Today is day twelve of the #iheartBible challenge that I’m hosting. If you have joined up, hooray! I’m glad you’re here. If you want to join up, then awesomesauce! Check out the challenge post for details and join in on the linky so we can all read one another’s posts during the challenge. I love Jesus and blogging, so I’m glad to see people joining in. We’d love to have you join, too. It’s never too late!
Today’s verse is Matthew 22.37. Read it below in its context (Why do I care about context?):
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Keeping with two themes shared with yesterday’s verse, today’s verse both comes from Christ himself and focuses on love. The context is just beautiful. And funny. The stuffy religious guys asked Jesus, in attempt to trick him, what the most important commandment is. That’s the funny part; like anyone could ever trick Jesus!
Jesus gives them two answers: Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind and love other people as much as you love yourself.
The last verse of this context says it all: On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.
If you think about it, every expectation that God has for us depends on these two commandments. Every way in which we avoid sin is by following these two commandments. We simply cannot succeed without following these two commandments.
Did I say it enough times? in enough ways? Good.
In the verse, Jesus says to love the Lord with:
- all your heart
- all your soul
- all your mind
I like lists. Sometimes. That short list is a list I can conquer. What would it look like to do this?
“…all your heart…”
I think of the “heart” as the romantic, emotional, passionate aspects of love. We are to use our heart to love God–to be passionate about Him. Be in awe of him. This fits perfectly with the fact that the Church is the bride of Christ.
“…all your soul…”
Our souls define who we are as a person. What makes you who you are? Dear friend, let it be Jesus. If we find our identity in Jesus, our identity problems go away.
“…all your mind…”
Let’s be part of the movement to get rid of the unthinking Christian. We are totally allowed to love God with our brains–with our reasoning skills. Faith mustn’t always neglect intellect.
Love,
