1443AFC102414 – All You Need is LOVE
Read it online here, please
Matthew 22:37-40 – Jesus said to him, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets too.”
This is from this Sunday’s reading. It is also a passage I have quoted in several posts over the years. It is a quotation that stands as a ruler against which I measure my faith and the actions my faith produces. This statement appears in three of the Gospels, and it is drawn from two sources in the Old Testament. I have found it instructive to look at it using comparison and contrast. Here are two tables that list the origins of these concepts.
|
Deuteronomy
|
|
Matthew
|
|
Mark
|
|
Luke
|
|
6:5
|
|
22:37
|
|
12:30
|
|
10:27
|
| Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. |
|
You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. |
|
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. |
|
You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, |
| וּבְכָלמְֿאֹדֶ֑ךָ = kol + meode = all your might, strength, intensity |
| διανοια dianoia {dee-an’-oy-ah} mind, understanding, imagination |
|
Leviticus
|
|
Matthew
|
|
Mark
|
|
Luke 10:27
|
|
19:18
|
|
22:39
|
|
12:31
|
|
|
| You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. |
|
You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments. |
|
Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.” |
|
and love your neighbor as yourself.
(Spoken by a lawyer – “scribe” – to Jesus) |
In the first set of comparisons, you may notice that in Deuteronomy the words applied to the act of love are heart, soul, and strength. The Hebrew words used to express “heart and soul” are לֵבָב (lebab) {lay-bawb’} and נֶפֶשׁ nephesh {neh’-fesh}. Both of these express the concept of the “inner man.” Lebab – heart – is the inner man’s conscience, his will, his understanding. Nephesh – soul – is an expression of being a living entity with life in the blood, the man himself. In the passages from the Gospel, I emphasized the word mind. That word does not appear in the Old Testament passages. There are about 20 or so Old Testament verses that say “with all your heart, and with all your soul.” It is an expression that signifies complete dedication and obedience. The connotation of “strength” in Deuteronomy 6:5 speaks to the idea of holding on to that dedication and obedience regardless of any pressures – temptations or forces – to “give up on God.”
The word for “mind” in these Gospel passages is διανοια dianoia {dee-an’-oy-ah} which connotes mind, understanding, imagination. I began to wonder why that word was included in the Gospels. In Mark and Luke, the word Strength is included as ἰσχύς ischus {is-khoos’} and that word connotes strength, might, ability, power, or force. That is similar to the understanding of “Strength” in Deuteronomy. Matthew leaves out “strength” but includes “mind.” How is that showing us something about Jesus’ teachings? I think it has something to do with a word we have looked at in the past: Metanoia. It is the word translated into English as “repent” or “repentance.” Jesus first declaration in his ministry was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2). In mark 1:15 this is recorded as “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” In Luke it is in the account of certain Galileans killed by Pilate, and Jesus asks if they died because they were sinners. He says, ” No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.”
We have looked at repentance often, but the look today is with the eyes of Love. “All you need is Love,” the Beatles sang to us. That’s how God sees it, too. He loves us so much – he’s crazy in love with us! – that he is eager to forgive and forget. Here’s what I mean:
In Ezekiel 33:11 God says, “Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but prefer that the wicked change his behavior and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil deeds! Why should you die, O house of Israel?'” There is the key: that the wicked change his behavior and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil deeds! Repentance is to turn around and go away from evil. ) Jesus and John the Baptist used the word μετάνοια, – metanoia. It is a change of heart, a change of mind, or a change of direction as in a one-eighty turn. A closely-related word is μετανοέω – metanoéō. Both come from the same root meanings meta – above, beyond, higher; and noein to think from nuos – mind. This metanoia is something I’ve written about often. It is important to understand that it means to move beyond where our hearts and minds are to a new paradigm, a new way of thinking and feeling and seeing everything in life. When we repent, we have a change of mind – not a renewing of mind (See Romans 1:12). Another way to think of it is we quash, break, nullify, defeat, or conquer a temptation that is repeatedly before us; we break a bad habit; we realign our values-system so that it aligns more closely with God’s values. WE make an effort to sin less even though we know we can never be sinless. Not even sin can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Beloved, there is nothing that will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. NOTHING! Especially nothing of flesh – humankind, governments, wicked rulers, terrorists, haters, deeply evil people, nor anything else in all creation; they cannot keep us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus. When we are in Christ, we are in God and the Holy Spirit is in us. Just a few verses before today’s selected text we read, – But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. (NAB – Romans 8:9)
But you see, it is not our love of God and redeems us. It is HIS love for us that makes it so! I cannot, you cannot, we cannot love God enough to earn his forgiveness! It is his Gift, a gift of LOVE. That LOVE is what makes metanoia possible. How do we find the way to do this? Is it something that is hidden? On, goodness NO! Ephesians 5:10 is one of my favorites because it was so easy: “Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.” Not far from that is Ephesians 6:13, ” Therefore, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground.” When I forget that, I lose ground. And just down the page a bit is Ephesians 6:18: “With all prayer and supplication, pray at every opportunity in the Spirit.”
Psalm 118:24 says, “This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad!” Good enough for me!! and what about that banquet prepared for us in the presence of the enemy? It is the Word which is our banquet.
Feasting on the word is great fare indeed! Come on! The banquet is ready. A table is prepared for us in the presence of that scheming old codger The Accuser. He knows The Word, too, but to him it’s poison. To you and me, it’s LIFE! Love is Life because the Eternal God is Love. That’s all we need. And yes, it really is just that simple! How do you “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength?” Accept the Gift of his love: “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
chick
1443AFC102414 – All You Need is LOVE
Read it online here, please
Matthew 22:37-40 – Jesus said to him, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets too.”
This is from this Sunday’s reading. It is also a passage I have quoted in several posts over the years. It is a quotation that stands as a ruler against which I measure my faith and the actions my faith produces. This statement appears in three of the Gospels, and it is drawn from two sources in the Old Testament. I have found it instructive to look at it using comparison and contrast. Here are two tables that list the origins of these concepts.
|
Deuteronomy
|
|
Matthew
|
|
Mark
|
|
Luke
|
|
6:5
|
|
22:37
|
|
12:30
|
|
10:27
|
| Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. |
|
You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. |
|
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. |
|
You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, |
| וּבְכָלמְֿאֹדֶ֑ךָ = kol + meode = all your might, strength, intensity |
| διανοια dianoia {dee-an’-oy-ah} mind, understanding, imagination |
|
Leviticus
|
|
Matthew
|
|
Mark
|
|
Luke 10:27
|
|
19:18
|
|
22:39
|
|
12:31
|
|
|
| You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. |
|
You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments. |
|
Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.” |
|
and love your neighbor as yourself.
(Spoken by a lawyer – “scribe” – to Jesus) |
In the first set of comparisons, you may notice that in Deuteronomy the words applied to the act of love are heart, soul, and strength. The Hebrew words used to express “heart and soul” are לֵבָב (lebab) {lay-bawb’} and נֶפֶשׁ nephesh {neh’-fesh}. Both of these express the concept of the “inner man.” Lebab – heart – is the inner man’s conscience, his will, his understanding. Nephesh – soul – is an expression of being a living entity with life in the blood, the man himself. In the passages from the Gospel, I emphasized the word mind. That word does not appear in the Old Testament passages. There are about 20 or so Old Testament verses that say “with all your heart, and with all your soul.” It is an expression that signifies complete dedication and obedience. The connotation of “strength” in Deuteronomy 6:5 speaks to the idea of holding on to that dedication and obedience regardless of any pressures – temptations or forces – to “give up on God.”
The word for “mind” in these Gospel passages is διανοια dianoia {dee-an’-oy-ah} which connotes mind, understanding, imagination. I began to wonder why that word was included in the Gospels. In Mark and Luke, the word Strength is included as ἰσχύς ischus {is-khoos’} and that word connotes strength, might, ability, power, or force. That is similar to the understanding of “Strength” in Deuteronomy. Matthew leaves out “strength” but includes “mind.” How is that showing us something about Jesus’ teachings? I think it has something to do with a word we have looked at in the past: Metanoia. It is the word translated into English as “repent” or “repentance.” Jesus first declaration in his ministry was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2). In mark 1:15 this is recorded as “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” In Luke it is in the account of certain Galileans killed by Pilate, and Jesus asks if they died because they were sinners. He says, ” No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.”
We have looked at repentance often, but the look today is with the eyes of Love. “All you need is Love,” the Beatles sang to us. That’s how God sees it, too. He loves us so much – he’s crazy in love with us! – that he is eager to forgive and forget. Here’s what I mean:
In Ezekiel 33:11 God says, “Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but prefer that the wicked change his behavior and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil deeds! Why should you die, O house of Israel?'” There is the key: that the wicked change his behavior and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil deeds! Repentance is to turn around and go away from evil. ) Jesus and John the Baptist used the word μετάνοια, – metanoia. It is a change of heart, a change of mind, or a change of direction as in a one-eighty turn. A closely-related word is μετανοέω – metanoéō. Both come from the same root meanings meta – above, beyond, higher; and noein to think from nuos – mind. This metanoia is something I’ve written about often. It is important to understand that it means to move beyond where our hearts and minds are to a new paradigm, a new way of thinking and feeling and seeing everything in life. When we repent, we have a change of mind – not a renewing of mind (See Romans 1:12). Another way to think of it is we quash, break, nullify, defeat, or conquer a temptation that is repeatedly before us; we break a bad habit; we realign our values-system so that it aligns more closely with God’s values. WE make an effort to sin less even though we know we can never be sinless. Not even sin can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Beloved, there is nothing that will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. NOTHING! Especially nothing of flesh – humankind, governments, wicked rulers, terrorists, haters, deeply evil people, nor anything else in all creation; they cannot keep us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus. When we are in Christ, we are in God and the Holy Spirit is in us. Just a few verses before today’s selected text we read, – But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. (NAB – Romans 8:9)
But you see, it is not our love of God and redeems us. It is HIS love for us that makes it so! I cannot, you cannot, we cannot love God enough to earn his forgiveness! It is his Gift, a gift of LOVE. That LOVE is what makes metanoia possible. How do we find the way to do this? Is it something that is hidden? On, goodness NO! Ephesians 5:10 is one of my favorites because it was so easy: “Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.” Not far from that is Ephesians 6:13, ” Therefore, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground.” When I forget that, I lose ground. And just down the page a bit is Ephesians 6:18: “With all prayer and supplication, pray at every opportunity in the Spirit.”
Psalm 118:24 says, “This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad!” Good enough for me!! and what about that banquet prepared for us in the presence of the enemy? It is the Word which is our banquet.
Feasting on the word is great fare indeed! Come on! The banquet is ready. A table is prepared for us in the presence of that scheming old codger The Accuser. He knows The Word, too, but to him it’s poison. To you and me, it’s LIFE! Love is Life because the Eternal God is Love. That’s all we need. And yes, it really is just that simple! How do you “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength?” Accept the Gift of his love: “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
chick
About Chick Todd
American Roman Catholic reared as a "Baptiterian" in Denver Colorado. Now living on Kauaʻi. USAF Vet. Married for over 50 years. Scripture study has been my passion ever since my first "Bible talk" at age 6 in VBS.
