Matthew 22:37
Jesus said unto him,
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind.
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Other translations
New International Version
Jesus replied: ’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
New Living Translation
Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’
English Standard Version
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Berean Study Bible
Jesus declared, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
Berean Literal Bible
And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
New King James Version
Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
New American Standard Bible
And He said to him, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’
Amplified Bible
And Jesus replied to him, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’
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Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.
In the Gospel according to Mark report (Mark 12:29) our Lord’s answer begins with the Creed of Israel (“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord”), and so the truth is in its right position as the foundation of the duty.
It is significant
- That the answer comes from the same chapter (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) which supplied our Lord with two out of His three answers to the Tempter (see Matthew 4:4, 4:7);
- That He does but repeat the answer that had been given before by the “certain lawyer” who stood up tempting Him, in Luke 10:25.
In their ethical teaching the Pharisees had grasped the truth intellectually, though they did not realise it in their lives, and our Lord did not shrink, therefore, so far, from identifying His teaching with theirs.
Truth was truth, even though it was held by the Pharisees and coupled with hypocrisy.
Concerning this first and great commandment, and the words wherewith Moses prefaced it (see Deuteronomy 6:4,5).
For the elucidation of this, see Mark 12:28-34, where the conversation which our Lord had with this scribe is related more at large.
This was probably said, because all true obedience depends on the correct knowledge of God.
None can keep his commandments who are not acquainted with his nature, his perfections, and his right to command: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; that is, with all the powers and faculties of the soul, the will, the understanding, and the affections; in the most sincere, upright, and perfect manner, without any dissimulation and hypocrisy, and above all objects whatever, for this the law requires.
Man, in his state of innocence before falling in sin, was capable to do this.
But now in his fallen state he is utterly unable to perform this.
Without the grace of God, he has no true love at all to God, in his heart, soul and mind, but all the reverse; his carnal mind is enmity against God, and everything that is divine and good, or that belongs unto Him: and though this is now the case of man, yet his obligation to love the Lord in this manner is still the same.
When the Spirit of God produces the grace and fruit of love in his soul, he does love the Lord sincerely; because of the perfections of His nature, and the works of His hands, and because of the blessings of grace bestowed, and especially for Christ, the unspeakable gift of His love; and most affectionately does he love Him, when he is most sensible of His everlasting and unchangeable love to him, and when that is shed abroad by the Spirit; “for we love Him, because He first loved us”, 1 John 4:19 instead of, “with all thy mind”, as here, in Deuteronomy 6:5 it is read, “with all thy might”; and which clause is here added by the Syriac, Persic, and Ethiopic versions, as it is in Mark 12:30.
With all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
The Hebrew text in Deuteronomy 6:5 reads, “with thine heart, soul, and strength”;
and in Mark 12:30 and Luke 10:27 we read, “with soul, heart, strength and thought”.
The Hebrew phrase seems to denote the vehemency of affections, with which God is to be beloved. Though the Jewish writers paraphrase and interpret it, “with all thy substance”, or “money”; and in the Misna, the following interpretation is given of the whole, “with all thy heart”, with thy imaginations, with the good imagination, and with the evil imagination; and “with all thy soul”, even if he should take away thy soul; and “with all thy strength”, with all thy “mammon”, or riches; or otherwise, “with all thy might”, with every measure he measures unto thee, do thou measure unto him. That is, as one of the commentators says, whether it be good or evil; or, as another, in every case that happens give thanks to God, and praise him.
And certain it is, that as God is to be loved in the strongest manner we are capable of, and with all we have, and are; so always, at all times, under all dispensations of his providence, and upon all accounts, and for all he does towards, in, upon, and for us
With all thy heart.
The meaning of this is, that …
▪︎ You must love Him with all your faculties or powers.
▪︎ You must love Him supremely, more than all other beings and things, and with all the ardor possible.
To love Him with all your heart is …
▪︎ To fix the affections supremely on Him, more strongly than on anything else,
▪︎ To be willing to give up all that we hold dear at his command.
With all thy soul
Or, with all your “life.”
This means …
▪︎ To be willing to give up your life to Him,
▪︎ To devote it all to His service;
▪︎ To live for Him,
▪︎ To be willing to die at His command.
With all thy mind
This means …
▪︎ To submit the “intellect” to his will.
▪︎ To love His law and gospel more than we do the decisions of our own minds.
▪︎ To be willing to submit all our faculties to His teaching and guidance,
▪︎ To devote to Him all our intellectual attainments
▪︎ To devote to Him all the results of our intellectual efforts.
“With all thy strength” (Mark).
With all the faculties of soul and body.
▪︎ To labor and toil for His glory,
▪︎ To make Him and His glory the great object of all our efforts.
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