The Greatest Commandment

In Mark 12:30 Jesus answers the question of a scribe concerning the greatest commandment of

all. His response was that we are to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. I have often

heard us truncate or explicate this command to mean love God with all our being. And while this may be

true in principle, however we miss the fullness of what our Lord and Savior expresses. Let’s consider the

specificity of Christ’s command.

First, note that Jesus uses specific language. Each avenue of loving God is explicit and expresses

a different aspect of the human condition. We must first note that the command to love is Agape. This

love is based upon both understanding and emotion. It is not the warm fuzzies or even brotherly love. It

is the love of sacrifice and selflessness. Hold to the power of this concept, we are too love our Creator

with sacrifice and selflessness. It is a love of action. Yet, how is it that we love the God of love with His

best interest in mind? How does His creation offer a love of sacrifice to Him who first sacrificially loved?

Next we note that we are to love Him with our heart, all of it. This seems almost natural after all,

we love with heart in most every setting. In this context it is the seat of emotion, while at times in other

contexts it is synonymous with the mind. Truth is that the thing that captures our heart captures our life.

And thus it should be with our love for God.

Let’s jump to loving God with the totality of our mind. The mind is the source of intellect,

knowledge, understand, and decision making. In context, to love God with our mind is to love him with

knowledge, understanding and intentionally. This is also consistent with the nature of Agape love. It is a

love of understanding and decision. Read the description of the nature of Agape in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

and it will be evident that it not only involves emotion but the mind as well.

We are also to love Him with all our soul. What does that mean? The soul is the eternal essence

of man. It is that part that is eternal in each of us. We often ask if someone loves with all his heart,

thinking this is the deepest part of the individual, is it deep within. While on the physical level this may
be true, but in God’s scheme the soul is the depth of man. It is the part of us that is most like God, even

if in no other way than that it is eternal. For God to want our soul in love is to want our essence.

Finally, we are to love God with all our strength. It is not enough to give our emotion, our

intellect, and our essence to Jehovah God in love; we must use all our energy in that love. This is a call to

live the love that we feel, that we have decided to express, and is deep within our soul. It is the action

of love, the manifestation of the other internal facets of love. To love with all our strength is to work, to

act, and to put that love into action.

Do you love Jehovah God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength?

Larry W. Redmond

March 17, 2011