2 John 6 says:“And this is love, that we walk after [in obedience to] His commandments.”
WOW! But there are hundred’s of commands in the Bible!! It can be overwhelming to think of trying to follow them all. But in Galatians 5:14, Matthew 22:40 and Romans 13:10 we are told that the whole Bible (all of God’s commands) can be literally summed up in only two commandments.
Matthew 22:37-39 says:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.”
The type of love for God that is being talked about in this verse is: AGAPAO – it means to totally give ourselves over to something; to be totally consumed with it; totally committed to it. All our intentions and abilities are focused and consumed with this one thing. In other words, it is at the forefront of our thoughts, it’s a commitment or a BINDING of ourselves to something, so that we become “one” with it.
This is different than AGAPE love – which is God’s pure unconditional love. In contrast, AGAPAO can be either good or bad … it depends on what we give ourselves over to and commit to. Let’s look in scripture at some of the “bad” kinds of AGAPAO love that are mentioned: John 3:19 [love darkness rather than light], John 12:43 [loved the praise of men more than the praise of God], Luke 11:43 [Love your place of honor or position], 2 Timothy 4:10 [Love of the world rather than God], Luke 6:32[sinners also love those that love them].
PONDER THIS:
What do you bind yourself to?
Now that we know what LOVE – AGAPAO means we want to look at what it means to love God with all of our heart, soul and mind. The word HEART in the original Greek is KARDIA – The well of Life. As a Christian, God’s Life resides in our hearts and His life is to be the motivation for all we do.
We are to love Him with all of our life!
SOUL, in the original Greek, is PSYCHE. It is our conscious thoughts, emotions and desires. PSYCHE has a very interesting twofold root meaning; it means “it shall have life” or “it shall wax cold”. Our soul is either going to be spirit-filled and have life or our souls will be empty and waxing cold, because God’s Life in us has been quenched by wrong emotional choices and desires.
We are to love Him with all of our thoughts, emotions and desires!
MIND, in the original Greek, is not what we would normally think of as “mind” [NOUS which refers to our “whole process of thinking”]. In this verse it is DIANOIA. Properly translated, DIANOIA means “willpower” (or volition) and not mind at all.
We are to love Him with all of our willpower!
When Jesus made this statement of ‘Loving the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul and all of your mind. It was not a new concept in the Jewish culture for it refers back to DEUTERONOMY 6:4,5 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” which is part of the SHEMA, the central prayer in the Jewish prayerbook and is often the first section of Scripture that a Jewish child learns.
The SHEMA is the centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services. It is also part of the scriptures that are contained in the Tefillin, or phylacteries, which are two small black leather boxes worn on the left arm and forehead by observant adult male Jews.
Notice God did not ask the Old Testament saints to “love Him with all of their mind [willpower].” Yet when Jesus quotes this same SHEMA in Matthew 22:37 he changes strength to mind [willpower]. Loving God with all our willpower is never mentioned in the Old Testament. In the book, The Way of Agape, the authors suggest it is because we have something that the Old Testament believers did not have – the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.
“We have the authority and the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to enable us to live in complete obedience to God’s Will. The Old Testament saints had the Spirit of God leading them, guiding them and coming alongside them, but He never ‘indwelt’ them like He does us. The Spirit of God is the one that gives us the power and the authority to become one will with God.”
As a Christian I can be honest with God about my feelings and thoughts, but then I surrender those thoughts and emotions to God and like Jesus did in Matthew 26:39 say, “Not my will [not my natural feelings and desires], but Thine.” God is the One who will align our feeling with our choices and make us genuine. I can know, by faith, that I am a cleansed vessel and that God has been freed to perform His Will in and through me.
He has given us the tools, the power, to fulfill his will here on earth as it is in heaven. As we surrender to his Will, make faith choices [through the power of the Holy Spirit], He will empower us to be World Changers.
Notice God did not ask the Old Testament saints to “love Him with all of their mind [willpower].” Yet when Jesus quotes this same SHEMA in Matthew 22:37 he changes strength to mind [willpower]. Loving God with all our willpower is never mentioned in the Old Testament. In the book, The Way of Agape, the authors suggest it is because we have something that the Old Testament believers did not have – the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.
“We have the authority and the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to enable us to live in complete obedience to God’s Will. The Old Testament saints had the Spirit of God leading them, guiding them and coming alongside them, but He never ‘indwelt’ them like He does us. The Spirit of God is the one that gives us the power and the authority to become one will with God.”
As a Christian I can be honest with God about my feelings and thoughts, but then I surrender those thoughts and emotions to God and like Jesus did in Matthew 26:39 say, “Not my will [not my natural feelings and desires], but Thine.” God is the One who will align our feeling with our choices and make us genuine. I can know, by faith, that I am a cleansed vessel and that God has been freed to perform His Will in and through me.
He has given us the tools, the power, to fulfill his will here on earth as it is in heaven. As we surrender to his Will, make faith choices [through the power of the Holy Spirit], He will empower us to be World Changers.
BE A PASSIONATE FOLLOWER OF JESUS
AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS!!!
AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS!!!
Juanita, this message is truly encouraging, and I feel it and believe it to be absolutely true. We can live in absolute obedience because of the Holy Spirit. I want that to be true in my life.
Thank you.