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
Love the Lord your God with all your soul. The meaning of this word does have overlap with heart. Your soul is your essence containing who you uniquely are or most importantly who God created you to be. We can damage our souls by what we choose to love. Addictions, toxic people, negative events can all hurt us to our very core, in other words, our soul.
The Hebrew word for soul offers some indication of how God sees us. The word for soul in Hebrew is the word ‘nephesh’ which is not only translated as soul but also living being, life, self, person, desire, passion, appetite and emotion. From the meaning of this word you can see how our souls can be damaged by what we choose to love and do and also by what is done to us. According to Genesis 2:7 animals have souls too. They too can be hurt and Romans 8:20- 21 speaks of the harm done to creation by the fall of man. That’s why if you see something die it is the life force or soul that leaves the fleshly body.
The Greek word for soul also alludes to the essential nature of the human soul. The word in Greek for soul is ‘psuche’ where we get the psych words in English from. The various usages of this word include the vital breath, breath of life, the human soul, the soul as the seat of affections and will, the self, a human person, in individual. Another way of understanding the soul is that it is the centre of our uniqueness as created by God. (See Psalm 139.)
There is something hidden in the meaning of the soul that maybe we miss. God is calling us to love Him in our uniqueness. We are not one homogenised group as we come together as the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12 speaks of a body with many parts. God want us to love them, three in one, as they are with all of who we uniquely are. What a blessing and what freedom.
Thank-you. We love you.