Two Questions and the Three Part Answers

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

There are times when we slow down from the fast-paced life we lead and contemplate more deep eternal matters. We probably need to do this more often but life has a way of distracting us from such meditative moments. When we set aside time to seriously think about why we are alive and how God factors into the meaning of our life we begin to ask serious questions.

 

I want to propose two questions that might come up when we take such a serious pause in life.

 

Question One

 

What is the most important thing that God wants me to do?

 

A Pharisee came up with this question for Jesus. A group of Pharisees had been talking about the teaching that Jesus had been sharing with the crowds. One of these prominent religious leaders who was an expert on the law decided to confront Jesus with this question. He asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was.

 

In Matthew 22:37-38 Jesus gives His answer, “‘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.'” Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-6 establishing that the greatest commandment has its foundation in the Old Testament but applies to New Testament living as well.

 

Jesus’ answer was that you should love the Lord your God, but He adds further conditions as to how this was to be accomplished. He specified how a person was to love the Lord in three different areas.

 

First, we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart. In Scripture the heart is the innermost center of a man or a woman. It is the center of bodily life. It is the center of the rational-spiritual nature of who we are. The heart is the seat of our emotions, feelings and affections. It is also the center of thought and conception. The heart can know, understand and reflect. The heart can experience joy, pain, ill will, anxiety and despair. It is the center of moral life and it can be the center of our love for our Heavenly Father. The heart can be full of love for God or full of pride and self love. The heart can be enlightened and pure or it can be darkened and hardened. The heart can be the origin of all that is good or evil in our thoughts, words and deeds. It is a place within us that can harbor evil lusts and passions or good treasures of the God’s Word and of the grace God bestows upon us when we accept His Son as Savior. The heart is the field where the seed of God’s Word is sown and where goodness and purity can grow. It is the dwelling place of Christ if we are a servant of His and it is also houses the Holy Spirit that was given to us when we gave our lives to Christ. It holds the peace of God and contains the love God has for us. It is the place where secret communion with God occurs and is the center of our entire being. It is the hearth of life’s impulse.

 

So to love God with all our heart means we dedicate this central place of our being, completely to the Lord. All means all. There should be no crack, crevice or tiny space that is not committed to loving God. Our whole heart should be dedicated to loving God in every aspect of which we are capable. That is a pretty impressive commitment we are asked to make. But if we are to fulfill the greatest commandment, it is something we must do willingly and persistently. We can love the Lord our God with all our heart as we cooperate with God and allow Him to create a pure heart within us as it states in Psalms 51:10, “Create in me a pure heart, O God,”

 

Secondly, we are to love the Lord our God with all our soul. While it is hard to describe the heart, the soul may be even a greater challenge. Our soul is not only the entire inner nature of who we are but also our entire personality. Anything that pertains to who we are is encompassed with what our soul is. The soul is regarded as the moral being within us that is designed for everlasting life. The soul is not bound by our earthly body and can exist without it. Our soul will reside in a glorified body once we enter our heavenly home where we can continue to love the Lord our God. To love the Lord our God with all our soul means that we are consumed completely with loving the Lord. Our inner nature thrives on loving the Lord. Our personality seeks to show this love both in inward and outward ways. To be so in tune with our Heavenly Father that our soul loves Him completely with our entire being is what is meant by Jesus in His comment. This is the goal we have in loving God with all our soul. Psalms 42:1-2 describes the passion our soul should have if we are seeking to love the Lord our God. It states, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” Do you sense the intense desire that David had here in the depths of His soul. He wanted to be with His Lord so that He could show his love for Him?

 

Thirdly, we are to love the Lord our God with all our mind. The mind is the part of us that thinks and reasons. Many times in scripture heart and mind are used interchangeably. There are four separate Greek words that refer to mind. They all mean much the same thing: understanding, thought, mind, reason. In the New Testament the mind was thought of as either good or evil. The mind can be hardened, blinded, corrupt and debased, but it can also be renewed, purified, enlightened and heavenly in focus. We can have God’s laws implanted in our minds and we have the mind of Christ if we have accepted Jesus as our Savior. To love the Lord our God with all of our mind means that our thoughts and meditations revolve around Him and are monitored by the commitment of our minds to His Word and His will. We love God with our minds when we obey the instruction in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.”

 

We should consider at this point that who we are as a person is not three separate parts, heart, soul, and mind, but a mingling of these three into who we are with no division being discernable except by the Lord. They are each intimately intertwined with each other to make us who we are. As you love the Lord your God with all your being, you do so with your heart, soul and mind.

 

Question Two

 

How do I live out this love for the Lord my God in my life?

 

God spoke through the prophet Micah to answer this question. In Micah 6:8, it says, “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

 

So again we have a question that is answered by God with a three part answer.

 

First, we demonstrate our love for our God outwardly by acting justly. To be just is to be fair and honorable in our thoughts, intentions and in how we treat others. When Solomon wrote Proverbs part of his intention was to instruct others how to be right, just and fair. In order to live out our love for God we must be just in our behavior and treatment of others and we learn how to be just through obedience to God’s Word. God gives us wisdom through His Word so He instructs us in how to be just. As we obey, our Heavenly Father protects us and guards the course of our life so that we might express the justness we have learned (Proverbs 2). It is extremely important to the Lord that we are just (Proverbs 21:3) because this is a characteristic of His nature and He wishes us to be like Him. When we are acting justly, then we are loving Him as He deserves.

 

Secondly, we express our love for God outwardly when we love mercy. We love mercy when it is granted to us, but the intention of the meaning in this scripture passage is we are to love our actions of giving mercy to others. A precious characteristic of God is His willingness to grant mercy and He desires for us to love granting mercy to people in our lives. This does not mean we allow ourselves to be doormats or to be abused, but we are to extend mercy to others as a result of loving God with all our heart, soul and mind. When we love God completely we become more and more like Him and are able to use wisdom as we generously grant mercy to others. Mercy involves not only forgiveness at times, it can also mean service and sacrifice on our part to minister to others. To love mercy is to appreciate it when others demonstrate it in their life, but especially when we have opportunities to grant it in the relationships we have with those around us.

 

Thirdly, we live out our love for God when we walk humbly with our Heavenly Father. To walk humbly with our Heavenly Father is to be submissive to His guidance, to listen for the Holy Spirit’s instructions, to obey the instruction in His Word and to submit to those in authority over us. Pride, arrogance and rebellion are foreign to the life of a person who is walking humbly with the Lord. Psalms 25:9 tells us that God guides the humble in what is right and He teaches them His way. This implies that we must have a teachable spirit. We must be willing to listen, receive instruction and live out what we have accepted from the Lord in this training process. Only a humble spirit can receive instruction from the Lord. In return for our humility He will sustain us (Psalms 147:6) as well as give us grace (Proverbs 3:34). We love our God in our lives when we humble ourselves, pray and seek His face (2 Chronicles 7:14).

 

So I would encourage you to not only ponder these two questions on a regular basis, but to strongly consider the godly answers God gives regarding them. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. Act justly and with fairness. Love mercy as you see it in others and as you grant it to those in your life. Above all, walk humbly with God and you will be greatly blessed, live a joyful life and your Heavenly Father will grant wisdom and protection in all matters of your life.

 

“You can see God from anywhere if your mind is set to love and obey Him”

A.W. Tozer

 

Deuteronomy 10:12-13

“And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?”