“Thou Shalt Love the Lord Thy God With All Thy Soul, Mind, and Strength”

In This Issue:

Christ’s First Coming: The Fulfillment of the Law

“Thou Shalt Love the Lord Thy God”—Deuteronomy 6:5

Loving God with All Our Soul

The love of God must dwell in all parts of our complex human nature. We have observed the imperative need of loving God with all of our heart, the first aspect of the inward man’s love for God. But how does a Christian love God with all his soul? In Genesis 2:7 we read, “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 soul” (emphasis added). The soul in theology is understood more as the living powers or the soulish life. Soul relates to the animation of life. What is the way we love God?

Let us carefully observe the unfolding of this living of the soulish life through the words of the apostle Paul. In Acts 26:5 Paul said of his life before his conversion that he “lived a Pharisee.” This was his form of life. Romans 1:17 declares, “The just shall live by faith.” In Romans 6:2 the apostle asserts, “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” In verse 10 Paul then says, “For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.” Christ’s living was living unto God. In Romans 8 we are called upon to no longer live the Christian life in the power of the flesh. Rather, the Spirit should be controlling our living.

Continuing this unfolding, Romans 14:8 states, “For whether we live, we live unto the Lord.” Note Paul’s insight in 2 Corinthians 13:4:

For though he [Jesus Christ] was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.

In Galatians 2:20 the words are striking:

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

In Philippians 1:21 there is the emphatic statement: “For to me to live is Christ.” Paul’s words in Titus 2:12 declare, “Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” Peter will also add words revealing the soulish life: “But live according to God in the spirit” (1 Pet. 4:6). And John will tell us, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9).

We are to love God by living for Him through our powers of desire with the intent of obedience unto Him. If we love Him, we will keep His commandments. And we must love Him with our soul: by our “living powers” of motive, intent, conscience, and will—always for Him.

To Love God with All Our Mind

But the great commandment continues to call us to love God with all our mind. The mind is dedicated to thought, knowledge, imagination, and understanding. But we must carefully note the difference between the brain and the mind. The brain is a physical part of the outward man; the mind is the immaterial part of the inward man. The mind has always been a major battleground for the Christian; it is the place within man that the Devil seeks to control in order to lay hold of the heart of man. It is a mercy from the Lord that He has appointed the mind to be private and not capable of being publicly read. Not even the Devil can read our minds. Nevertheless, God can (Ps. 139:1–4, 23, 24). Even though the Devil cannot read the mind, he still can project thoughts that Paul calls “the fiery darts of the wicked” (Eph. 6:16). God, the Devil, and the world all want to control our thoughts, because if the thought life can be controlled, it can lead to the heart.

“As he [man] thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7). According to 2 Corinthians 4:4, the Devil is ever endeavoring to blind the minds of the human race from seeing the gospel of Christ. He attempts to blind men through various sights and sounds, through the media, through music of a generation, through contemporary philosophies, through the powers and manipulations of false education and religion, and even through creating a bad environment in which we live. When Satan has dominion over the thoughts of the mind, he has control over the heart and the will of that individual.

Note Paul’s words in Ephesians 2:2, 3:

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

This fleshly, worldly life was our love before becoming a Christian—not only the lust of the flesh but also the lust of the mind.

Nevertheless, God’s amazing grace and the wonderful work of redemption are to destroy the works of such thoughts of darkness. In the place of the world and the Devil, God gives us His Word and Spirit to enable us to love Him with all our minds. This change initially began with His sending godly sorrow that worked repentance unto salvation. It is God’s deep desire to control the thoughts of the Christian. But we must remember that the Devil can still work on the thinking of a Christian by projecting thoughts of fear, doubts, discouragement, oppression, and even depression. He can send thoughts of temptations to sin and leave God. Yes, even as a Christian, the Great Commandment calls upon us to not only bring our thoughts under the dominion of God’s Word and Spirit but also to love Him with all of our minds. This is why it is imperative to constantly control and guard what we think.

Note Peter’s admonition in 1 Peter 1:13: “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Yes, we must gird up the loins of the mind. There is also the need of Romans 12:2, of ever “renewing” (present tense) the mind. There is also the command of Philippians 2:5 for the mind of Christ to be in us; we must think as He thought about life, about God, and those thoughts must come to an honorable humiliation in our living of life, even unto death, to the glory of the Father. Second Corinthians 10:3–6 presents the key to a victorious life of right thinking:

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience [even in our thinking], when your obedience is fulfilled.

We must also remember that according to Romans 8:6, 7, “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, neither indeed can be.”

Yes, we must be careful, prayerful, and disciplined about our thought lives, for we are to love God with all our minds. We must take every thought through the litmus test of Philippians 4:8:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

We cannot even afford to have passive minds that wander and are not girded up or disciplined. For after a while it will be difficult to rein in such a thought life to a Christian mindset that immediately arrests bad thinking. And we must remember, according to James 1:8, that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Oh, the unstable lives of many Christians. Such instability is the product of double mindedness. While trying to think spiritually at times, much of the time their mind is in the world, on the flesh, or in just plain sin. Such a mind is strongly condemned by God. The great commandment cannot be fulfilled with such a mind.

As we continue to grow in the grace of Christ and in His Word, we must learn to love God with all of our minds. We must learn to control our minds, to learn how to dismiss any dead thought, anything that is not a contributing factor to a walk with God. Yes, we must learn to think on those things under the protective provision of Philippians 4:8. We must learn to never permit to lodge in the mind any doubt or thought that weakens our faith in God. Loving God is to love His Word, and loving His Word will feed a love to think on that Word. This is meditation. What we love we tend to think about; therefore, God must be the One upon Whom we must think! Oh, may we love Him with all our minds.

To Love God with All Our Strength

In Mark 12:28–34 a lawyer (scribe) desired to hear what Christ had to say about this important question, “Which is the first commandment of all?” Many no doubt thought that the first or the greatest commandment in the Law related to offerings and sacrifices. So much is said in Leviticus about these gifts to God because the right worship of God consisted in the due offering of these. But in Mark 12:32, 33, after the Lord had given His response to the question, the scribe himself responded:

Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

Jesus commended him for his response. For the measure of our love to God is to love God without measure. For the immense goodness of God deserves all the love that we can possibly give to Him. God must be the supreme object of our love.

Thus it becomes clearly evident that all of the Law is fulfilled in one word—love. There is a different preposition in the presentations of Matthew and Mark. In Matthew 22:37 it is the Greek preposition en, and could read to love God in all the heart, soul, and mind. But in Mark 12:30 it is the Greek preposition ex, which carries the meaning of to love God with, from, or out of the heart, soul, and mind. These verses cover every aspect of loving.

When the great commandment is quoted in Mark 12, the word strength is added. Yes, it is also out of the fountain of our strength that we are to love Him. The Greek word for strength is ischus, meaning “to have or to hold, denoting ability, or force, or strength.” We see this word used in 1 Peter 4:11, “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth.” In Ephesians 1:19 and 6:10, this word is used of the strength of God bestowed upon believers. The phrase “the power of His might” indicates strength afforded by power. In 2 Thessalonians 1:9 “the glory of His power” signifies the visible expression of the inherent personal power of the Lord Jesus. But here in Mark 12 and in Luke 10:27, strength describes the full extent of the power wherewith we are to love God. But how are we to personally view this? What about your abilities and strength? How do you use them and to whom and for whom do you use them?

At the beginning of life, we basically are conscious only of our own desires and happiness. We play and eat and live for our own selves. In our teenage years we become more conscious of the world, what it can offer, and the hopes and aspirations from it for ourselves. Our early adult life becomes so involved in occupation, the making of money to secure possessions; our abilities and strength are often consumed in that which brings us our desires.

Nevertheless, we must come to know the will of God for our lives, what we are to do with our existence, our abilities, our talents, and all of our energies from day to day. The apostle Paul came to this for his own life as expressed in Colossians 1:28, 29:

Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

This passage is more intense in the original Greek explaining that Paul’s strengths and energies were expended for Christ. He further stated in Romans 12:1 that the body (everything it represents) is to be placed on the altar of sacrifice with a heart of love. Our loving God with our abilities becomes the workings of Christ in us. As true Christians, we cannot be lazy in our lives for Christ; we must labor and strive. Study is certainly needed in a life for Christ. According to Ecclesiastes 12:12, because of abilities poured out, “much study is a weariness of the flesh.” But according to 2 Timothy 2:15, we must do it for Christ’s sake: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

Our loving God with our strength is expressed in a variety of ways. In Ezra 2:69 we read of the people giving according to their ability. In Daniel 1:4 those taken in the captivity had the ability to stand in the service of the king. But to what will we give our allegiance and strength? Abilities are given by God (Matt. 25:15), but how are they used by us? Will these abilities be used in loving God and His will? Sometimes our strength is in the form of tangible things. In Acts 11:29 we read, “Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea.” But we previously mentioned in 1 Peter 4:11, we are to minister “as of the ability which God giveth; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” God has given us the strength, the ability of living; we must give it back to Him and thus love Him with that strength or that ability.

Conclusion

In this issue of Straightway, we have observed that this great commandment is the call for the uniting of all the inward powers of our being: the heart, the soul, the mind, and the strength. Psalm 103:1, 2 cries out, “Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” This is to be a singular, superlative love to “thy God.” All that we are must be united in order to love Him. All our love, in and of itself, is too little to bestow on Him, and thus our powers must unite. The first and greatest commandment for obedience is to come from the spring of obedience—love for God.

There is, however, something that must be understood about loving God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. God permits me to love other objects and at the same time to love God with all the heart. Some things I am not to love: the world, the flesh, the Devil, wickedness, and sin. Some things I am permitted to love. I am permitted as a husband to love my wife, even as Christ loved the church. I am to love the brethren out of a fervent heart. In Psalm 26:8 David stated, “LORD, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth.” In Proverbs 17:17, “A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” God permits me to love these things or persons. God even noted that Abraham loved his son Isaac (Gen. 22:2). Abraham loved Sarah; Isaac loved Rebekah. Yet we read that Solomon loved many wives and how this became a snare to him. My loves can be a blessing or a detriment to me and my walk with God.

There is another love that Jesus said was like unto the first. It is not the same or equal to the first, but like the first: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” We must find out what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves. There can be a corrupt view and there can be a noble view of this second commandment. When Christ re-edited the Law, He took all of the Law and narrowed it down to two law-governing principles. In Matthew 22:40 we read, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

How complicated is it to live for God as a Christian? Well, love is the crucial key: love is to be found in the heart, soul, mind, strength, and out of them. Note Romans 13:8–10:

Owe no man any thing, but to love one another; for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:5, “Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.” Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 12:31 that he would show us “a more excellent way.” Then we are carefully led into chapter 13, a classic chapter of sanctification, of perfect love. Similarly, the truth of the Love Slave is presented in Exodus 21 only after the Law given in chapter 20.

The Law given in the Old Testament is now re-edited by Christ (Matt. 5:20–22, 27, 28, 31–34), and His sayings become our Law to keep. In John 15:10, 12 we are told, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. . . . This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.” It is the provision of sanctification within Christ’s great atonement that brings a person into this all-consuming love: “And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26). This love is to be “perfected” (1 John 2:5; 4:12, 18). Sanctification is the inward work within the heart, the soul, the mind, and the abilities to bring us to the hope of fulfilling this commandment. It is one thing to state that the things mentioned in Romans 8:35–39 will never separate me from the love of God, but can we equally say that these things will not separate me from loving God. Christ provided spiritual circumcision, an act of redemption for my heart in order for me to love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength (Deut. 30:6). Thank God for the hope of intimately knowing this commandment as a real part of the Christian life.

In these days one of the greatest perversions of truth that has pervaded the institutional church is the distorted view of “the love of God.” Perhaps it is part of the subtle ploy of the Devil to keep us away from the real truth of our deep need of love for God and a deep love for the true saints of God. May we come to know this greatest commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.”

Straightway: A Publication of the Foundations Ministries

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Loving God with All Our Soul

To Love God with All Our Mind

To Love God with All Our Strength

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