The first commandment is "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul and your mind." One habit that I'd like to finally break is using the word "love" to describe other things or events, and places when we only mean to love them, use them, and throw them away. Like when we say that we love our new pen or pencil. Really? We can like our new pen or pencil and even like them better than the ones we had before. We say that we love our sports team, car or even our beer but that's not really the truth. What we mean is we like them. Christian love is meant in two ways. The first is our love for God and the second is our love for others. Love is difficult with some people but not so difficult with God. When we say we love God, do we mean it in the sense the commandment states? Do we know the Lord our God is the first caveat. If we don't know God, then we can't know love. If we know God we know love. Why else would Jesus come, live, die and be resurrected for my sins? He loves us. We say the words in church, sing them in worship and then what? Do we take them out into the world? Do we love the Lord our God with all of our heart? If we say we do then why don't we show it? Why don't we share that love. Should you love the Lord your God with all of your heart you and I shouldn't have any problem showing that love to others.
The second caveat we see in the commandment is "your soul". The "all" transfers to that word as well as your mind. What does it mean to have your soul consumed with the love of God? Here's an example. If when we come to Christ we are a glass full of dirty water do we allow God to change all the water in that glass to only clear pure water? As God pours his love into our lives do we resist the impulse to keep some of the dirty water? If we do, we are not loving God with all of our soul. We only love God conditionally. In Matthew 6:33 Jesus tells us to "be perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect." The Greek reads a bit different. The Greek says, "be being made perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect." (my interpretation). Before we come to Christ we are that glass full of dirty water. God has given us free will. We can and do make changes within our heart and soul that greatly affect whether or not we allow the clean to cleanse out the dirty. We can then ask ourselves whether or not we are engaging that process or not. That brings us to the last caveat.
Do we love God with all of our mind? Controlling or confining the mind is a lot like taking a cat on lease for a walk. Dogs not so much! Cats are an example of defiance, self focus and refusal to anything they don't want to do. Some people are cats and others are dogs. Some people allow the Holy Spirit to enter into and clean the rooms of our minds while others simply resist the prompting of the Holy Spirit to change anything. I'm talking about Christians. Those who don't believe and haven't made a decision remain dead in their sin and are unable to love in any sense of the word. Well, except for the world's definition. Paul is the example I'd like to use as encouragement of our Christian walk. He tells us that we are to "die daily and have Christ live through us." So, if we are in Christ and have the love of God which is in our heart, soul, and mind; do we act like it or not? Do we share the love of God in the same manner he showed us in Jesus? Do we lay our lives down so that he can live through us? Water glass, cats and dogs, and death to self. These represent but not perfectly the lives we live rather than Christ living through us. He's perfect and we are to be perfect. It's always your choice.
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