Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength: This is the first commandment. Mark 12:30
In Greek Jesus’ statement about loving God contains four parts. (Interestingly the verse recounting the same discussion in Matthew 22:37 does not contain ‘might’ or ‘strength’) Loving Him with heart, soul, mind and strength. The Greek translation separates the mind from the heart and but the Hebrew word for heart does not. That is interesting. In Western culture much is made of intellectual pursuits and the need for the mind to rule both emotions as part of our heart as well as the body.
There are implications in the Greek language for the way God wants us to love Him. The Greek word for mind is much more than intellect. The word is ‘dianoia’ meaning the mind, disposition, thought. It literally means moving from one side to another to come to a balanced understanding. That means we are to love God in a way that uses our understanding to muse, reflect, consider and come to a balanced conclusion.
The Hebrew word for ‘might’ in Deuteronomy 6:5 is very interesting. It is the word ‘meod’ which is translated as muchness, force, abundance. This is not speaking so much about physical strength but a force of will and choice that generates intentional power towards the Lord with our love. His love is His essence. Our love is our essence responding to His.
The Greek word for strength or might in Mark 12 is ‘ish-khoos’ meaning ability, strength, power, might, force, might. So love the Lord your God within the ability of your forcefulness. Again as with the soul there is a uniqueness about the type of love He calls us to. The type of force we use will vary. Some have strong emotions, that is part of their strength, some have strong wills, again that is part of their might. There is a direction in the use of this type of strength. When you chose to use force you direct it. When we chose to love God we direct our energy towards Him.
Thank-you. We love you.