In the last couple of Eyewatch articles, we have looked at the holiness and justice of God, along with His Love for us.  In this article I would like us to ponder God’s greatest commandment to us.  Many of us view God’s commandments as a bunch of don’ts, which we can’t seem to obey, but is this really the case?  I do not think so. Jesus stated that all the Old Testament do’s and don’ts can be summarized into two do’s.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  The second is to love your neighbor as yourself.  This sounds pretty easy doesn’t it?  There are no big lists to remember or review, but what does Jesus mean when He says to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind?  

Maybe the first step to understanding this commandment is to examine the meaning of some of the words as found in the American Heritage Dictionary:

Love - man’s devotion to and adoration for God.
Heart – the center of one’s being, emotions and sensibilities (feelings).
Soul – the spiritual nature of man that is immortal.
Mind – the human consciousness that manifests thought, memory, will, and imagination.

So in light of these definitions what are we commanded to do?  First it seems we are to devote the core of our being (who we are) with all of our emotions and feelings to God.  A question we might ask ourselves is how excited are we to worship God?  Do we go to Church on Sunday morning out of duty with a look of drudgery on our faces or do we approach God’s presence with an enthusiasm to sing praises to Him and to listen to His Bible being spoken to us?  There is no doubt that some Sundays it’s the former, but hopefully most Sundays it’s the latter.  Maybe a better question is how do we love God with our heart daily?  One way may be to listen to music that honors God and uplifts us spiritually, in lieu of listening to secular music or talk shows.  Also, we need to thank God for His daily provision of our needs.  Admittedly, loving an invisible God with our emotions and feeling is better demonstrated when we carry out the second commandment-loving others as ourselves.  When we love others in the name of God, we are also demonstrating our love for God.

Secondly, we devote our inner spirit (soul) to God thus confirming that we are His.  The apostle Paul says that God’s Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children (Romans 8:16).  When we love God with our souls, we have the quiet confidence and assurance that we are His and that we can experience the fruit of the Holy Spirit that lives within us.  This fruit consists of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Some of these we experience within ourselves like love, joy, and peace from God, while others are more external, that we demonstrate to others like patience, kindness, and gentleness.

Lastly, we are to love God with our minds.  Paul says we are to hold every thought captive to Christ (II Cor 10:5).  God created us with conscious minds that can communicate with Him through prayer, reading the Bible, and impressions He gives us.  Loving God with our mind means that we seek Him and His Will every day of our life.

The second part of the commandment states that, we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.  We are to live the Golden Rule “do to others as you would have them do to you.”  Jesus stated that no greater love can one show, but to give his life for another.  We probably won’t be dying for somebody today, but there are practical things we can do to show love towards those around us. We can say kind words of encouragement.  We can certainly drive more courteously on our roads.  We can put our spouses’ needs ahead of our own. We can spend more time talking with our children.  We can invest our money to those in need.  There certainly are a host of other things we can do, but we get the idea.  Loving others means putting others ahead of ourselves.

May God give us the strength to love Him and others more fully.