Matthew 22:37
Jesus said unto him, "thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind."
What did Jesus mean when He quoted this verse from Dueteronomy 6:5. With God's help I hope to explain these 3 basic components of our selves in todays terms looking back to the original Greek and Hebrew definitions.
HEART
- What goes on inside our heart? The word used for heart in the greek language was "kardia". Sounds familiar doesn't it. If you do a cardio vascular workout you are excercising the heart. In the greek language this word also meant heart. When used figuratively it refered to the thoughts or the mind. This was the word used when Jesus quoted Dueteronomy 6. Kardia can most often be affected by emotions like love, hatred, fear, joy, etc.. It is our understanding. Luke 3:15 says
"and as the people were in expectation, all the men mused in their kardia of John, whether he were the Christ or not." As used in Romans 10:1 "Bretheren my kardia desire and prayer....." it can refer to our will. When used in 1 John 3:20 it means our conscience, "for if our kardia condemns us,......".
- Dueteronomy was written in the Hebrew tongue and the word used for heart there was "lebab". In the hebrew it also meant the heart as the organ or it could refer to ones understanding. The root word it comes from can at times be understood as "to be wise or intellegent".
- It is clear that in the original language that the heart is not a muscle in the chest. Is God clearly in the center of our every thought. If our entire heart is to be put to work to serve Him, then as we look at ourselves honestly I am sure we can all find alot of areas that we have not let Christ have complete control of our thoughts.
1. Is His will at the center of your deepest thoughts?
2. Are you still hard hearted on certain issues?
3. Do you put your heart into your worship?
4. How often have you been guided by your heart?
I hope you score better on this little test than I have.
SOUL
The soul is the life force that we have in common with animals. This is not to be confused with the spirit which is the part of our being that gives us the ability to communicate with God. In the greek soul comes from the word "psuche" and spirit comes from the word "pnuema". In Hebrews 4:12 the Bible says "For the word of god is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, peircing even to the dividing assunder of soul and spirit....". If you follow the belief that the Holy Spirit indwells believers at the time of conversion then could it be possible that these two closely related articles are split apart at conversion and our spirit is set free from our sin nature and free to truly worship God? I for one feel that worshipping God is a little more than singing old hyms with an organ playing in the background. Although I was raised in this type of environment, I thank God for His word and the change that He is effecting in my life from studying it. As we continue to work out our salvation (Phil. 2:12) we must keep our actions in check. Love is an action word (1 John 3:18) therefore I believe that to love God with our soul would be to allow the spirit to commune with God and the soul to be the driving force in our lives that we bring into submission to His will as revealed by the spirit.
MIND
In some english translations of the scripture there appears to be a difference in the terms from the verse in Dueteronomy and the verse in Matthew. In dueteronomy it is often translated as "heart, soul, and might" rather than "heart, soul, and mind". In the Hebrew it read heart, soul, and me'od. In the greek it is spoken as heart, soul, and dianoia. The hebrew word could mean fast, quick, diligently, loud, great, or might. Whichever way it is translated I can't help looking deeper into myself to see how much I really pour into loving God. Let us also take a deeper look at the dianoia and see if we can merge the 2 terms and find a practical application for our everyday lives.
More to come - please check back!!!!
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