David was. He was such an emoting person. Psalms 88 verse 4. My soul yearns, even faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. If you want to go forward a little bit to Psalms 143 and verse 6, let's quote it for you. But it says, I spread out my hands to you. So think of either lifting it up or in prayer all the way down to the ground. My soul thirsts for you like a parched land.

So David had this love for God that was like this all-consuming passion. Humbling. I'm far short in that, but it's such a great example. It's why God loved him so much. Do we? Do we care and love so much? It literally hurts, by the way, the words used by David were. It's fine. So what if you and I don't have this kind of love for God?

What if we don't have the passion God talks about of with all our heart?

How do we get there?

Well, in each of those scriptures we just read, the writer is crying out to God because he understands and remembers what God has done for him. That's why we first reminded that we worship a God who is God alone. God unique. God only. That's why it starts that way. Both the Hebrew words for love, which is ahab, A-H-E-B, and you know the Greek words agape, both refer primarily to an action of both mind and will that is focused on caring for someone else. It's an externally focused and outgoing focused word and action. Now it might include strong emotions, but its distinguishing characteristics were the dedication, the commitment to do what was right, regardless of what one feels about that.

It's not what you're feeling at the time that matters if you're really living a godly love.

To love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength is about action. It's not something where we have to wait and feel all holy before we pray, before we study, before we talk to God. Because I think what God wants us to learn is that those actions is what God uses to show his love. And it starts with a humbling awe of who God is, and we're coming before God only. That's the concept he wants us to get, and that builds the emotions along the way. So loving God means loving him without reservation, without condition. It's the greatest commandment because the love of God is the motivation for keeping all the other commandments, everything else that's said. That's why the person trying to trip him up couldn't argue with that, right? He admitted that checkmate had taken place.

True love, like God's love for us, is something that is supposed to be what we do for life, right? We do it unselfishly, we do it unconditionally, we do it uncompromisingly. If you will turn to Exodus 20 verses 2 through 3.

The next thing I want us to refocus on are two words that are highlighted a lot in the Shema. And those are the words, your and all. You're turning to a different verse, but I'll go ahead and just read again to you Deuteronomy 6.4 so you can... or actually 6.5 so you can capture them. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. So, all and your. Play through a great deal there. Because our Savior is God alone, or God unique, we have to give Him our supreme allegiance for all God has done in our lives, right? By creating this whole universe, by calling us through the sacrifice of His Son Christ, we're expected in faithfulness to give Him something back personally. So, the words, your, is repeated over and over. You know, my, change it to those you remember, Dr. Zimmerman, put your name in there. It's that type of a concept along the way where we have to personalize this. Then the use of the word, all over and over, says God doesn't want half Christians. Just like you can't be half pregnant, you can't be half Christian.

We can love a lot of things in life, but God wants us to understand what must come first. That's really the point that He wants us to resonate on. Our primary allegiance and loyalty must be to God the Father, because He wants to be our God. But He didn't make robots, because at the end of the day, He only wants to resurrect and have for eternity those who choose to be His children.

You don't get that by a machine. You don't fall in love with your vacuum cleaner. Some of them may fall, but not enough to want to be with your vacuum cleaner for life.

That is the thought process. He wants to be our God, our hero, our deliverer, our champion. That's why the Ten Commandments start in Exodus 22 by saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods. That's the framework for, again, everything that jumps out from there, starts with that foundation. That's not the approach that Satan inspires in our world. That's not what he inspires in the false religions around us. Egypt had gods for every reason, for every season. The Greeks, Paul even highlighted this one, had gods for an unknown reason, just in case you missed one. I read—I'm going to mess this one up, but I pick a big enough number and I'm probably close— I think Hindu has something like 200 million gods. So, if in doubt, pick another one, you're probably fine. Go for it. You know, it's that type of a concept along the way. And even today, like we heard in the sermonette, while most or many call themselves Christians, they worship their interpretation of Jesus, their interpretation of the methods of obedience that rationalize and seem acceptable to them.

In contrast, one true god took Israel out of Egypt. One true god set up his law for what he expects. One true god can resurrect us, but it's realizing the perspective. In return, god wants nothing less than all of us. So, now let's look at the descriptive words that are used by Jesus to describe how our love for him should be.

And so, there's two sides here. Let's reflect on them both. At the core, to love the Lord with all one's heart, one's soul, one's mind, and one's strength isn't meant to express separate and technically different elements. That's not what's, you know, it's... We're supposed to love God as a whole. It isn't compartmentalized in three or four different, unique things. It's real design is to connote something comprehensive. We're to love our Lord, our God with every part of our being in all our feelings, all our thoughts, all our actions. But with that said, the different descriptors are listed distinctly for a reason. Because each one being preceded by its own with all your connotes intentionality, right? That we're supposed to do and think about as we're loving in that way. And so it's helpful to look at the distinct descriptions, and that's what I'm going to work through. So we'll start with with all your heart. All your heart.

Our culture uses heart very, very interestingly, right? We talk about a word that's used a lot of ways, and I'll give you an example. A person without compassion is described as heartless, and we urge them to have a heart. A true evil or truly evil are black-hearted, while good saints have a heart of gold. Courageous soldiers are brave-hearted. Jilted lovers are broken-hearted. If we need to speak intimately with someone, we have a heart to heart. But when we lose our passion for something in life, my heart just isn't in it. My heart aches. And then when we love someone as deeply as we can, we say we love them with all our heart. So it's just an interesting word. Similarly, in Hebrew, they use the word heart differently than we do sometimes. If you'll turn to Genesis 6 and verse 5. Genesis 6 and verse 5. Of course, let's start at the foundation. Physically speaking, we know the heart is an organ that's inside of us that's critical to pump the blood for us to survive. It beats 50 plus times every minute, and people do surgery on it just to extend their lives. So yes, important in that way.

But to the ancient Hebrews, heart referred to more than it does today because it relates to the core of one's personal being.

Many writers refer to it as where our memories and our thoughts are stored. Now, we use our mind for that. You read in the Bible different ways of using the word.

In Greek, the word cardia denotes the center of what gives people physically and spiritual life. So just different uses of a word. We'll get an example here. Genesis 6 verse 5. Then the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. So there's an example of does the heart have the ability to have evil thoughts?

By the use of that word and the way we should understand it being presented, that was part of the broad elements of what you would connote with a heart. If you'll turn to Proverbs 4 and verse 23, the biblical use of the heart references one's entire understanding, one's emotional nature. There's a lot of ways that heart is used. I'll give you one more example. Proverbs 4 verse 23. Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life. Now that's not just discussing blood flowing through an organ, but springs of all of our intentions, all of our actions. So examples we could keep going for how the word heart is used. So clearly one of the most important things for us to protect, to direct, is our heart. And Jesus said, we're to love our God with all our heart. So how do we do that?

One way is to spend time just thinking about what God has done for us, and praising Him for His goodness, praising Him for the things He's blessed us with.

When we remember what God has done for us in the past, it not only will melt away our anxiety, that's a scientifically proven fact, but we'll experience a peace that the Bible says passes all understanding. Loving God with all our heart is a love for God that's saturated with Thanksgiving, you could say. It's a way of just appreciating very, very deeply. So let me share one way that we can all probably improve by asking you a question.

How much time do you spend telling God why you love Him?

Something to think about in your prayers this week.

Do you ever spend the time to tell Him, I love you, God. Well, why?

Something we can grow in. A story I read that was kind of interesting, that goes along those lines in the middle of President Lincoln's presidency. An elderly lady made an appointment to see him. So as she entered his office, he inquired, how can I be of service to you, madam? The lady answered, Mr. President, I know you are a very busy man, and I have not come to ask you for anything. I simply came to bring you this box of cookies.

And then there was a long silence.

And tears started to flow from Lincoln's eyes, and he said, Madam, I am greatly moved by what you have done. For since I have become president, people have come into this office, one after another asking for favors and demanding things from me. You are the first person who has ever entered these premises asking no favors, but bringing a gift. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

See, in our prayers, we need to learn to deliberately set aside time to come into God's presence, not only asking for personal favors, but bringing the gift of a grateful heart. That's what God would like us to do. And that's what it means to love the Lord our God with all our heart. Of course, another way, if you think about God's intention and how love is an outflowing thing, is we love God with all our heart by fulfilling the second great commandment.

We show God we love Him with all our heart by how we extend love to our neighbors. Different perspectives. All right, so let's now go to the second one. Jesus said we should love our God with all our soul.

All our soul. Now, this is the idea of total commitment. When a person is in love with God with all of their heart, they become consumed with the idea of committing their time, their talents, their treasures to God.

Martin Luther King wants, or Martin Luther, I should say, he once said, a religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing is worth nothing. And there's a lot of truth to that. Loving God with all my soul is a love that roots in the core of my will and leads me to give of myself fully because I love Him, because I want to, not because of duty, not because of obligation.

Love is, I'd argue it's not love, but if nothing else, it's acceptably cheap if it's done because of obligation and duty.

The kind of love that God wants is overwhelming because we can feel consumed by a desire to show it, right? Because we feel that much compassion and appreciation, and it means I can't help but dedicate my being and my resources to pleasing Him. Again, can't go to a better place than looking at David. That just throughout, David pictured that. He reflected that in how or by how he loved God with all of his soul. You don't need to turn that. I mean, one example, even with 2 Samuel 24, he was wanting to offer wood and animals for a sacrifice, and the person said, just take it. And David said, I will not sacrifice the Lord my God-burned offerings that cost me nothing.

David's love for God was so much that he was committed to give something that actually cost him. He wanted to give fully and not take advantage in corners in any way. If you'll turn to 1 Peter 2 11. 1 Peter 2 11. The term use for soul is sometimes closest to what we would call emotions. And as 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. So it might be another way of kind of connecting that concept. The soul can be described as the hidden part of all human beings. It's the center of our will, our feelings, our emotions, our appetites, our desires, if that helps, trying to connect the different uses along the way.

It reflects this physical and spiritual awareness. 1 Peter 2 11. Beloved, I beg you, as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from flesh from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. 2 Peter 3 12. Beloved, I beg you, as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. See, if we love God fully, we properly need to compartmentalize and direct our desires physically. If you'll turn next to Hebrews 4 verse 12, we'll see this expanded on. The point is to remember that only God can take away our penalty of death. Only He enables us to become spiritual parts of His family for eternity. And so that should help us prioritize what we do first, what we do foremost, what we do most importantly. Hebrews 4 verse 12. For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even the division of soul and spirit, of joint and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. So again, if we truly love God with all our soul, in other words, with all our will from the core of our emotions and feelings, then we will want to do what God tells us to do.

Jesus next said, we should love the Lord our God with all our mind. What does that mean? With all our mind.

The mind, of course, is the part of the human that enables us to be aware of the world, aware of the experiences going on around us. We're the only being in creation that can read, that can reason and think in complexities, and it allows us to make choices. I think we can get the best feel of this if we go back to what we read first at Mark. So turn to Mark 12, and we'll read from verse 32 through 34. Mark 12, 32 through 34. But I'll remind you again of the context. A scribe came up trying to trick Jesus, asking him which is the greatest or which is the first commandment. Jesus explained that all the law and the prophets hung on these two great commandments. Love God, love neighbor. And his response was so enlightening the way he phrased it and the way he packaged those verses, that it almost got the young man off guard. You can sort of picture him with an open mouth. And Mark 12, 32 says, so the scribe said to him, Well said, teacher, you have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but he. And to love him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. Then Jesus said something that at least catches my attention. He said, Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God. And after that, no one dared question him. He was not far from the kingdom. What does that mean? I would argue that Jesus realized this young man had come to an awareness and a decision point. Up to that point, yes, he was a scholar. He was a legalist, able to argue, and that's probably what he did for fun, arguing about the legalities of the Bible.

Previously, he hadn't understood the God of love that Jesus had just introduced him to. And so suddenly, he began to see God as he really was. The true God wasn't impressed with people who just know God's word, but rather was a God who wanted his people to love him passionately. If you'll turn to Romans 8, 5-8, Romans 8, verses 5-8, there was a choice this young man was now facing. And you see, when we love God with all of our minds, it means you or me. We've chosen to. You can't love with all your mind and not choose to, right? You can every now and then think on something, but that's certainly not with all your mind. That's not prioritizing it. I've made a decision that it's God I want, and I will think on more than anything else in this life. In a sense, that's what's being connoted by loving with all your mind. But as you know, we can also use our mind to think on very opposite things, and that's what Satan tries to get us to do a great deal.

And when we think on those things, we're not prioritizing correctly. Romans 8 and verse 5, For those who live according to the flesh, set their mind on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God. For it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Israel was told God had set before them life and death, blessings and cursings, but that they had to choose life. You could think of that means putting your mind in a certain direction. And similarly, that's what Jesus is saying with this first and greatest commandment, when we have to love God with all of our mind. If you'll turn to 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 10, another verse we know well, but a lot of times I think we missed this one part of it.

There's a lot of ways to try to summarize these things, right? There's generalize or broad constructs are an easy way for us to think. Mr. Armstrong used to use the two trees to make a contrast. Loving God with all of our minds is asking the same thing. God wants us to make daily decisions to become ultimately part of his eternal family. But that will only happen if we mentally choose and love his way.

1 Corinthians 1 and verse 10. Now I plead with you, brethren, for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no division among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. That's what we're supposed to become. The final point Jesus made was that our love for God should be with all our strength. With all our strength. If you'll turn to Colossians 3 and verse 17. Colossians 3, 17.

And while you're doing that, let me kind of talk you through the points that we've covered so far and see if you can see how they sort of build on each other. When I love God with all of my heart, that means from my core, my understanding, my emotions. That kind of love leads me to love God with all of my soul, with a full commitment of my will to please God.

And if I love God with all my heart and with all my soul, then I will seek to love God with all my mind by making daily choices of obedience that align with his priorities. Finally, if I love God with all my heart and all my soul and all my mind, then it will lead to wanting to love God with all my strength. To love God with all our strength means whatever I do, I do for God.

You put your all into it. Use common vernacular. So the word strength is referencing our ability. It's referencing our effort, you could say. If all the others' alls are in place, then our deepest commitment should be toward physically yielding ourselves to God. Colossians 3 and verse 17, in whatever you do in word or deeds, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

So when we love the Lord our God with all our strengths, we're going to do everything in life with an eye toward pleasing God. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10.31, therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. That's that allness of putting your strength into it.

Put your your full actions into it. It should be our driving passion to do everything to the glory of God. And that's why it's the fourth part of this packaging of thoughts along the way. We do it for God as an employee. We do it to God as an employer. We do it to God as a husband. We do it to God as a wife. We do it to God as a relative, a friend, a stranger.

It doesn't matter. Whatever role we're in in life, whatever situation we're in, we should do all that we do to the glory of Christ. And showing that kind of love to God requires all our strength, really. So, I'll give you a tough question. Does your love for God override all your present circumstances, your personal agendas, your wants and needs?

Again, Christianity is a whole lot easier to talk about than do, right? We're all going to fall short of that one. But that's what we're becoming. That's why either and describe the lawyer couldn't argue because when you frame it together, you're like, oh, okay, yep, that pretty much sums it all up. I'm done. So, let's begin closing. The Hebrew scholar and writer Louis Turberg, I have no idea how to exactly pronounce that when you have a T and a V and E or anyway, wrote, the logic of Hebrew and other languages realizes that an action should result from what is on our minds.

If you remember someone, you will act on their behalf. If you hear someone, you will obey their words. If you know someone, you will have a close relationship with them. Hebrew realizes that the longest 12 inches that your faith has to move is from your heart, from your head to your heart. And once your faith makes that move, it naturally comes out through your hands and your feet.

It's a beautiful phrase, beautiful way of packaging it. We can get a feel of what Jesus was teaching by contrasting the scribes and the Pharisees who were trying to trip him up with Paul. Think about even when they failed. I mean, we look at David as a man after God's own heart, and he failed a lot. Even in Romans 7, this humbling section of Scripture, is that even though Paul didn't always do what was right, he always loved what was right and longed to do what honored God. That's what God is wanting from us, and that's the opposite attitude of what you see from the scribes and Pharisees, right?

Sure, they may have known technical parts, but God condemned them because of this pretense of love that they tried to do, and they had nothing inwardly loving God. They got it all backwards. So they could recite the Shema. They were meticulous about trying to have it in places to show it and declare it, but it was hollow.

It was meaningless. The distinguishing mark of a true belief in God is a true love for God. And in contrast, faith that's not characterized by a consuming love for God is simply acknowledging his divinity, and the demons do that. Satan does that. That's not what we're aspiring for. God has never sought empty words or empty rituals. Genuine faith produces a new will, a new desire, a new attitude within us as people, and that is what the Bible refers to as a love for God.

So let me read one more time Jesus' response in Mark 12 verse 30. Jesus—or actually it starts at 29. Jesus answered him, The first of all commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall—so hear, hear and acknowledge, hear and obey—the Lord is God only. And as a result, you shall love the Lord your God with all your hearts, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strengths.

This is the first or greatest commandment. That's what God is wanting from us.