Fruitful Living
20 ways to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength (Part 1)
“The most important one,” Jesus answered, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these” – Mark 12:29-31
INTRODUCTION
The Lord our God is the One and only LORD and we must love Him with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength. Our Lord Jesus Christ was quoting from Deut. 6:4-5 “Listen, O Israel ! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone . And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.” whenHe answeredone of the teachers of the law as quoted above. Jesus said that loving God with all of ourselves is the first and greatest commandment. This command, combined with the command to love your neighbour encompasses all the other Old Testament laws. God’s very essence is love; when we love one another, we are fulfilling God’s most fundamental wish for our lives. We shall therefore love the Lord our God, and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.
Here are the first 10 things we need to do to obey these commandments of Jesus.
- UNDERSTAND WHAT LOVE IS FROM A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE.
The word “love” has several meanings and, as such, can be applied to different situations. For example, there is the kind of love between a mother and her child, between friends, the romantic love between a man and a woman, etc. When we talk about the great love that Jesus referred to, some Scripture references translate it as “steadfast love.” It is “perfect love,” “covenant love,” “authentic love,” and “unconditional love.” Note that biblical love is not only a feeling because feelings come and go. Such love comes from who God is 1 John 4:8, and it is practical 1 John 3:1, 4:9-10. So, biblical love is a decision to act that love from a deep affection towards God.
- ACKNOWLEDGE OUR DEPENDENCE ON THE HOLY SPIRIT
We need to admit our inability to fulfill the great commandment of loving God by ourselves. The sinful nature of humans makes it impossible for any of us to love like that. We depend on God to be able to love because He is love 1 John 4:8. We can only love Him because He loved us first 1 John 4:19. Love is part of the fruit of the Spirit Galatians 5:22-23, so only through the Holy Spirit can we truly love God and our neighbour as the Word of God commands us to Mark 12:29-31. Therefore, we need to pray and ask His help to develop His love in our lives.
- LOVE GOD WITH ALL OUR HEART
Jesus’s words from the good answer He gave to the scribe about the great commandment are a quote from Deuteronomy 6:4-5. It starts by telling us to love God with our whole hearts. Our contemporary culture understands the “heart” as the centre of emotions, but the Jewish culture in Jesus’s times understood it as more than that. For them, the heart of man was the centre of His will as we read Proverbs 4:23. “Above all else, guard, for it is the wellspring of life.”
We can think of the heart as the place of our spiritual life, thoughts, feelings, motivations, reason, and understanding. Our decisions, our morals, and our will come from it. So, loving God with all our heart is to have a strong desire and will towards Him.
- LOVE GOD WITH ALL OUR SOUL
God’s Word also tells us to love our Heavenly Father with our whole soul. The Hebrew word for “soul” gives the idea of the breath of life. The Greek word gives a more global idea of the inner self, the individual, the mind (in the sense of our deep thoughts). We can say that it is the non-physical part of the human as we read Psalm 16:10; Ezekiel 18:4.
It is what defines our personality, who we are. So, loving God with our whole soul is to love Him with everything we are, is to find our inner self inclined to Him, seeking Him and having Him at the centre of our affections
- LOVE GOD WITH ALL OUR MIND
God’s people must also love Him with their whole minds. The biblical meaning of “mind” is the intellect. The original Hebrew text of Deuteronomy 6:4-5 doesn’t include “mind,” it was considered by the Jewish culture part of the soul. This part of the great commandment shows how important it is that our intelligence is submitted to God and finds satisfaction in obeying Him. Romans 12:2 reminds us that we need to be transformed by the renewal of our minds to be able to test and approve God’s will – that is how we can love God with our whole minds.
- LOVE GOD WITH ALL OUR STRENGTH
Jesus Christ also told us to love our God with our whole strength. We find the word “strength” in the Bible a lot of times, and most of them refer to the power of God. Strength refers to the physical aspect of loving God. It is how we show that we love Him and do everything we can to put our love for God into action. If our inner motivation and desire are to love God, our actions (the strength of our bodies) will show it.
- LOVE JESUS ABOVE EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING ELSE
Christ Jesus told His disciples that anyone who wanted to follow Him must love Him more than everything and everyone else Matthew 10:37; Luke 14:26. It doesn’t mean that we won’t love other people, on the contrary. Only by loving Him can we truly love others. But if we love something or someone more than God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), it is idolatry. The Bible says that the Lord is a jealous God Exodus 20:4-5; Deuteronomy 4:24, which means that He requires that our affections be placed correctly, that is, on Him. Nothing should have a higher place in our affections than God.
- LOVE GOD WITH PRACTICAL ACTIONS
We must keep in mind that biblical love is not only about feelings. When we read how God expressed His love for us in the well-known verse of John 3:16, we see that God did something for us – He gave His Son to die for us so we could have eternal life. There is no greater love than that John 15:13. So, when we love someone, we do something about it. Biblical love is action, not only feelings. Therefore, we need to learn how to put our love for God into practice. We do that by obeying His word.
- OBEY GOD’S COMMANDS
In a short definition, we can say that loving God is to obey His commandments John 14:15; 1 John 5:3. The Lord Jesus questioned the people who called Him “Lord” but didn’t do what He had told them to do Luke 6:46. If He is the Lord of our lives, it means that He has ultimate authority over us, so we do what He tells us to do. It is simple, but it is not easy because our sinful nature fights against it (the apostle Paul explained how that works in Romans 7:14-25). That’s why we need His help to obey Him and make Him the Lord of our lives.
- LOVE OUR NEIGHBOUR
When Jesus said that we must love God with our whole being, He added that we must love our neighbour as we love ourselves, Mark 12:31, quoting from Leviticus 19:18. The apostle Paul wrote that this commandment fulfills the whole Law of God from the Old Testament Galatians 5:14. God shows grace and expresses His love for the creation by giving good things to everyone every single day, no matter if they are evil or good as we read Matthew 5:43-46; James 1:17. As children of God, we should do the same. We express our love for God by obeying and imitating Him. So, we must love other people, even if they don’t deserve it – that’s what God does for every single person every day. In practical terms, we love others by doing to them what we would have them do to us, even if they don’t, as read in Matthew 7:12 –“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
To be continued!
The greatest commandment of all time teaches us that the first thing we need to learn in our Christian life is to love God with our whole being. This important commandment of God requires total commitment to Him and a decision of the will from the children of God to accomplish it.
If you have not yet confessed to Jesus as your Lord and personal Saviour, this is an opportunity to do so. And when you do, just surrender totally to Him with your eternal future, for He will never leave nor forsake you – Hebrews 13:5
STAY BLESSED!
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Dr Joyce Aryee, the author
4. Correct the falsehood
If someone misrepresents Muhammad (pbuh), teach people who Muhammad (pbuh) really was.
Tell them about his mercy.
Tell them about his justice.
Tell them about his patience.
Tell them about his forgiveness.
5. Report genuine offences
Use lawful channels.
The Muslim does not become the police, prosecutor, judge and executioner.
6. Protect the innocent
If one Christian insults Islam, do not attack another Christian who knows nothing about it.
If one Muslim makes an offensive statement, do not blame all Muslims.
7. Restore peace
After the controversy, bring responsible Muslim and Christian leaders together.
Talk.
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Clarify.
Forgive where forgiveness is appropriate.
And rebuild trust.
Ghana must not become a battlefield of religious provocation
My dear brothers and sisters in Islam,
Let us look around Ghana.
Muslims and Christians have lived together for generations.
We have Muslim fathers with Christian in-laws.
Christian mothers with Muslim sons-in-law.
Muslim and Christian business partners.
Muslim and Christian neighbours.
Muslim and Christian classmates.
Muslims and Christians serving together in the military, police, public service, universities, hospitals, markets and businesses.
This is Ghana.
We must protect this peace.
Religious freedom is precious.
But religious freedom comes with religious responsibility.
A microphone is not a weapon.
A pulpit is not a battlefield.
A smartphone is not a licence to spread hatred.
A viral video is not a fatwa (religious decree).
And anger is not evidence.
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A word to Muslim scholars
To my fellow Imams and Islamic scholars:
Allah has placed a trust upon our shoulders. You are the best of generations selected for the guidance of mankind. Quran chapter 3:110.
When people are angry, we must calm them.
When people are confused, we must educate them.
When people want revenge, we must teach justice.
When people want violence, we must remind them of Allah.
Our microphone should extinguish fire—not pour petrol upon it.
The Prophet said:ِ
لَيْس َ الشَّدِيد ُ بِالصُّرَعَةِ، إِنَّمَا الشَّدِيد ُ الَّذِي يَمْلِك ُ نَفْسَه ُ عِنْد َ الْغَضَب
“The strong man is not the one who can overpower others; rather, the strong man is the one who controls himself when angry.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, 6114; Sahih Muslim, 2609)
This is strength.
Self-control is strength.
Restraint is strength.
Wisdom is strength.
Justice is strength.
A word to Christian preachers
And to our Christian brothers and sisters, especially those who preach:
We Muslims deeply revere Jesus (peace be upon him)
He is not an ordinary man in Islam.
He is ʿĪsā ibn Maryam عليه السالم, a mighty Messenger of Allah.
The author is the Chief Imam of Katamanso Municipal and Certified Counsellor and Governance Expert.
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When Paul tells us that our “attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus,” he had summarized in the previous two verses what such an attitude was: selflessness, humility, and service. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others” – Philippians 2:3-4.
In other words, the attitude a Christian should reflect is one that focuses on the needs and interests of others. Without question, that does not come naturally to us. When Christ came into the world, He established a whole new attitude to relationships with others. One day when His disciples were arguing among themselves regarding who was to be greatest in His kingdom, Jesus said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you.
Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” – Matthew 20:25-28. Jesus is teaching us that, when we become preoccupied with our own things, it can cause conflicts and other problems with people we know. Instead, God wants us to have an attitude of serious, caring involvement in the concerns of others.
Paul speaks more about this Christ-like attitude in his letter to the church in Ephesus: “that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.– Ephesians 4:22-24. Many religions of today, including the New Age philosophies, promote the old lie that we are divine or that we can become gods. But the truth of the matter is that we will never become God, or even a god. Satan’s oldest lie was promising Adam and Eve that, if they followed his advice, “- and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:5, NKJV.
Each time we try to control our circumstances, our future, and the people around us, we’re only demonstrating that we want to be a god. But we must understand that, as creatures, we will never be the Creator. God doesn’t want us to try to become gods. Instead, He wants us to become like Him, taking on His values, His attitudes, and His character. We are meant to “be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” – Ephesians 4:23-24.
Finally, we must always keep in mind that God’s ultimate goal for His children is not our comfort, but the transformation of our minds into the attitude of godliness. He wants us to grow spiritually, to become like Christ. This doesn’t mean losing our personalities or becoming mindless clones. Christlikeness is all about transforming our minds. Again, Paul tells us, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” – Romans 12:2.
It is God’s will that we develop the kind of mindset described in the Beatitudes of Jesus – Matthew 5:1-12, that we exhibit the fruit of the Spirit – Galatians 5:22-23, that we emulate the principles in Paul’s great chapter on love – 1 Corinthians 13, and that we strive to pattern our lives after Peter’s characteristics of an effective and productive life – 2 Peter 1:5-8.
Establishing our actions in righteousness
Every person is commanded to live up to divine standards.
a. In the words of Jesus
“ For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Be ye, therefore, perfect, even as your Father, who is in heaven, is perfect” – Mt. 5:20, 48.
Every person in the world is required to live up to that standard. You say, “You’ve got to be kidding!” No, I’m not. You are obligated to live up to that standard with a pure inside as well as a right outside. But you say, “I can’t!” You are absolutely right. That’s why we are given the solution…
b. In the words of Paul
As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;– Rom. 3:10, 21-22a.
Though you can’t obtain on your own the righteous standard Christ set, you can receive His righteousness if you are one of those who believe. Isn’t that great? God set the holy standard. And when you acknowledge that you can’t live up to it, He says, “My Son is not only the Lawgiver, but He is the Redeemer as well, who makes it possible for you to live on that level.” Beloved, it’s a fantastic thing! The standard is so high we can’t obtain it. But Christ met that standard and imputes to us His righteousness. Oh, what a blessed thing!
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