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Matthew 22:36, 37 - Loving God With All Your Heart, Soul And Mind.

Matthew 22:36, 37 (NIV) "Teacher, which is 
the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus 
replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart 
and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 
 

COMMENTARY PEARL

   Like many other people, I enjoy social 
media, television, reading, and talking on the 
phone. Until recently, the first thing I did every 
morning was look at social media and see what was 
going on with my friends. I enjoyed sending 
birthday and anniversary greetings. Afterward, I 
would say my prayers. But I began to I realize, I 
was spending more time posting on Facebook than 
talking to Jesus or reading His Word.  
   The things I enjoy are not sinful. Work, 
family, relationships, and hobbies are good things. 
But sin comes creeping in when we make these 
things a priority over Jesus. The first commandment 
says for us to have no other gods before Him. I 
had literally put my entertainment before Jesus. 
Matthew 6:33 (ESV) instructs us, But seek first 
the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and 
all these things will be added to you.  
   When I evaluated my time, I realized that 
all of my time was really His time. I rearranged 
my priorities and put Him first.  
   Since I have reorganized my priorities, I 
begin each day by praying and connecting with 
Jesus. I read my Bible and devotions daily and 
listen to Christian music while Im working or 
driving. Throughout the day, I talk to Jesus. Since 
Jesus has become first in my life, everything else 
is falling into place. His peace is filling my 
heart. I still enjoy Facebook and chatting with 
friends, but I dont let them rule my life and 
time. by Katie Minter Jones  
   Faith Step: Evaluate how much time you 
spend doing other things and if Jesus is your 
priority. [Mornings With Jesus 2020 Devotional by 
Guideposts and Zondervan] 

COMMENTARY

   The Bee Gees sang, How can you mend a 
broken heart? Elvis lived down at the end of 
Lonely Street at Heartbreak Hotel. Bruce 
Springsteen said that everybodys got a hungry 
heart. Tom Petty was tired of people dragging his 
heart around. And Selena Gomez sang that the heart 
wants what it wants. 
   But heres the problem with our hearts. 
They can lead us in the wrong direction. In fact, 
the Bible tells us in Jeremiah 17:9, The 
heart is deceitful above all things, and 
desperately wicked; Who can know it? (NKJV). The 
Message puts the same verse this way: The heart 
is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that 
no one can figure out. 
   Jesus, showing the potential darkness of 
our own hearts, said, For out of the heart 
proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, 
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies 
(Matthew 15:19 NKJV). 
   Our hearts are dark. Our hearts are evil. 
And our hearts can mislead us. Thats why we 
need to let our minds step in and help us.  
   Jesus said, You shall love the Lord 
your God with all your heart, with all your soul, 
and with all your mind (Matthew 22:37 NKJV). 
The Hebrew word for soul would be closer to our 
use of the word heart. It speaks of something 
deep inside a person. 
   Our love for God needs to be emotive and 
intelligent. One doesnt cancel out the other. We need 
to love the Lord with all of our hearts. We 
need to love God with our emotions and our 
intellect. And we need to love God with our strength. 
We need to love Him with our time and 
resources, with everything that we have.  
   As Christians, the objective is not to 
focus on our hearts. It is to focus our hearts on 
God. [By Greg Laurie from Harvest Ministries; 
https://www.harvestdaily.com] 

   There are a lot of people who say they 
love God, but sometimes we wonder about that 
because their actions seem to contradict it. 
   Matthews Gospel tells us about an 
occasion when the religious leaders came to Jesus 
with a trap. They were trying to get Him to 
identify the greatest of the commandments. But 
instead of answering their question, He tells them 
how to love God and what it actually means. 
   Jesus said, You must love the Lord 
your God with all your heart, all your soul, and 
all your mind. This is the first and greatest 
commandment. A second is equally important: Love your 
neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the 
demands of the prophets are based on these two 
commandments (Matthew 22:37"40 NLT). Jesus got to the 
heart of the matter about loving God. 
   To loosely paraphrase, Jesus was saying, 
Guys, instead of trying to focus on all of these 
rules, try this. Just love God. If you love God as 
you ought to love Him, then everything will fall 
into its proper place. 
   That is why Augustine, one of the early 
church fathers, said, Love God, and do as you 
please. That almost sounds insane, but it isnt. 
If you really love God in the way the Bible 
tells you to love Him, then youll want to do 
what pleases Him. 
   When you love God with all your heart, 
all your soul, and all your mind, it means 
that you love Him with every part of your being. 
To the ancient Hebrews, the word heart did not 
refer as much to the emotions as it did to the 
core of ones being. For the Christian, the 
objective is not to focus on your heart; it is to 
focus your heart on God. [By Greg Laurie from 
Harvest Ministries; https://www.harvestdaily.com] 

   Jesus says in Mark 12:29-30, The most 
important commandment is this  You must love the 
Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, 
all your mind, and all your strength (NLT). 
   Do you hear the emotion in the words of 
Jesus? Hes saying he doesnt want you to just 
kind of love him. He wants you to love him 
passionately - with all your heart, all your soul, all 
your mind, and all your strength. God wants more 
than your head knowledge. He wants an emotional 
relationship with you. 
   There are some things you need to 
understand about emotions. 
   First, God has emotions. God is an 
emotional God. He feels joy, grief, pain, and hatred 
toward sin. He gets frustrated with people. The 
only reason you have emotions is because youre 
made in Gods image. If God wasnt an 
emotional God, you wouldnt have any emotions. 
   Second, your ability to feel is a gift 
from God. Emotions are what make you human. It is 
your emotional ability that allows you to love 
and create and be faithful and loyal and kind 
and generous and experience all of the emotions 
that are attached to the good things in life. 
Your emotions may not always seem like a gift, 
but even the negative ones have a purpose in 
your life. 
   Third, there are two extremes to avoid. 
Emotionalism is the extreme of saying the only thing that 
matters in life is how you feel - not what you think 
or whats right or wrong. Everything in life 
is based on your emotions. Emotions control 
your life. 
   On the other hand, stoicism says feelings 
arent important at all, and the only things that 
matter are your intellect and your will. 
   There are entire Christian denominations 
built on these differing approaches to emotions. 
Some Christians have decided that it doesnt 
really matter how you feel. They downplay 
emotions. 
   Thats not right. God gave you your 
emotions for a reason, and he wants you to worship 
him emotionally - with all your heart and all 
your mind. [Daily Devotional by Rick Warren: 
https://pastorrick.com/devotional/] 

ILLUSTRATIONS

Staying Close to the Master
   Both dogs and cats have taught me lessons 
about faith. 
   A dog loves unconditionally, accepting 
discipline and holding no resentment. A dog follows its 
master and likes to be right at his or her feet. 
Our dog Shabah was always where we were. When we 
went upstairs to bed, he planted himself right in 
our doorway. In the morning, he sat on my feet 
or Rick's while we did our devotions together. 
He was easily trained because he wanted to 
please us. If he needed something, he let us know 
through his manner and his "puppy dog look": "I have 
to go out." "Please  please  please throw 
the tennis ball." "Give me a scratch." We always 
responded. Shabah died, but now Sarge is much the 
same. 
   I had numerous cats when I was a child, 
and cats are lovely but independent. They don't 
need to be with the "master" at all times. In 
fact, cats seem to think they are the masters of 
their own realms. "Here, kitty, kitty," doesn't 
always bring them running. Sometimes cats will look 
at you with that "what do you want?" 
expression, and sometimes they'll find a nice quiet 
place and just plain ignore you. On the plus side, 
petting them is said to reduce stress. Who can 
resist that nimbly purring sound they make when 
they're being stroked? But affection has to be on 
their own terms. They'll come when they're called 
as long as you're offering food or milk. If 
there isn't something in it for them, they'll come 
when they please. 
   Don't get me wrong; I love both dogs and 
cats. But in matters of faith, I don't want to be 
like a cat, thinking I can call the shots and do 
my own thing. I want to be like a dog. I want 
to be at my Master's feet. I want to serve Him 
the way the apostle Peter describes: "willingly, 
not grudgingly - not for what [I] will get out 
of it, but because [I am] eager to serve God." 
When I hear God's quiet voice, I want to come 
running, grinning from ear to ear, ready to do 
whatever He asks. 
   Lord God, I want to be wholehearted in my 
devotion to You, loving You fully and unconditionally 
because You are my God and You care for me. Teach me 
to be loyal, to remain close to You, and to be 
eager to do Your will. May I serve You with my 
whole heart, not out of duty but out of pure love 
for who You are. [Earth Psalms by Francine 
Rivers re 1 Pet. 5:2] 

   I prayed fervently and persistently for 
God to fulfill a deep desire. Over time the 
pleas grew deeper and more desperate, and the 
desire grew larger in my own mind. In fact, it grew 
so large that I eventually realized it had 
become almost as important to me as God was. I had 
been desperately praying for God to fulfill my 
love for something that would rival Him in my 
heart.  
   We do that often, though usually so 
subtly that we hardly notice. We treat God as our 
Cyrano de Bergerac, who was put in the painful 
position of helping another man win the heart of 
someone Cyrano himself loved deeply. We ask God for 
those objects of our affection, forgetting that He 
desires to be an even greater object of our 
affection. We provoke His jealousy in our prayers for 
His blessings. God then has to choose between 
either watching our heart delight in His gift 
rather than the Giver or disappointing us by not 
giving us our heart's delight at all. In His mercy, 
He often gives anyway, but our joy in our 
treasures often overshadows our joy in Him.  
   There's a way around this dilemma, of 
course. It's to always treasure God over and above 
the things we ask of Him. But that's easier said 
than done, considering our common misperceptions 
of His goodness and glory. Hannah was able to 
maintain her priorities by offering the gift, her 
child Samuel, back to God.And in a sense, that's 
what we have to do with every request we plead. 
The God who loves us passionately offers us 
extravagant blessings, as long as we love Him more 
extravagantly than them all.  
   Lord, please forgive me for exalting my 
requests above You. I want You to fulfill my desires, 
but not more than I want to fulfill Your 
desires. My greatest affections belong to You - 
always. [The One Year Experiencing Gods Presence 
Devotional by Chris Tiegreen re 1 Samuel 1:11] 

LINKS FOR FURTHER STUDY ON THIS PASSAGE

Matthew 22:36-40 - The Greatest Commandment.

http://www.abible.com/devotions/2015/20150203-1138.html 

Matthew 22:36-40 - Loving God With All Your 
Heart, Soul And Mind. 

http://www.abible.com/devotions/2018/20180426-1041.html 

YOUR COMMENTS

If anyone has a paraphrase, commentary or 
testimony on this passage of Scripture, either 
personal or otherwise, I would be interested in 
hearing from you.  Thanks in advance and let's keep 
uplifting Jesus that all might be drawn to Him. Fred 
Gibbs  

LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT

Most Important Decision in Life: 
http://www.youtube.com/embed/WGnEuGwvXqU?rel=0 

A Man without Equal by Bill Bright: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiVa7UoruIo 

Seeking God Made Real: 
http://vimeo.com/31489782 

Prayer Made Real: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc8VdMV26VE 

Importance of Choice: 
http://creationhealth.com/CREATION-Health/Choice [click on video]  

Medical Seminar on Healthful Living by David 
DeRose, MD, MPH: 
https://www.smartlifestyletv.com/lifestart 

LINKS FOR BIBLE STUDIES 

Lifting Up Jesus Bible Studies: 
http://www.liftingupjesus.net/ 

Amazing Facts Bible Studies: 
http://www.amazingfacts.org/bible-study/bible-study-guides.aspx  

Hope Awakens Bible Study Guides: 
https://www.hopeawakens.study/lesson-header;id=2 

Glow Tract Video Bible Studies: 
http://www.bibleresearch.info/ 

LINKS FOR BIBLE PROPHECY SEMINARS

Unlocking Bible Prophecies by Cami Oetman of 
Adventist World Radio (currently live): 
https://bible.awr.org/the-warning/ 

Hope Awakens by John Bradshaw of IIW: 
https://itiswritten.tv/programs/hope-awakens 

The Last Day of Prophecy by Pastor Doug 
Batchelor: 
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmGvdtMCf1aJTiC59-lPtuUMEq_uEn0BK 

Prophecies Decoded by Pastor Ron Clouzet: 
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1A435C5373550657