ALL YOUR HEART SOUL & MIND

ALL YOUR HEART, SOUL & MIND

Matthew 22:37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

This is the first and great commandment Jesus said. The shema as it’s known in Hebrew. Jews would recite this every morning and evening, it was ingrained into them. Jesus would have said this every morning and evening and He was asked by a Pharisee lawyer, what is the greatest of all the commandments? This was His answer, the shema, to love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul and mind. The second is to love our neighbour as yourself. In another parable Jesus described who our neighbours are where He tells the parable of the good Samaritan who showed mercy to the Jewish man bleeding and dying on the road to Jericho.

For us our neighbour’s might be the Muslims or Hindus, Buddhists, Agnostics and Atheists who we encounter on many of our street outreaches. Perhaps it’s someone at your workplace with an entirely different worldview who might be gay or trans etc. Whilst we have a different stance, we can show love and the greatest love is to share the gospel with every creature. This all stems from the great love we have for God with all our heart. Not half our heart, we can’t serve two masters. Love for God must consume our entire heart, our soul and mind. Everything we think about and do is to be consumed with Jesus. We have an advantage over the Jews who would quote the shema, we can have the Holy Spirit fill us and a fruit of the Spirit is love. It’s impossible for us to keep all the commandments. Christ fulfilled what the law and prophets all pointed to and we are in Christ. We have His love and so we truly can love Him with all our heart, mind and soul.