LOVING GOD

Assuming we have acknowledged the Lord as our savior, and repented of our sin, what then becomes the most fundamental aspect of actually living life as a true “Christian”? Some would say it is to evangelize to non-believers, others would say it is to pray, others would say it is to love your neighbor, or feed the poor, or tend the sick. Undoubtedly, all of these are good things that ought to get done, but this list actually omits what Jesus himself said was the single most important thing for Christians. We could, in fact, live life busying ourselves with the things listed here, but yet fail in the most important aspect of actually being Christian. When Jesus was challenged by the Pharisees to pick one command that surpassed all others, he replied “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). He went on to say, “This is the first and greatest commandment” (Matthew 22:38).
Even among Christian evangelicals, many are so overwhelmed with the demands of life that little regard is afforded to what a fully loving relationship with God looks like. For many, it may extend little beyond a Sunday church service, for some it may include daily prayer and Bible reading, but rarely, even among devoted Christians, does loving God encompass a radical, all-consuming, abandonment to loving with all of our heart, with all of our soul, and with all of our mind. Many Christians would even struggle to differentiate loving with our hearts from loving with our souls. And what does loving with the mind even look like?
Using Scripture as the foundation, this command is broken down into its three constituent parts, and psychological principles are then used to create applied models for living a life that fully reflects our love for God with heart, soul, and mind. Chapters two through four delve into the biblical translations of “heart,” “soul,” and “mind,” respectively, from both Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek. When we love God only with one component, usually the heart, we fall short in loving God the way He created us to love Him: fully, with all of our being. Loving with just one or two of the three compromises our adoring relationship with our heavenly Father, and limits our ability to give Him due glory. This book provides practical tools and exercises throughout that are borrowed from biblical and psychological disciplines that map out the way to fulfilling The Greatest Commandment so that, on that day, we may hear “Well done, my good and faithful servant!”