The Greatest Commandment Part 2 - Fresh Truth Ministries

“You Shall Love the Lord your God, with all you heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Mark 12:30

On our previous article, we looked at the first part to this great commandment, which is ‘To love the Lord Your God.’ We discovered that the heart of true religion is ‘to love God.’ Part 2 to this breakdown of this great command, we will look at the full measure of what God requires from us on how to love Him. ‘With all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.’

The first measurement with how to love God: ‘with all your heart’. The word heart in the Hebrew is the word ‘lebab.’ We are not talking about the organ that pumps blood within our body, what we are talking about is the central part of man. It is where our will power, desires and emotions come from. To love the Lord God with all our Heart, we must surrender our will, and our full desires to Him. The problem here is that we humans want to believe that deep down in our hearts we are all good people. However, scripture would tell us differently. The condition of the heart according to scripture is unrighteous before God. Jesus says,
‘For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.’
(Mark 7:21-23).
Scripture also says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?’ (Jeremiah 17:9)
‘Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the heart’ (Proverbs 21:2).
The heart according to scripture is where sin abides. It is true that we have outward temptations, but the real problem lies deep within our hearts.
So how are you to love God with all our hearts if the heart is not right before our God?? Firstly, one must recognise the impurity of their heart; then they must surrender their heart fully unto God. One must allow God to create and give them a pure heart (Psalm 51:10). God must give you a new heart in order to be able to love Him. Scripture says,
‘I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.’ (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
You will not be able to Love the Lord your God with all your heart unless you repent and give your heart to God for Him to do His working in you, only then with a clean and pure heart are you able to love Him with all your heart.

The next measure we look at is, to love the Lord your God ‘with all your soul’ The word soul in Hebrew is ‘nepes’. It’s the inner being / breath / life. The soul is literally the ‘breath of life.’ Scripture says, ‘And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being.’ (Gen 2:7).
The measure of loving the Lord your God with all your soul, is to love Him more than your own life. Living for God fully may even cost you opportunities for your livelihood when living according to what God says is right verses what the world says is right. It may even cost you your own life if it is necessary. This is the measure of loving God with all your soul. It is giving back to God ‘the breath of Life’ that He gave you to be a living being.

To love the Lord your God with all your mind: The word for mind in the Greek is ‘dianoia’, and it means the intellect / understanding / deep thought. The measure here is to love God with our whole intellect. Are you pursuing God and wanting to know Him more and more; does the thought of God dominate your mind; do you ‘lean not on our own understanding’ and seek Him to direct your paths; Are you taking every thought captive to obey Christ; Does the question, ‘will this honour God?’ come to mind when decisions need to be made. If you want to Love the Lord with all our minds, we need to dig deeper into His scripture to know Him at a deeper level. The more we grow in our understanding of God in our minds, the more we will grow in our love for God in our minds. Romans 12:2 says,
‘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.’

The heart, soul and mind of the inner man directs the way we feel, how you think, your beliefs and desires. The final measure we look at is loving God with all your strength.

So, how do you love God with all your Strength? The Hebrew word used here is ‘me’od’ meaning might. To think in the physical sense, strength is how much force can be exerted in one max push. To bring back into this context, how do we show our love for God and do everything we can to put our love for God in action? Loving God should affect the way we talk, what we listen to, the way we dress, what we watch, how we eat, how we spend our money etc… 1 Cor 10:31 says, ‘…Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.’ Regardless how big or small our actions are, we should do all to honour and glorify God. Paul writes to the romans, ‘…present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.’ (Rom 12:1). If the inner part of you, your thoughts, desires, your motivation is to love God, then your physical actions should show it.
Other practical ways to action your love for God with all your strength is by practically sharing the good news of the gospel with someone; financially supporting ministries, praying with or for people, supporting people in need; Moreso, supporting the body of Christ. Christians often rush to do good works for people outside the church but would rarely love the body of Christ well, especialy the persecuted Church.

So, what would be your response to this great commandment? A person can say they will try and love the Lord thy God with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their mind and with all their strength the best they can; but this command demands you to do this fully without failure. If we were to be judged by this commandment alone, we would all fail because the measure is set high. So, then the question comes, then how can we be saved? This is the point we want to bring you too. This commandment alone is supposed to convict you, to bring you to a point where you would say, Lord I can’t keep this commandment fully as You require me to do. Is there another way? Gal 3:24 says, ‘…the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.’ You need a saviour to redeem you back to God. Jesus is this saviour. He alone can be our substitute, and He did it for all those who would believe in Him to be their saviour. This greatest commandment we cannot keep for ourselves, but He kept it for us as our substitute. By believing in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ we can be redeemed in right relationship with God. God is desiring a real relationship with you.

Fresh Truth Ministries
The Holy Bible
BlueLetterBible.com

WHO ARE WE ?
We’re a group of Bible-believing, Christ-centered followers of Jesus Christ from Polynesian backgrounds, but living in South Auckland in New Zealand. We’re passionate about Biblical truth and the saving gospel of Jesus Christ!

EMAIL US
fresh.truth1711@gmail.com