Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength
Written by Phil Sanders
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With All Your Heart
The heart is the center of a person’s thoughts, intentions, and emotions. The heart is also the center of our moral and spiritual life. The conscience, for instance, is associated with the heart. In fact, the Hebrew language had no word for conscience, so the word “heart” was often used to express this concept. The word “heart” appears about 1,000 times in the Bible and is used in wide variety of ways. Now we’re complicated human beings with many aspects of our lives.
How we think and feel in our hearts, what we intend to do, and what we regard as right and wrong matter to the Lord. The Lord reminds us in Luke 12:34, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” What we focus our hearts on tells us what our treasure is. And if your heart is set on worldly things, God will become unimportant. But if you love God with all your heart, worldly things will soon lose their attraction.
You see God cares about us; He doesn’t look at things the way that we do. 1 Samuel 16:7 says that, “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” What’s in your heart? If you give your heart to God, then you’re giving yourself also. You won’t argue with God but will obey Him.
Our reading is from Mark 12:28-32. And here the word of God says, “One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; 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.’ The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” The scribe said to Him, “Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that HE IS ONE, AND THERE IS NO ONE ELSE BESIDES HIM;”
That’s a reading from God’s holy word. Let’s pray together. Heavenly Father we’re thankful that You have given us Your will for us to understand. Help us Heavenly Father, because of all the good things You’ve done for us. To love You with all our heart, soul, and mind and strength. This is our prayer in Jesus name, Amen. Solomon advises us in Proverbs 23:7, “As he thinks in his heart, so is he.” The heart more than anything else reflects the character. How a person pretends to be and what is in his heart can differ. Now God wants us to have a heart that is pure. And if you love the Lord, you will purify your hearts. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Paul urged in 2 Timothy 2:22, he says, “Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” Now a pure heart arises when we choose the will of God over the will of the devil or the world.
James 4:7-8 says, “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” Now a double-minded heart means that you haven’t chosen whether to serve God or serve the flesh. The intention of our heart matters. Paul observed in Titus 1:15, “To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.” A pure heart wants to do the right thing and prepares for the challenges of this world. The psalmist wrote in Psalm 119:10-11, “With all my heart I have sought You; Do not let me wander from You and Your commandments. Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.” When Jesus was tempted by the devil, he repeatedly turned to what God had written in Scripture. We too need to know what is written.
Moses spoke for God in Deuteronomy 5:29, when he said, “Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever!” Oh God wants you to have such a heart. Later in Deuteronomy 10:12-13 Moses said, “Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require from you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the LORD’S commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?” God wants us to take His words seriously. And Moses urged Israel in Deuteronomy 32:46, “Take to your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to observe carefully, even all the words of this law.” We can’t love God unless we also listen and obey what He says.
Solomon by inspiration said in Proverbs 4:20-23, “My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your sight; Keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them And health to all their body. Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.” When a person listens to God and looks inside his heart, he might see the need to change his ways. If we love God, we grieve when we have sinned against Him. When we think of all His love toward us, we want to get our hearts right with God. In Psalm 86, David recalled God’s great lovingkindness and grace. And he sang in Psalm 86:11-12, “Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name. I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And will glorify Your name forever.” Counting our blessings and giving thanks is the root from which our love grows.
Now speaking as God’s prophet, Jeremiah wrote in Jeremiah 17:9-10 that, “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? (then he says,) “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.” What does God see in your heart? Does He see that you love Him with all your heart, or does He see that you love sin with all your heart? James 4 and verse 4 warned some corrupt Christians,
“You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
People often lie to themselves about sin and about salvation. 1 Corinthians 15:33 says, “Do not be deceived: Bad company corrupts good morals.” Now if your heart and your life is surrounded and taking pleasure in things that are evil, those things will corrupt your heart. Galatians 6:7 to 8 explains, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” Will your harvest reap eternal life?
Now if your heart desires evil, what you’ll end up doing is separating yourself from God. Psalm 66 and verse 18 says that, “If I regard wickedness in my heart, (that is I cherish it) The Lord will not hear.” Again, Psalm 5 verses 4 to 6 says, “For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You.” Oh, God knows what’s happening in your heart. David prayed in Psalm 139 verses 23 and 4 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.” We all need to pray that and make the changes so that our hearts are right with God.
You see, God wants something better for you than sin to dwell in your hearts. He wants your heart to look to Christ, to imitate Christ, and to let Christ dwell in your hearts by faith. Paul prayed for the Christians in Ephesus in Ephesians 3:17 to 19, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
When faith and love for Christ and in Christ dwell in our hearts we begin to know a little of the love of Christ. And how He has that great love for us, though it’s beyond our understanding. Christ’s love is wider than we imagine, longer than we think, deeper than the ocean, and higher than the heavens. I’m reminded of Isaiah 55 verses 8 and 9, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
One of the most challenging things in loving God with all our hearts is in being willing to set aside error and to grasp the truth. We must love the Lord with all our hearts, and that means getting our hearts in line with the heart of God and the ways of God. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 6:24 that, “No one can serve two masters; (no they can’t) for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. (or mammon) ” Now the same is true of many other things. You can’t serve God and serve yourself. You can’t serve God and serve sin. You can’t serve God and serve human traditions. You can’t serve God and serve today’s worldly culture. Loving God with your heart means being willing to listen to what He teaches and trust that it’s true and right. Love always begins with listening and giving thanks for what God has done. God wants our hearts to agree with His heart and His teaching. And this means we have to deny ourselves. Proverbs 3:5 to 8 reminds us, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body And refreshment to your bones.”
Our task is to teach what God says, not our opinions. You cannot serve God and serve things that contradict God at the same time. It’s impossible. Many people today have come to hate God because they listened to the culture of our day and they listen to their own desires. And so they’ve chosen to love their desires even more than they love God, even more when they know God is right, they still follow their desires. John 12:42 to 43 tells of some Jewish leaders who chose to please people rather than God. The scripture says, “Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.” Now loving God with all our hearts means being willing to confess that you serve the Lord in spite of what other people think.
The Lord Jesus said in Luke 14:26 and 7 that, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.’ This may sound harsh at first. Now He’s not telling us to hate our families. He is contrasting our love for Him with our love for individual members of our families. “Hate” here is a comparative term. It calls us to make a choice when we are pulled in two directions. We must hold fast to our God rather than reject God even for a loved one.
We must recall how much the Lord has loved us and what He has done for us. How that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. And He bore all the punishment for us. 1 Peter 2:24 reminds us, “and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” Now Jesus was not saying that we are not to love our parents and children. Oh, I freely confess to you I love my parents, my wife, my children, and my brothers and sisters. But I cannot let my love for them lead me away from my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I must even deny myself, take up my cross daily, and follow Him.
When the Lord speaks, we listen because we love Him with all our hearts. What the Lord commands matters, because we love Him the most and know that He’s wiser than we are! We love Him; and we love His wisdom and His will. We know that He’s the One who has the gospel that saves and the words of eternal life. We know that He’s the One raised from the dead. We know that He will one day judge us in righteousness. We know that He’s both our Lord and Savior. And if we wish to be saved, we must accept Him also as our Lord. Christians belong to the Lord because they chose to follow the One who loves us. 2 Corinthians 5:14 and 15 explains, “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”
Let’s pray. Oh Father help us to love You with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. And always put You first in everything. In Jesus name, Amen.
When David realized his great sin with Bathsheba and the killing of Uriah, he prayed in Psalm 51:7 to 11, “Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit.”
Do you wish you were clean and right with God? Unresolved sin leaves a stain in our hearts and an ache in our souls. Romans 6:16 to 18 says, “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” Oh, you don’t have to be a slave to sin, guilt, and shame.
Hear the gospel, believe Jesus died for your sins and rose again, repent of those moral failures, confess Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and be baptized in the name of Christ so that your sins will be forgiven, just as Acts 2:38 in the first gospel sermon teaches. Now perhaps you were once one who served the Lord and His church but have left Him. Don’t let your heart harden, return to the Lord in love, repentance, and obedience. My friend today is the best day to get right with God.
With All Your Soul
The word “soul” is used nearly 500 times in Scripture and has a variety of meanings. The word for soul is sometimes translated “life,” sometimes it means the inner being. Sometimes it speaks of a person’s eternal spirit. It can also refer to the desires and the intentions of the heart. And it is our soul that can have a relationship with the God who gave it to us. Now God Himself speaks of having a soul in Hebrews 10:38. And since we’re made in His image, we too have a soul.
While our bodies can die, our souls will survive. The word soul often refers to the immaterial, invisible, eternally conscious part of man that survives this life. Peter spoke of David’s prophecy about the resurrection of Jesus found in Psalm 16:10 and he quoted in Acts 2 verse 27, “For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.” Now Hades refers to that “unseen place” and can refer to both Paradise (Luke 23:43 where Jesus went) and the place of torment (Luke 16 verse 23). But Hades is where departed souls go. No one enters hell until after the Day of Judgment.
Jesus didn’t enter Hell but Paradise, a place and a part of Hades. Now one day, when you die, your soul will enter either a pace of torment or a place of comfort. And we want God’s blessing for you.
Our reading today comes from the book of James chapter 1 verses 21 to 25. And encourage us to look inside and see ourselves. “Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”
I hope that you too will be blessed in what you do. By making those changes and being the kind of person God wants you to be. Let’s pray together. Heavenly Father we’re thankful that You give us Your will and Your word. That helps us be able to come to be more and more like You each day of our lives. Help us to love You with all our soul. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
In the Bible, the soul is the entity within that thinks, feels, acts, and desires. When God created Adam from the dust of the ground, He “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” or “living soul” (Genesis 2 and verse 7). Now unlike any other creature, God made man in His own image (Genesis 1:26). The soul can also be called that center of our emotions. When Jesus went to Gethsemane, He told the apostles, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me” (Matt 26 verse 38). Of course, this overlaps with the idea of the heart, which is part of the whole person. The Lord Jesus asks us to follow Him. And He said in Luke 9:23 and 4, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.” Now the word for “life” here is actually the same word as the word for “soul.” If a person chooses to save his life or soul for himself and do as he pleases, he will lose his life or soul. But if a person chooses to lose his life or soul for the Lord’s sake, he will save it. Losing our life means yielding ourselves to the Lord’s will daily.
Since we have freewill and can choose what we accept or reject, some choose to reject the love of our Lord. John 1:10 to 11 says that, “He was in the world, (Jesus was in the world) and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.” Well, even some of the folks who had known Him for years failed to accept Him as God’s Son. They were blinded by their traditions. Others are blinded by wickedness and greed. Psalm 10 verses 3 to 4 says, “For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire, And the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD. The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. And all his thoughts are, ‘There is no God.’” Many throughout time have rejected the Lord, forgetting that they must one day give an account for their actions.
However, others see the love and truth found in Jesus Christ. They welcome and want to follow Him. John 1:12 to 13 reminds us, “But as many as received Him, (that is welcomed Him, accepted Him) to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” God’s desire has always been that His people would receive or accept Him. Let me ask you, what do you think of Jesus Christ?
David’s soul loved and wanted to appear before God. And David said in Psalm 42 verses 1 and 2, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?” Because we have a conscious soul, we can have a relationship with God. We can know His will by reading His word, and we can lay our requests at His feet in prayer. Through Christ our souls can be born again by His grace through faith in obeying the gospel. We can become sons of God and daughters of God. We can appear before God. And like David, our souls thirst to be with God.
Now through the years some have loved and trusted the Lord Jesus, and they were willing to die for their faith. Such devotion like Stephen in Acts 7 and James in Acts 12 exemplify loving God with their soul, as their entire existence was devoted to Him. To lose our lives or souls, that life force, refers to the totality of our being, including the spiritual and eternal, given over to God in complete surrender. Now what we give, or when we give our heart, soul, and life, when we do that it reveals what we love. What do you love?
If we give our souls to sin, it shows that we love sin more than we love God. Our choices affect our souls. And if we give ourselves to sin, our soul bears the consequences of the sin. The Lord God said in Ezekiel 18:4, “Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.” Now Ezekiel 18, the whole chapter, makes it clear that sin is something we choose to do, not something that we inherit from others. And that we can change. Oh sin may entices us, it may deceives us, it may enslaves us, and ultimately it causes our spiritual death. But sin, oh it’s never your friend. And if you give your soul to sin, it will destroy you. But oh, you can do better than that.
Hebrews 10 verses 26 to 31 says something that’s very straight forward. It says, For if we go on sinning willfully (we know what we’re doing and we intend to) after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, (that is Jesus death doesn’t work anymore. His blood won’t cleanse us but what we will have is)but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Now anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. We must never think that sin is something trivial, that it doesn’t matter to our souls. People tend to downplay their sins as if they are insignificant; but your sins matter. Loving the Lord shows a love to your soul. Loving sin destroys your life and your soul. Some people tell themselves well, “I’m not as bad as he is or she is.” Or they’ll say well, “I did this little sin, but I didn’t do that great big sin. And so they think at least I am not like that person.” My friend don’t be deceived. James 2:10 to 11 says, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.” You see, every sin matters, whether it’s big or little in your eyes. If sin seems little to you, remember that it’s not little to God.
Hebrews 9:27 says, “it is appointed for men once to die and after this comes judgment.” One day you will face the Lord. When we die, God requires our souls. You remember the Lord Jesus told a parable in Luke 12:16 to 21. He said, “The land of a rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.” ’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ So is the man (Jesus says) who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
One day we will all without exception stand before the Lord Jesus who will judge our souls. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 10 says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” We must take the judgment of our souls seriously. We can’t live any way we please and still please God. Ecclesiastes 11 and verse 9 says, “Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things.” When people are unforgiven, God doesn’t forget about their sins.
The Lord Jesus warned in Matthew 10:28, “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Now God doesn’t want you to perish; He wants you to change the direction of your soul by your faith and repentance. He wants you to love Him with all your soul. 2 Peter 3 verse 9 says, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” God has done everything He can do to save us. And He wants our salvation. 1 Timothy 2 verses 3 to 4 says, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men (all people) to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
God, however, expects you to repent of evil; and love is what causes repentance. Romans 2 and verse 4 reminds us, “do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” God’s goodness and patience doesn’t give us a license to risk our souls by continuing in sin. The Lord God created us, the Lord Jesus died on the cross for our sins, the blood of Jesus cleanses and frees us from sin, and the Lord’s patience gives us time to change. He wants us to transform or lives, so that we may die to sin and live to righteousness. Now Jesus didn’t die on the cross so that we might just keep on committing the same old sins.
We hear so much about the grace of God, and we must never minimize what great things God has done for us. However, we must never presume upon God’s grace. Some believe that once they become Christians they can live as they want as they please and never risk their souls. But God wants something better for us than a life of sin. What does God’s grace expect of us? Titus 2:11 to 14 reminds us, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.”
When you become a Christian, you put away that old man of sin and become a new person, you’re born again, in Christ. Romans 6:4 says, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” At baptism we are truly born again and free from sin. Romans 6:6 to 7 says, “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.” Now this love with all our souls is willing to let the old life die, so that we can be born again as children of God. Galatians 3:26 to 27 says, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
Let’s pray. Heavenly Father help us to love You with all our hearts. To die to that old man of sin and to live for You, to love You by our obedience to the gospel. And every day to show ourselves lovers of Your will and doers of Your will. This is our prayer in the name of Jesus, Amen.
If you lose your soul, have you considered what you’ve lost? If you lose your soul, you’ll lose it eternally. You’ll lose all the joy of being filled as a righteous person. Sinful lives may think they have pleasure, but they’re broken and empty. All this world can offer you is temporary. All the pleasures will be gone. Hebrews 11:25 to 26 says that Moses chose “rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.”
Now only God can save you and give you the crown of life. If you reject God, you’ll lose all the blessing the Lord could have given you. The Lord said in Mark 8:36 to 7, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Have you considered your soul? And are you right with God?
To be right with God you must be washed in the blood of Christ. This is a God’s gift. You can’t earn His grace, but you must accept it according to His terms. The Lord saves us by sacrificing His body and blood on the cross. He is our Savior and Lord. Just as He did the will of the Father, so we too must do His will. We do this by believing Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. We must repent of our sins and out of love turn to righteousness. Since we truly believe, we will confess our faith and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. Now this is God’s teaching from the beginning according to Acts 2:38. Won’t you show your love today?
With All Your Mind
When the Bible calls us to “love God with all your mind,” it means loving God with our intellect. We love Him with our thoughts, beliefs, with our reasoning, and understanding. Our minds should be fully devoted to learning about God and His will for our lives. Now love for God is not only emotional; it’s also based on reason. People need to know God to love Him. And the Lord Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Now if we don’t know what God says, how can we serve and obey Him. You see love listens and pays attention, so that it can please.
The prophet Hosea revealed that God was broken-hearted when He considered how His people stopped listening to His words. God said in Hosea 4 and verse 6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” When parents reject what God has taught and what God commands in the Scriptures, their children suffer.
Our reading today comes from the words of Paul found in his letter to the Colossians chapter 3 verses 1 to 4 and there he talks about where our minds should be.
“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”
What a wonderful promise. Let’s pray together. Father we’re thankful for the promises that You make. Help us to set our minds upon You always. To love You with all our minds, and heart and soul and strength. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
The “mind” refers to the intellect, the understanding, and thought life. It suggests a deep, reflective love that engages reasoning and deliberate thought. The Scriptures speak a lot about thinking, reasoning, and drawing conclusions from what we have perceived. The Lord wants you to follow Him with more than an emotional response. He wants you to know what you are doing and why. Now Satan lies when he tries to convince people well, “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you love Jesus and do good things.” Well, there is nothing in Scripture that suggests this. The Lord Jesus instead said in John 8:31 and 2, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
You see if truth makes us free, we should never settle for anything less than the truth. Proverbs 23:23 says, “Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.” God wants our hearts, but God also wants our minds. Paul wrote to the fussing church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 10. He said, “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.” You know some Christians feel like they can believe anything they please and ignore God’s desire for His people to be unified. In the same mind and judgement.
But Paul persisted and he insisted on one gospel in Galatians 1:6 to 8 he says, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one that we preached to you, let him be accursed.” Paul meant business. You can’t change the gospel and please God.
Paul reminded the church at Ephesus that God’s will points only one way. It is written in Ephesians 4:4 to 6 that, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.” Now we must be diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And this means giving up preconceived ideas and human traditions and turning to the Scriptures for what we believe. There cannot be one body or church and many churches at the same time. There cannot be one baptism and many different baptisms at the same time. Baptism is immersion and immersion and sprinkling cannot coexist as the one baptism. There cannot be one faith in Jesus Christ and many faiths of all different kinds at the same time. Truth matters and one must make the decision whether to follow Jesus Christ or follow the world.
Now popular, even long held beliefs, can be wrong. Paul worried about Jewish Christians, because they were deceived. They were holding onto the old covenant law and human traditions. And so he wrote in Romans 10:1 to 4, “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, (but then he says) but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. You see their zeal for righteousness did not conform to God’s truth. It proved to be an illusion; and a heart full of zeal didn’t change this. Those who suggest the zealous heart trumps mistaken beliefs can’t explain why these Jews are not saved. Zeal doesn’t turn a lie into the truth. And a deceived zealot is still deceived. To encourage such a zealot in his deception is cruel. Paul wanted them to know the truth rather than to remain ignorant.
Now God wants us to think clearly, to reason from His word what is right. God said in Isaiah 1:18 to 20, “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool. If you consent and obey, You will eat the best of the land; “But if you refuse and rebel, You will be devoured by the sword.” Truly, the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
As growing Christians, we have to make choices as to our faith and practice. People are often pulled away from the truth by culture and popular bur false ideas. Now we love God. And we love Him by thinking correctly according to His word, by evaluating the world through His wisdom, and by rejecting worldly views. Romans 12 and verse 2 says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” What God offers us in His word is good. Psalm 19:7 to 11 says that, “The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them (that is the words of God) Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward.”
Now we grow in our love for God as we get to know Him better. And this involves intentionally learning about His character, what He has done, and will. Paul prayed for the Colossians to know God and His will so that they could please Him. He wrote in Colossians 1:9 to 10, “For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” And so we must read and study the word of God. And we do this for many reasons. First, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ (or the word of God)” (Romans 10:17). Knowing the Scripture guards against a blind and shallow faith; love for God involves conviction and understanding. Second, knowing Scripture keeps us from being “tossed to and fro” by false teachings and every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4 and verse 14). Third, knowing the Scripture honors God by using the intellect that He gave us to know and serve Him better.
We should regularly study and meditate on Scripture. The blessed man is described in Psalm 1:2 to 3: “But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.” Now how can you say that you love God if you never think about Him or listen to what He says?
Knowing the truth will help us to bless others, to protect, and rescue others. James 5:19 to 20 says, “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” Did you know that a person could lose his soul if he wanders from the truth and begins believing or practicing something that is sinful and wrong?
You see Paul warned the struggling church at Colossae to stay with the Lord’s teaching. Colossae had been infected with a false teaching that was leading them away from Christ. And so Paul said in Colossians 2:6 to 8, “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. See to it (he says) that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.”
Our postmodern culture, sadly, has wandered from the truth. They left the truth in order to please people. They stopped listening to the Lord and started listening to those who oppose the Lord. I am reminded of Israel in ancient times. The Lord, who blessed Israel and brought them out of Egypt to the promised land, spoke with grief to Israel in Psalm 81 verses 11 to 13. He said, “But My people did not listen to My voice, And Israel did not obey Me. So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, To walk in their own devices. Oh that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways!” The word of God is widely available, yet many aren’t listening. They have rejected the Bible and its truths. They were deceived into believing Scripture was merely a myth. When people harden their hearts and close their ears to God’s word, they separate themselves from God and His blessings. I would hate for God to give you over to the stubbornness of your heart.
David prayed to God in Psalm 26 verses 2 to 3, “Examine me, O LORD, and try me; Test my mind and my heart. For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, And I have walked in Your truth.” Oh it does little good for people to study God’s word, if they never take time to examine themselves to see if they are living in a way that pleases God. What are we letting into our lives that may hurt us? Paul urged in 1 Corinthians 15:33 and 4, “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals.’ (he says) Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. (and then he said) I speak this to your shame.” When Christians fail to live righteous lives, they lead the weak and the naïve away from God.
If we know the will of the Lord, we must practice it and share it with others. When good men remain silent, evil wins. When men fail to expose error, evil wins. When men fail to fight the devil, evil wins.
We’re all fighting against false doctrines and lies. And our best weapon is the truth. And we must warn those who are deceived and lost to follow Christ and to be saved. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10 verse 5 that, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” Yes, we must bring every thought captive to the Lord Jesus. What happens when people find out the truth and realize that they aren’t following it? Well sometimes they harden their hearts and rebel; sometimes they make excuses and act as if it doesn’t matter; and at other times they listen and make changes. Paul preached the gospel in Ephesus and he revealed the truth about Jesus Christ. Acts 19:18 to 20 says that, “Many also of those who had believed kept coming, (and they were) confessing and disclosing their practices. And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.”
Do you have sin that you need to let go? Are there ways and thoughts that need changing in your life? Are you right with the living God? Are there things in your life that you need to just get rid of and come back to Him. We hope you’ll do that today. Let’s pray together. Heavenly Father we’re thankful for Your love. We’re thankful for grace and for Your kindness and we love You. Help us to align our minds and our thoughts. To align them according to Your will. And do Your will always. In Jesus name, Amen. Repentance begins with the mind. It’s a change of mind or heart that leads to a change of life. Repentance begins with realizing what we did was wrong and being honest enough to admit it. A penitent person will then seek out what is right and will begin doing it, because he or she loves the Lord. They will do what they need to do to be forgiven and start living a new life. In salvation we die to sin and live for righteousness.
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life all begin in our thoughts. When a desire breeds a thought and when a person acts just once of an evil thought and he fills it with passion, and he begins to find pleasure. Well that one act can multiply. And it can multiply into a habit that destroys the character. And when a person flirts with a false idea and seeks ways to justify a false belief or practice, it will lead to sin. “And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death” (James 1 and verse 15).
Now to start a new life, a right with God, you must hear and pay close attention to the gospel of Jesus Christ. You must believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God and be willing to confess your faith. You must repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, just as Peter taught in the first gospel sermon in Acts chapter 2. The people who gladly received his words were baptized or immersed (Acts 2:41). And when you do the same thing, you get the same result. Trying some other path like saying a sinner’s prayer will not get for you right with God. And it will not get you the same results.
Be sure that you have followed the Scriptures. Won’t you obey the Lord today?
With All Your Strength
When the word love is used as a noun, we must understand that it’s a noun of action. When the word “love” is used as a verb, it’s a sacrificing of itself for the best interests of others. God wants more from us than a profession of faith and love. He wants us to demonstrate our love. Love is meant to be practiced, and we must show our love for God with all our strength.
The Lord Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount gave us what some call the golden rule. The Lord said in Matthew 7:12, “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Now righteous people, who love the Lord, ask the question, “how do I want to be treated?” And so they treat others the way they would like to be treated themselves. What if everyone followed this golden rule? Wouldn’t our society be a better place?
Our reading today comes from 1 John chapter 4 verses 7 to 11. And they show the amazing relationship between God and love. And how you can’t have one without the other.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
My what a wonderful encouragement to love. Let’s pray together. Heavenly Father we’re so grateful that you have loved us every day of our lives. And have given Your son so that we might know that love. And Father we’re thankful that our sins can be forgiven. Because of the love that You showed. Help us to love You and to love one another. In Jesus name, Amen.
Love is our highest calling. Nothing is more important than loving God and loving other people.
You’ll likely recall what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:1 to 3, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” Without love we can’t fulfill our purpose, we become empty, and we gain nothing. If love is that important, then we ought to learn what love is and how it behaves. Let me make these suggestions:
First, love warms a cold heart. The opposite of love is not hate but apathy or indifference. A cold heart can walk on by and never get involved. Negative and hurtful experiences can dull the heart, can depress the spirit, and can drive away compassion. Love warms your heart up, makes you alive and causes you to feel and to act.
Selfishness and apathy lead people to sit by and do nothing, while others suffer. 1 John 3:16 to 18 says, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.” Love starts in the heart but it doesn’t end there. Love doesn’t merely talk about doing something. Love acts.
When people today live lonely, isolated lives it’s a heartbreak. One fourth of all the households in America have only one person in them. Researchers say that 40 percent of people relate more with others over a cell phone or a computer than they do in real life. Many family gatherings have little conversation and lots of texting. I visited one home, and the first thing the host did was ban all use of smart phones.
He wanted us to talk. I recently read the number of people who have no one to discuss important matters with has tripled in the last twenty years. Loneliness can lead to depression and illness. We need each other; we need to love and to be loved. It’s essential to life.
Second, love sacrifices its will and itself for another’s best interest. Love is never self-seeking or self-serving. 1 Corinthians 13:5 says that love “does not seek its own.” Another version says “it does not insist on its own way.” Love puts itself last and others first. Love seeks to please more than it seeks to win. Love tries to understand by seeing things through another’s eyes. God urges us in Philippians 2:3 to 4, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” You see, love must be demonstrated toward others. The Lord Jesus sacrificed Himself for our sake, and we must sacrifice ourselves for the benefit of others. That’s what love is.
Third, when problems and conflicts arise, love seeks reconciliation. Reconciliation is the renewal of friendship. It puts the past transgressions behind and it renews love. The Lord Jesus suffered death to forgive your sins and to reconcile you to God. The Bible says in Romans 12:18, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.” God has always wanted His people to have a compassionate and understanding heart that reconciles with others. Philippians 4 verse 5 says, “Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.” We need a gentle spirit, one that is sweet and reasonable rather than one that stays angry and grows hateful.
Fourth, love knows how to forgive. The Bible says in Ephesians 4:31 to 32, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” Knowing that God had enough love to forgive us of our many sins, we should be willing to forgive others of their few sins. God’s Word simply says in 1 Peter 4 and verse 8 that, “love covers a multitude of sins.” Yes love learns to put offenses behind and to go on. 1 Corinthians 13:7 to 8 says that, “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” It never quits.
Whether you can forgive another is not some small matter; it actually affects your salvation. God expects you to forgive, if you wish to be forgiven. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 6:14 to 15, “For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” You know people who want to experience the grace of God have obligations to show mercy to others. James 2 and verse 13 says, “For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” Oh if we wish to be forgiven, we must learn to forgive.
When God forgives, He no longer holds our sins and trespasses against us. Sometimes we confuse forgiving with forgetting. Now you can forgive a sin, even if you can’t forget it. Forgiveness is not forgetting; it is forgetting against, yes. 2 Corinthians 5:19 says that, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them.” Now, our sins are a matter of history. God’s grace touches our hearts, because He dealt with our sins rather than because He ignored or denied them. Because Jesus suffered for our sins, God doesn’t count them against us. The fact of our sins has not disappeared, but the guilt for our sin has. God has forgiven us.
Fifth, love will tell you what you need to hear not what you want to hear. God’s Word says in Proverbs 27 and verse 6, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.” Honesty, even when it hurts, from a true friend is far more loving than half-truths and flattery from someone who means to do you harm. God out of love has told us in Scripture what we needed to know. Let’s respond to that love. The devil will tell you what you want to hear, whether it’s true or not; but the Lord will tell you what you need to hear to bless your life, even if it hurts your feelings for a short time.
The very best thing you can do for a friend is to introduce him or her to Jesus Christ and the gospel. The gospel is good news of salvation and hope. People need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. They need to know that He died on the cross for their sins, He was buried, and He rose again on the third day. They need to know about His loving grace and His call for them to repent and to be baptized. They need to know about becoming a Christian and how that’s a lifelong commitment of love and service. There’s no retirement from faith in Christ. We stay faithful even to death.
Sixth, God’s love means serving others. 1 Peter 4 and verse 10 says, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:” Whatever talent we possess we should use it to serve the Lord and to bless the lives of others. Galatians 6:10 says, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” Loving God with all our strength means giving ourselves to the cause of Christ and to the service of others. 1 John 4:19 simply explains: “We love, because He first loved us.”
Now God demands a higher standard from those who call upon His name. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 5:43 to 48, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, (Jesus talking) love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Christians love those who are hard to love, because God loved us when we were hard to love. God loves all people, because that is who God is. He gives His sun and rain to all, even when they don’t deserve it. Loving an enemy is mature, it’s a mature love that Christians pursue, because they are children of God. They do more than others because God has been gracious to them. They care for strangers, because God loved them when they were strangers and aliens to the promises of God. The blood of Christ was shed for every person! And by the grace of God, Jesus tasted death for everyone.
2 Corinthians presents a marvelous example of the way that Christ changes hearts to love people. People that we don’t know. There was a famine taking place among the Jews in Judea in the first century, but Greeks and Romans in Macedonia were willing to send monetary relief to help the Jews in the churches of Judea. People they’d never met. The reaction in Macedonia is amazing.
2 Corinthians 8:1 to 5 tells the story: “Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints, and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.” When we first give ourselves to the Lord, it’s a pleasure to bless others.
Faith and love act together. James 2:14 to 18 says, “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works’; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
Why do we talk about loving God with all our strength? Well without heartfelt love for God and for others we are empty beings. Without love, our lives are filled with loneliness and sadness. Without love we failed our purpose, have no value, and we make no gains. We need the love of Jesus in our hearts and we must show it in our lives.
Let’s pray together. Father we pray that the love that we have for You and that we have for others may be shown in the way that we live and the way that we treat others. Father we’re thankful for the love You have given us in our forgiveness. Help us Father to be faithful servants and to do Your will. In Jesus name, Amen. God’s Word teaches us how to love one another. Jesus said in John 13:34 to 5, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” The Lord wants us to love each other the same way that He loves us. Well how has He loved us? Jesus said in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” The Lord Jesus loved us with a great love; He died for us.
When we love God with all our strength and love others the way Jesus loved us, people see Christ living in us. Loving others like Jesus did identifies us as Christians. Let me ask you, are you kind? Do you forgive others or hold grudges? Are you compassionate or do you have a closed heart? Do you seek peace or do you get even? Do you have a sweet spirit of reasonableness or are you constantly condemning others? Do you try to resolve conflicts or do you gossip and slander other people? Do you love like Jesus?
When the love of Jesus is in your heart, you’ll change your life and follow Him. Now to become a Christian you must believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and be willing to confess Him in the presence of others. You must cease doing evil and follow Christ in repentance. And you must be baptized into Christ, immersed in water for the forgiveness of your sins. This is the pattern established for all time in Acts 2:38 and 9. Baptism into Christ is when our sins are washed away. And I pray you’ll become a Christian today.