3. Understanding Our Own Humanity

5 March 2006

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with
one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which
commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most
important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And
you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this:
‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment
greater than these.” 32 And the scribe said to him, “You are right,
Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides
him. 33 And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding
and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more
than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 And when Jesus saw that
he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions. (Mark 12:28-34,
ESV)

The many divisions in Christ’s Church are something that grieves God enormously. These divisions are, I believe, mostly caused by our misinterpretation of the Great Commandment, which both Jesus and the scribe here quote from the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 6:5). We tend to stress one of the four components out of proportion to the other ones, and I believe these emphases can be seen in the worship styles and the theologies of the various denominations—or, they are sometimes unfairly alleged against churches.

So what does the Great Commandment mean? Clearly, we should balance our love for God between the four components: heart, soul, mind and strength. These really are references to four different aspects of our being and we should do well to understand these differences if we are to understand our own humanity and the demands of faith the God puts on us.

First, heart (in Greek cardia) meant more or less what it means to us in metaphoric language: the feelings. Thus, we are to love God with our emotions just as we would love dear ones. In other words, outbursts of feelings toward God are not at all melodramatic as some austere Christians allege. Especially among Israel, there was good reason to love God because of His special covenant with and mercies toward them.

Second, we are to love God with all our soul. That is to say, we are to long for God and for His kingdom. We are to cling to Christ and His sacrifice, to the covenant sealed in His blood and understand ourselves to be a part of that covenant. We are to love God as people who have been personally saved by Christ and render Him gratitude for it.

Third, ignorant men may interject that Deuteronomy does not have “mind.” But these people are forgetting that the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, while the New was written in Greek. The Greek translators of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) struggled with the Hebrew lebab and sometimes rendered it “heart” and at other times “mind,” since Hebrew combined both ideas in one word. Jesus’ use of “mind” in addition to “heart” underlines that our love of God must not be a foolish infatuation with an unknown idea, but rather ought to be accompanied by a reasoned understanding of what we believe. Though the Gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing, it is the power of God to those who are being saved (1 Cor. 1:18). Faith in Christ without theology, without doctrine, is a sure road to heresy and idolatry. We do not check our minds at the door when we enter the church.

Finally, to love God with all our strength reminds us that there is simply no greater affirmation of our humanity than to have faith in Him who made us. We are but by the grace of God. To deny God is to deny our own existence and thus we are to use all parts of our lives without exception in the service of God. Leave out any of these aspects and you have sectarianism, heresy, idolatry and a host of other nasty false ideas of who God is—and of who we are as people.