Heart, soul and mind: three components of love for God 

Does it matter how we worship God? Are our feelings about our relationship with Him the only thing that matters? 

Many people say they love Jesus.

And what a good feeling! It would be wonderful if everyone felt the same. But what does it really mean to love God? Depending on the person, this could represent a wide variety of beliefs and lifestyles.

For example, there are many people who say they are "spiritual but not religious." Those who identify in this way generally determine their own beliefs and forms of worship without participating in any organized religion.

Religious authorities have different opinions about what this implies. Some think that it is healthy for Christianity to offer more options, while others see it as a mistake - a superficial Christianity where each person can choose what he wants to do and feel good about his choice.

How should we love God then? Can we love him as we see fit?

Jesus Christ said that it was vain (empty, worthless) to worship God according to human ideas (Mark 7: 7). So instead of choosing our preferences among the vague and confusing options that are so carelessly offered today, doesn't it make more sense to allow the Bible to guide us on this important topic?  

The loving defined God

One of the fundamental principles that we find in the Scriptures is that love for God requires action. Loving God means keeping his commandments (1 John 5: 3).

Contrary to the mistaken opinions of some, God's laws are not harsh, annoying, unrealistic, or outdated. In fact, upon returning to Jerusalem after their captivity in Babylon, the Jews were reminded that God had come down on Mount Sinai to give them "righteous judgments, true laws, and good statutes and commandments" (Nehemiah 9:13, emphasis added).

In the past, Moses had warned the ancient Israelites about the consequences of rejecting God's law and assuming "I will have peace, even though I walk in the hardness of my heart" (Deuteronomy 29:19, emphasis added).

These scriptures still apply today.

We cannot simply do what we want when this is contrary to God's instructions. Confirming this principle, Jesus said: "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21, emphasis added) ). A few hours before his crucifixion, he reminded his disciples: "If you love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15, emphasis added).

Obeying God's laws is very important, of course. But God's expectations do not end there. As we will see below, our way of thinking, feeling and responding to his commandments is also important to him.

Jesus Christ and love of God

During his ministry on earth, Christ reiterated a fundamental principle about our attitude in obeying God.

When asked, "What is the great commandment in the law?", Christ replied: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind" (Matthew 22: 36-37) .

This answer is in perfect harmony with Deuteronomy 6: 4-5, a section of Scripture to which the Jews historically attach great importance, calling it the Shema in allusion to the opening phrase "Hey, Israel." The specific passage to which Christ was referring is: "You shall love the Eternal your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength" (v. 5).

Jesus further said that this was "the first and great commandment" (Matthew 22:38). That is, it was the basic instruction of how we should worship God.

How do we get our hearts, souls, and minds to work together to worship God?

Heart

The Hebrew word translated heart, leb , and its synonym, lebab , are used over 800 times in the Old Testament and, depending on the context, can mean several things. Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words says "heart" can refer to "the organ of the body ... inside (" in the middle ") of something ... the person or her personality ... the center of emotions … The center of knowledge and wisdom… the center of conscience and moral character ”.

Although the heart is sometimes related to the mind (Deuteronomy 8: 5; 29: 4), this concept seems to refer especially to personality, character, and emotions. As the Easton’s Bible Dictionary notes : “The heart is the 'home of personal life'” (“Heart” article). And when we understand everything that the heart governs, it is clear why our hearts should be trained in righteousness (Proverbs 3: 1-4; 2 Peter 2:14).

Although our hearts can deceive us (Jeremiah 17: 9), all of us, like King David, can repent of our sins and ask God to give us a "clean" heart (Psalm 51:10). Through this process, our sins can be forgiven and we can have a new heart that will not lead us to make the same mistakes as before.

God wants us to practice justice (Matthew 6:33), and so it is okay to feel bad - to feel guilty - when we do something wrong. Today many think that they should feel good about themselves no matter what they do. They trust their emotions regardless of the facts and try to find facts that justify their feelings. But the time to feel good about ourselves is when we repent of breaking God's laws and act according to His instructions.

We must have hearts trained in loving God's way of life (2 Thessalonians 2:10), and we must realize that our emotions need to be in harmony with His law.

soul

Many people believe that the soul is an immortal component in human beings, which remains alive after we die. But this misconception comes from paganism and is not in the Bible. God's Word teaches us that the word "soul" ( nephesh in the Old Testament and psuche in the New) simply refers to life.

When God breathed into Adam breath of life, he became a living being. Ezekiel 18: 4 says that "the soul that sins, that will die" and, since we have all sinned (Romans 3:23), we will all eventually die (Romans 6:23; Hebrews 9:27).

When that happens, our consciousness will cease to exist — our thoughts will “perish” (Psalm 146: 4). Our hope of living forever as spiritual beings is in the biblical teaching of the resurrection of the dead, not that of the immortal soul.

What Jesus Christ meant when he spoke of loving God with all his soul is that our life must be guided by God and his way. Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible says that the phrase “with all your soul” in Matthew 22:37 means “to be willing to give your life for him and to give everything to serve him; live for him and be willing to die if he orders it. "

In other words, loving God with all your soul implies directing all our activities and priorities around Him and his way of life. It means that our life's goal is to obey all of God's commandments.

We must worship the true God, avoid religious icons, stop using the name of God in vain, and keep the Sabbath and holy days. We must also strive to live in peace with everyone and show respect for them, as taught by the last six of the Ten Commandments, which protect the family, encourage truthful words and behavior, and warn us of the need to control our human desires. .

Mind

The Greek word translated as mind in Matthew 22:37 is dianoia and means "the mind as the faculty of understanding ... way of thinking or feeling" ( Thayer’s Greek Lexicon ). In other words, using the mind is the exercise of thinking and reasoning.

Many scriptures indicate that the heart and the mind are separate, but complementary things in the love of God. King David, for example, advised Solomon to serve God with all his heart and with a willing mind (1 Chronicles 28: 9, New Living Translation). And in Psalms 26: 2, David asks God: "Examine my inner thoughts and my heart." Jeremiah further adds that God can see "the thoughts and the heart" (Jeremiah 20:12).

Some wonder why Jesus Christ has said "mind" in Matthew when Deuteronomy 6: 5 says "forces." Perhaps it was because he wanted to show the full meaning of this Old Testament instruction to a world heavily influenced by Greek thought, whose focus was on the human mind and intellect. (According to Mark 12, Christ said both "mind" and "strength.")

The point is, if we want to love God with our whole being, our mind should be very involved in it. In addition to loving Him with our hearts and minds, God wants us to be used to focusing on Him and His way of life. And when we submit to God, He helps us think correctly.

God promises that if we are led by the Holy Spirit, we can have good spiritual judgment (2 Timothy 1: 7, Bible God Speaks Today). It is very important to be guided by the Spirit, since it guides us to the truth of God (John 16:13).

Three components

If we want to love God, we must do it as He wishes. We cannot simply design our own worship system.

To truly love him, we must keep his commandments, and do so with every aspect of our being — our hearts, our souls, and our minds. As God Himself said: "I the Eternal, who search the mind, who test the heart, to give each one according to his way, according to the fruit of his works" (Jeremiah 17:10).