A question was asked of Jesus by the scribes, ‘What is the most important commandment?’ Jesus answered and said ‘Hear, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one; 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… THERE IS NO OTHER COMMANDMENTS GREATER…’
(Mark 12:28 – 30).
In this article we will look at 2 parts to this commandment. First we are going to look at the duty given from this article, which is ‘To love the Lord your God…’ Secondly, we will look at the hebrew word ‘kol’ and how it emphasises the full measure of what God requires. Our next article we will cover the full measure of how to Love God ‘with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.’
Join us as we find out, what it really mean to love our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.’ (Deuteronomy 6:5)
Firstly, we look at the duty from this command: ‘And you shall love…’ The Hebrew word used here in this text is the word ‘Ahab’. And it means ‘to desire after / hence of longing for someone or something’. The command to love the Lord your God means to desire or have a yearning for God. God demands our highest affection with our entire being. To love God is the chief duty of religion. So, then another question comes up, what does it really mean to love God the way He wants us to love Him? Let’s look into His word
‘Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments’ (Deut 7:9)
‘…I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments.’ (Deut 30:16)
‘But take careful heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, to hold fast to Him, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.’ (Joshua 22:5)
‘And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments’ (Dan 9:4)
‘For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.’ (1 John 5:3)
One thing you will notice about these scriptures is the word love in these bible verses are followed up by ‘you shall keep my commandments.’ Meaning we show God love with action. In the Old Testament, the way they showed their love for God was by being obedient To God’s commandments and keeping to His ways. For the Christian, Jesus says ‘If you love Me, you shall keep my commandments’ (John 14:15). We follow the ways of our Lord and Saviour, and we walk in obedience to His teachings. This is not out of fear of Him, but we walk in obedience to Jesus commandments out of our love for Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
The next part we draw our attention to is how our love for God is measured. ‘With all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.’ The Hebrew word used for ‘with all your’ is the word ‘kol’ and it means everything, totality, or whole. There is a repetition with these words ‘with all your’ because it emphasises the full measure of what God requires. God requires us to love Him with our entire being. He alone must be above everything in our lives. You will also notice an order of the measurement by which it is given. It starts from the heart and ends at the physical. Both the heart and soul represent the immaterial man which is separate from the physical body. To love the Lord your God, you must first love Him from the inner most part of you (your heart and soul) before it is expressed outwardly in the physical.
On our next article, we will follow up with the measure of how to love God. ‘With all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength’. To God be the glory!
The Holy Bible
BlueLetterBible.com
FreshTruthMinistries