Loving God
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.
Matthew 22:37
Love is the very pulse of Christianity, the central pillar that anchors our faith and draws us into a deeper, stronger relationship with Jesus.
A lawyer, trying to test Jesus asked, “Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”[1] Jesus answered with clarity and authority, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”[2] This was no mere academic exercise; it was a reminder that ‘love’ is the foundation of our walk with God. Jesus words were not new; they were a reminder of who God is and what He asks. Nearly 1,500 years earlier Moses wrote, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”[3] Love has always been the foundation of our relationship with God.
This foundation doesn’t begin with us; it begins with who He is. “God is love” and “love is from God.”[4] It’s who He is. More so, the greatest truth, the greatest statement of all time is, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”[5] Why is this statement the all-time greatest? Because with this statement, Jesus unveils that it is divine love that makes our relationship with Him possible. According to John, “We love because he first loved us.”[6]
The Invitation
Together, these verses call us to root our faith in love—God’s love for us, and ours for Him. Jesus reiterates the Old Testament command, but it’s more than a command, it’s a divine invitation to center our lives on love.
Some hear ‘commandment’ and they immediately think rules. For sure the Pharisees thought ‘rules.’ As experts in Jewish Law, they studied and debated Moses’ commandments and produced the Mitzvot, a complexity of 613 Mosaic commandments. God, however, did not give “His only begotten Son” so you could keep a list of rules. He wants relationship. Jesus’ answer to the lawyer’s question is an invitation to that relationship.
When Moses, in Deuteronomy 6:5, issued the command to love God, he used the Hebrew word ahav. It’s a strong, covenantal love. But when Jesus reiterated the command, He used the word agape which carries a stronger connotation of sacrificial, unconditional live. It’s a love that expects nothing in return. Jesus had His choice among many other Greek words, but He chose this word – agape. This is the invitation—to love God unconditionally expecting nothing in return. Afterall, this is how He has loved us.
Heart
Jesus calls us to love God with all our heart—the seat of our emotions and desires. This means making God our greatest treasure, above all else. But what if this love is not a one-way street? What if the God we are called to ‘love with all our hearts’ has already made us His most prized possession? This beautiful reciprocity, where divine love initiates and empowers our response, is woven throughout Scripture; most notably in John 3:16. And this truth, it reminds us that our pursuit of Jesus is not born of duty alone but of a profound awareness that we are loved beyond measure. God’s love for you is the foundation of this greatest commandment and it is His love that empowers you to love Him with all your heart.
Soul
Your soul, it’s who you are. Your flesh, it’s just a temporary residence for your soul. But your soul, it is your eternal identity to God. To love Him then, with ‘all your soul’ is to love Him with your deepest self.
In the Hebrew context, the word for “soul” is nefesh, which refers to the life force, the whole person, or the spiritual essence that animates a human being. It is our eternal nature—the part of us that connects with God beyond the physical. To love God, then with ‘all our soul’, is to give God our spiritual existence without reservation.
As David wrote, “To you, O LORD, I life up my soul.”[7]
Mind
To love ‘with all your mind’ is to engage in a passionate pursuit of the truth. It is to engage with God in intellectual exercise. It is to meditate on who He is. It is to reason with His Word. It is to seek His wisdom. It is to dig for understanding. It is to pray for revelation.
David wrote, “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.”[8]
Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus that he was praying for them and here was his prayer, that God would “give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.”[9] Paul also wrote that he prayed that they would know “what is the immeasurable greatness of God’s power toward us who believe.”[10] The apostle wanted them to ‘know’ more, he wanted them to have a greater understanding.
These Scriptures show that God treasures us by engaging our minds with His truth, wisdom, and revelation. For us, loving Him with all our mind means making Him the ultimate focus of our intellectual life. It is to study His Word, to align ourselves with His Truth.
With All
Jesus is calling for everything you are – your emotions, your mental capacities, your life-force. This command is not about parsing your inner. It’s about coming to Him with the entirety of who you are.
[1] Matthew 22:35-36
[2] Matthew 22:37
[3] Deuteronomy 6:4-5
[4] 1 John 4:7-8
[5] John 3:16
[6] 1 John 4:19
[7] Psalm 25:1
[8] Psalms 139:17-18 (ESV)
[9] Ephesians 1:17-18
[10] Ephesians 1:19