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Walking through Matthew 22 and Deuteronomy 6, this message unpacks what it means to love God with your whole life and how neighbor love proves it in practice. It also connects Jesus’ call to love with obedience in John 14.

What Is the Greatest Commandment? (Matthew 22:36-40)

Jesus identifies the greatest commandment as loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and the second as loving your neighbor as yourself. On these two hang all the Law and the Prophets. This is the marker that guides every other command.

The Shema: Deuteronomy 6 and All-Consuming Love

Deuteronomy 6:4-6 calls for an all-consuming love for God. Nothing is excluded. Heart, soul, mind and strength point to everyday choices and rhythms that form your life.

Heart, Soul, Mind, Strength: What “All” Looks Like

Love God With All Your Heart

In the Hebrew sense, heart includes thoughts and feelings. Loving God with all your heart means letting Scripture shape motives, desires, and reactions, especially under pressure.

Love God With All Your Soul

Soul involves your life, will, and emotions. To love God with your soul is to align habits, time, and callings with Him and to steward what flows from your life, including your closest relationships.

Love God With All Your Mind

Your life follows your thought life. Take thoughts captive, reject double mindedness, and choose a renewed, focused mind that honors God.

Love God With All Your Strength (Might)

Strength includes actions and resources. Loving God with your might includes your means and possessions. Your budget, schedule, and effort reveal what you love most.

Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

Jesus illustrates neighbor love with the Good Samaritan. Compassion is a chosen response that redirects attention from self to others. Serving others breaks self absorption and models God’s love.

Grace Empowers Obedience Not Excuses

Grace is God’s power to do His will, not a pass to ignore it. “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Conviction draws you to God for change. Keep returning, repenting, and obeying.

How to Live This Today

• Heart check: Identify one motive or reaction that needs to come under love for God. Replace it with truth from Scripture.

• Mindset audit: Note repeating thoughts that create instability. Capture them and choose what is true.

• Soul habits: Re prioritize time, media, and relationships that dull your love for God.

• Strength in action: Put love on your calendar and in your budget. Do one concrete act of neighbor love today.

Key Scriptures Referenced

Matthew 22:36-40; Deuteronomy 6:4-6; Mark 12:28-34; Luke 10:25-37; John 14:15, 21-24; John 15:12-14.

FAQs

What does it mean to love God with my mind?
Train your thought life to align with Scripture. Reject double mindedness and anxiety driven swings by choosing what is true.

Is “might” different from “mind” or “strength”?
“Might” includes your utmost effort and your material means. Different Gospel accounts emphasize the same “all” idea across heart, soul, mind, and strength.

How does self love affect neighbor love?
If you have not received God’s love, it is difficult to love yourself rightly and to love others well. Receiving God’s love fuels outward compassion.

Does grace mean I can ignore commands?
No. Grace empowers obedience. Love for Jesus shows up as keeping His word.

When you aim for the “all” standard of loving God, everything else follows. Let love direct your thoughts, words, and deeds, and let neighbor love prove the reality of your devotion.

Where to Dive In:

(00:09) The Greatest Commandment
(08:00) The Commandment to Love God
(19:09) The Call to Love God Fully
(34:19) All-Consuming Love for God
(50:25) Loving God and Neighbor Fully
(01:07:43) Radical Love and Devotion

Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

00:09 – Jaime Luce (Host)
Welcome to the Jaime Luce Podcast. Thank you for joining me today to spend some time digging into the Word. If you’re new to this podcast, what we’re about is understanding the Word of God and how do we walk out this Christian life. How do we do this according to God’s Word, and so, if you love Bible study, you are in the right place. We love to dig in and dig up all the treasures that are there to find those things that encourage us, those things that straighten us out, those things that correct us, those things that motivate us, whatever there is in this word that helps to cause our life to walk in the way that pleases the Lord and brings him glory as well as then the effects of that are that his blessing and his just, his goodness shown to us, his mercy available to us every day, his grace for living, no matter what you’re facing today, there is grace available for you to be empowered to get through, get over and accomplish whatever it is that God has set out for you to do. Today I want to be talking from. The main portion of scripture I’m going to read is Matthew 22. However, this particular Scripture that I’m going to be reading to you is found four times in Scripture, three of which are in the Gospels and one is found in the Old Testament.

01:38
So if you are one who likes to take notes, you like to go back, you want something is highlighted to you. You know I’m interesting, I love study, I love study. But when I’m listening to somebody I want to be all ears and then I’m hoping that they’ve recorded it so that I can go back and then dissect it. I don’t like to try to write and listen at the same time. I’m just not that gifted. Some people are, so gifted. I have a daughter who is just the best note taker, so gifted in it. I’m just not gifted that way. But if you’re a note taker, I encourage you to take notes, even if it’s just to jot down all the scripture references, so that way you can go back and you can look at those and see how the Holy Spirit either stirs up something that we discussed today or maybe he has something else for you to see that we didn’t see something personal for you that comes out of that. That is a word for you, a rhema word for today.

02:36
I was interested in this particular scripture because for me I am always looking it seems like it’s an endless search for me, and maybe because the scripture says that this is not our home. We’re just sojourners here, that our home is with the Lord and we’re just passing through, and I don’t know how long that journey will last. But there’s a longing in my heart that constantly pushes at me. I mean it’s like a weight, like walking around with a weighted jacket, and it’s Lord, am I pleasing you? Am I living a life that brings glory to your name? Am I making right decisions? Am I applying what you have so graciously provided in the word?

03:29
You know, the scripture says I believe it’s in 2 Peter. I could be wrong on that. It’s Peter. I’m not sure if it’s 1 Peter or 2 Peter, but he says that we have been given everything for life and godliness. Well, that’s all there is. There’s life, and then it’s our spiritual life, and he has provided for us everything we need for life and godliness. So, no matter what you’re facing, no matter what you need today, the word is your answer. Jesus is always the answer and Jesus is the Word.

04:08
Now, sometimes that comes through prayer and then we receive, we hear the Word of God preached and that ministers to us. Sometimes we’re reading the Word ourselves and we receive. Sometimes. We, you know, a person comes to us and God uses them and speaks a word to us in season, and so we can receive that with joy. But we want to, we want answers, and for me the question is always, Lord, is this am I doing right before you? Am I pleasing you? Now it’s? You don’t want to get too hung up. I’m not talking about living a life of religion. I’m not talking about the yes, you can do this and no, you can’t do that, though there will be things in your life that God says, yes, it’s okay for you to do this and no, it’s not okay for you to do that. And that’s individual, that’s a personal journey. Those things aren’t laid out as a commandment thou shalt not or thou shalt do. But we’re going to bring some clarity to that today in this. But when I read this scripture, my heart just was like, yes, that is the answer. It’s always the answer. It will always keep me on this search, but it is the answer.

05:23
And here it is Matthew 22, verses 36 to 40. And in this scripture well, should I read that to you first? Yeah, okay. So he says a scribe or a lawyer one. So in the book of Matthew it says a lawyer, and I believe it’s in well, it’s either in Mark or Luke, and it says a scribe. And maybe these are different accounts. They sound like the same account to me, just told by a different person. You know, you can be in a room with a bunch of people and you ask them each about an event and they’ll all have their version of what that event was, based off of what they heard, what they saw, where they were standing and whatnot. So it just depends on who you’re hearing it from.

06:17
But in Matthew it says that this lawyer lawyer says Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law. So I’m asking that question myself. I guess, when I’m looking to see if something pleases the Lord, I’m saying Lord, what is the greatest thing I can be doing? What? What is this the right thing? Is this the right thing? So, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? 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. This is the great and first commandment. So he’s saying that this is the ultimate of all commandments. Okay, it goes on to say. And the second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And this will become important as we talk about this. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. So Jesus is saying these two things that I have just said to you.

08:00
Everything you read in Genesis, exodus, leviticus, numbers, deuteronomy, joshua, judges, all the law and the prophets, everything they say, everything they teach, everything they’re trying to explain or show, or anything that comes about by their lives, and what we read about, what they went through and how they decided and how God acted, and what we’re supposed to learn and glean from that, all of that is wrapped up in two commandments and Jesus says the first is that you love the Lord, your God, above everything you ever do in this life, above every possible command he could ever give for you to follow. This is this, is it? This is the marker. If you hit this marker, you’ll hit all the rest. You don’t have to worry about the rest. If you hit this one, you will fulfill the others, because they all rely on this commandment Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, not just part of your heart, not the parts that isn’t reserved for family, and not the part that is reserved for, or isn’t reserved for, work or pleasure and play or study.

09:42
And you know, whatever relationships, whatever, no, he’s saying, you have to love the Lord, your God, with all of your heart. That, if you’ll allow that word to sink in a minute and think about that for yourself and think about that for yourself, I’m to love the Lord, my God, with all my heart, all that’s in my heart, all the places that maybe are laden with confusion, or all the places that I cover and protect because they’re painful, or all the places where I’m trying to hide what might be the truth, or things and sin that were there, hidden in my heart, because there is in all of us. The scripture tells us that the heart is deceitfully wicked. Who could know it? Only God knows the fullness of what’s in my heart. Only my creator knows what’s really going on.

11:03
Every motivation that I have comes from my heart, and we’re supposed to love the Lord, our God, with all that is in my heart, with all my heart. Love him above everything, above every person, above every idea, above every work, every pleasure, every pain. Love him when pain strikes or when pain is poked, or when pain is manipulated or pain is stirred up. That could be any emotion that stirs us, something that moves us, something that pushes us in our heart. If I love him above that, then that means that I can and it is possible so many. We all live our lives so many times. Acting like this isn’t possible. And this is possible. All things are possible through him. All things are possible.

12:30
But if we love him above that, then in the midst of a situation, when we’re thrust into a situation, when something is pushed onto us pushed onto us and it’s unexpected and the heart erupts, we have a choice to make. It’s a split second choice, but that choice is this I immediately remind myself I love you first, and I take and I shift my mindset, I shift my thinking and instead of allowing myself to be under whatever that feeling is or whatever that thing is that’s coming at me and this is a lifelong journey. Folks, this isn’t an I’ve arrived, okay. This is a lifelong journey. It’s that split-second decision. But in that split second, if I can make that jump, take myself out of the situation and put myself where I actually am, I am seated with Christ in heavenly places. I take that higher position of who I am in him, higher position of who I am in him, what he’s done in me, what he’s calling me to do and how he’s calling me to do it. To be able to look at that situation from that high place and from that place, determine what I’m going to say, how I’m going to respond, what actions I may or may not take, what feelings I may or may not allow myself to feel. I may come back to that, but a good example of that is the Good Samaritan.

14:21
Jesus actually, in one of the other Gospels, uses this scripture and immediately following this scripture, he teaches the importance and what this scripture is really saying by using and clarifying to the man asking because it said the scripture said that he sought to, you know, justify himself. He sought to justify what he felt and the actions he took and he wanted to feel good about who he was, instead of letting this kind of prick him in the heart. And when he asked, who’s my neighbor? Because Jesus said you know you love your neighbor as yourself, who’s my neighbor? Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan who was the neighbor, who was the one who was moved with compassion? You see, the first two who went by the Levite and the priest. They ignored the situation, they didn’t allow themselves to feel the emotion of compassion.

15:28
And sometimes that’s what we need to do. We need to take that higher position to actually choose the emotion that we’re going to allow ourselves to feel and be motivated by, and take action by selves. To feel and be motivated by and take action by instead of allowing the circumstance to press out of me an emotion under pressure, where I am not seeing myself seated in heavenly places. And all of this comes from understanding that I choose him first. I love the Lord, my God, with all my heart. Are you getting it? With all my heart, in fact, right now, why don’t you just stop and just think about your heart for a moment, the things that are popping up? You know the people, the circumstances, the choices that are popping up. Say, lord, I want your grace today. I want to love you today with all of my heart. I want to make the choice to be seated with you today, to see myself where I truly actually am as a Christian. I’m seated with you in heavenly places and I will have my steps ordered by the Lord because I will see them from the right perspective, from a love I have with you. I choose your way, I choose your sacrifice and what you’ve done for me. I choose to see today, through the love I have for you, which dictates the actions I take and the words I speak, the thoughts I allow myself to think. Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul. Wow, all your soul.

17:34
There’s a lot in our soul when you think about the soul of a person, the depth of a person, the weight of what makes up the soul of a man, our mind, our will, our emotions, all of the seat of who we are. Part of that encompasses our personality. Part of that is who were we created to be? What are the gifts and talents resident inside of us? How do I use all of that to love the Lord, my God, with all of my soul? Do I choose to love him by the music I listen to? Do I choose to love him by the company I keep? Do I choose to love him by the adventures that I go on on, the goals that I set? Am I choosing him in all the things that pertain to my life, my soul, life, my soul, the part of me that desires, the part of me that chooses the part of me that nobody else knows about.

19:09
The dreams that are in your heart, the things that have sat there for a long time, maybe dreams that have been pushed down or silenced or quieted and they aren’t dreams for dreaming’s sake, but they’re things that you’ve always felt a call to. They call to you. It’s like the Lord saying don’t forget, this is who I made you to be. Don’t forget, there’s more ahead. You’re not content right now because this isn’t what I have for you. Those things that call from deep in the soul.

19:41
Do I love the Lord, my God, with all my soul? Or do I keep parts away from that? Because that soulish area of me enjoys doing things it shouldn’t enjoy, keeps me with people I shouldn’t be around, keeps me away from the things that I should be doing? Are there habits? Are there habits? Are there pleasures? Are there things that are keeping me from the Lord? Do they keep me from a relationship? Do they hinder me? Do they steal and eat my time away? When, that time, I now say I have no more left for the Lord, it’s a clue. It’s a giant flashing light, glaring, saying if this doesn’t allow me the relationship with the Lord and the time with the Lord or the things he’s called me to, if they stop me or hinder me, or when faced with a choice, do I do this or do I do this, and I choose the thing that isn’t what God is choosing for me. That is a clear indication I am not loving the Lord, my God, with all my soul.

21:07
And here’s the crazy thing, because we so often think, yeah, I love the Lord. I mean, there’s not one Christian that I know that I talk to, that wouldn’t right off the bat say, oh, I love Jesus, oh, I just love Jesus. But there is criteria that prove you love somebody. We throw around that word love for a lot of things. You can love hot dogs. You can love your favorite pair of pajamas. You can love a certain TV show. You can love sleeping in. You can love watching. You know football. You can love a lot of things, and what that means is you have great affection for them, and some of them you love them so much you actually give your time and attention to them instead of giving your time and attention to other things. But we don’t take seriously enough what Jesus said. I’m not telling you to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind. Jesus is Jesus, the one we say. We love Jesus, his word. Now we have a bigger problem if we don’t actually believe what Jesus said, if we try to fall back on. Oh God, you know.

22:32
Thank God for grace, yeah, thank God for grace, but grace is not an excuse ticket. Grace is a power ticket. Grace is the enabler that causes me to be able to do the very thing he’s called me to do, not the thing that excuses me from doing it. That’s not grace. Grace is the empowerer. It is not the excuser. I don’t have a get out of jail free card because of grace. I have the power. I have a ticket that buys me the power to be able to do what God’s called me to do, in his strength and not my own. With his purpose, with his stamina, with his eyesight, with his mindset. It enables me to do what I could never do without him. To access that ability and use it is to actually obey these commands, not an excuse to not obey them. To not obey them.

23:54
We need to love the Lord, our God, with all our heart, and I know this can be very convicting, you know what’s even scary, because conviction is a beautiful thing. Conviction means the Holy Spirit is saying hey, I’m dealing with you about this. Hey, time to pay attention, time to pay attention. I’m giving you the warning signs, I’m giving you time because he’s long suffering. He’s long suffering, he is. But you know, the word says that the Holy Spirit will come and speak to us and come and speak to us and come and speak to us. But if we keep ignoring him and keep dismissing him not today, not today, not today the scripture tells us that the voice of the Holy Spirit then will get quieter and quieter and there will come a point when you won’t hear him anymore, that your conscience will actually be seared, that you’ll no longer think you need to ever do that thing or change that thing. You will have so justified yourself. I mean, this is so scary that you will have justified yourself right out of obedience and relationship with the Lord. And people look for ways to justify themselves every day. In fact, we all do it. We need the beautiful conviction of the Holy Spirit to say, hey, you know, I told you not to do that. You know this is dangerous. You know, if you keep going down this road, trouble is ahead. This is not the way I have chosen for you. This will not end well.

25:42
So many times in the Old Testament, during the judges, the time of the judges, and it was said, man did what was right in his own eyes. It wasn’t what God said. He did right what was in his own eyes and it brought them trouble and pain and loss. It brought nothing good, nothing good good. That’s why the scripture says that the road is narrow and few there be that find it Few Because they’re not looking. They want a road that’s wide. They want every excuse. They don’t want to truly love the Lord.

26:37
When you really love somebody, you sacrifice. When you really love somebody, you do things to please them, even if it doesn’t bring you any pleasure at all. My husband recently did something and I know he didn’t want to do it at all, not at all did something and I know he didn’t want to do it at all, Not at all, and he did it for me because I wanted to do it. That’s love, that’s sacrifice we have to show. It’s not even that you have to. It will show what you love will be evident. And Jesus says love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, your mind.

27:23
There’s a lot wrapped up in our heads. We have a lot of thoughts, a lot of thoughts, and so many times those thoughts can take us in a. Well, they do take us in a million directions, some of them in good directions, some of them in possible directions, some of them in creative directions, some of them in painful directions, some of them in damaging places, in places that are harmful to us and places that cause because your thought life is where your life will go. It’s the how you think dictates what you do. Therefore, you are led in your life by your thoughts. So if and it’s why Paul taught so beautifully about taking every thought captive because if you don’t, if you don’t take control of your own mind, you are open to every thought.

28:34
And the scripture is clear I believe it’s in James, and he says that a double, you’ll be a double-minded man, you will be unstable in all your ways that no matter what wind of doctrine comes, no matter what thing you hear, no matter what anything, you’re just tossed about to and fro. There’s no peace in your life and it’s constant anxiety, and it’s one storm to the next and you’re hopping from here to there and you have no roots anywhere and everything’s trouble. You are double-minded. One day you think this, the next day you think that there’s no stability in your life. The thought life is so important. And he says love the Lord, your God. This is Jesus talking. Love the Lord, your God, with all of your mind, all of your mind, what you think when nobody else can hear your thoughts. But remember, god hears your thoughts. There are many places in Scripture where Jesus said he knew what they were thinking and then he spoke according to what he knew they were thinking. It also says he didn’t trust himself to any man because he knew what was in their heart.

29:39
You cannot fool people. You can fool the closest people to you. You can never fool God. You can never fool him. He knows what you’re thinking. He knows what you’re contemplating, he knows what confuses you, he knows what upsets you. He knows how you think about and what your process is to deal with circumstances Meaning. Process is to deal with circumstances Meaning you know some people like to manipulate. They come up with these very conniving ways to think and to speak to people, to manipulate them, to get what they want from them for usury or for gain on them, or for power and position position, folks, we have to take seriously this question and really ask ourselves am I loving the Lord? Do I really love him? I mean, I know that I believe I’m saved, but my life bears out, whether I actually made that decision or not, my life and my decisions will bear out.

30:52
Now, I’m not saying that we would be perfect. We will make mistakes along the way. In fact, it will be a mistake we make and the love that we have for the Lord lets that conviction come and we are drawn to him, because conviction draws you to the Lord. If you feel like you can’t go to the Lord, that is condemnation. Condemnation. And condemnation is when you feel condemned already and you’re so guilty that you can no longer approach God. You can no longer approach God. You feel like your guilt is forever, and the scripture tells us that there is therefore now no condemnation in Christ. He doesn’t come to condemn you. He comes to say I have a better way. I love you, accept my way, you accept my way, and if we love him, if we really love him, then we will do things that please him. We will make the adjustments We’ll want to. It changes your want to. Now.

32:02
Sometimes we mess up in our want to and we’ll get it wrong. We may have tried and we didn’t quite get it right. That’s great. Get up. A righteous man falls seven times. He gets back up. We get back up. We try again. We say, lord, I messed that up, I’m so sorry. Help me, father, to be in your word more. Cause me to have ears that hear. Let me see what I need to see. I want to receive more strength, more grace, to do it right the next time, and we will have endless opportunities. We will have endless opportunities. We will get it wrong. I hope I’m not. I don’t. Please don’t feel condemned. I’m saying this, though, because this is our reset point. We need to know if we’re thinking right or wrong thoughts, and we need to know if we’re making right or wrong decisions.

32:55
And am I loving the Lord Because I do love him? How much do I love him? Or am I loving myself more? Do I love this world more? Loving myself more Do I love this world more?

33:13
Jesus had some sad words for the one who loved this life more we can fall away and we can love this life more. This very issue was brought up by someone who wanted to follow Christ and Jesus said follow me. And they said well, can I first? I want to go first and bury my first. I want to go first and bury my father, I want to go first and sell this property. Or I just got married and they want to go have life first and then think they’re going to come in at the end and then choose God. But they don’t realize you need him for those things, not after those things. You need him for those things. And they go away sad. The rich young ruler went away sad, and you won’t ever have real joy if you walk away from him, if you don’t choose him above those things, above, we need to seek the Lord’s heart, and by seeking his heart we then can receive all of the benefits of this beautiful relationship and all that he’s provided in salvation for us.

34:19
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35:14
This question that was posed to Jesus is so important. It’s so important for our lives that, like I mentioned at the beginning, that it is recorded four places in Scripture, and three of them are in the New Testament. But before I read those accounts to you, I want to read the very first place that this is mentioned, and that’s in Deuteronomy 6. And then I want to show you something about that that I read and I’ll show you where I got that as well, in case you would like to look that up but Deuteronomy, chapter 6, verse. I’m going to start with 4, and we’re going to read four through six Hear O Israel, the Lord, our God. The Lord is one. You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your soul and with all your might, and don’t be confused. I know I just said might versus mind. Give me a minute and these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. He’s saying keep this command and these words. Now he gave them a whole lot that he told them that day. But he says keep it on your heart and this particular recording the Jewish people would quote this at certain times and it was a prayer that they would recite at certain times.

37:10
And it was a prayer that they would recite at certain times and it’s called the Shema. I think I’m saying that, right, the Shema and this prayer. I knew that this was quoted at the beginning and I was so curious about it that I did some digging and I came across this article from Brandeis University. I’m going to show it to you because I don’t know if I’m going to say that right. Brandeis University, and this particular gentleman who wrote what I’m going to read to you. His name is Reuven Kimmelman.

37:39
I think I’m saying that, right, reuven Kimmelman, and he’s a professor of classical rabbinic literature, and he said that the Shema summons Jews to feel an all-consuming love of God, that when they pray this, they are praying it because it is to cause them to remember and feel, to feel an all-consuming love. All-consuming Isn’t that what we’re talking about? All of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind. Now, right here it said might. There’s a reason for that, and in the other passages where we read it, it’ll say might or it’ll say mind and it’ll say strength. So it’s the idea of all of them. It’s that that idea is encompassed all your heart, all your mind, your sorry, all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and your strength or might. Okay, so let me read to you some portions of what he said.

38:51
This all-consuming love of God, it’s a love that is unreserved, all-demanding. I loved that and I know that for some people that will put them off because they think you mean God demands something of me, what this is speaking of is that real love will demand from you. Real love is all-encompassing on what it will demand from you. Think about the love of parents for a child. It takes all their strength, it takes all their energy, it takes all their resources, everything. It’s all consuming, it’s all demanding, it’s at all times. So, regardless of when, regardless of if it’s convenient, regardless of if it’s in the middle of the night, regardless if it’s if you’re sick, regardless of if you’re going through a trial, regardless of what the circumstance is, this love should always be present.

39:52
This all-consuming love for God should, which is unreserved, all demanding and is at all times and in all places, no matter where you are. This is why you find missionaries who are in prisons, christians who are being fought in court systems, people who are being all of those in the countries right now, whether you’re in the Sudan or whether you’re all of these countries where Christians are being beheaded and slaughtered and killed and martyred for the sake of loving Jesus. No matter where, in all places and in all circumstances, no matter if this is easy to do or not, no matter if it costs you or not. In all circumstances, this is a love of God and he said that nothing is excluded. So by saying you love him with all your heart, all your soul, all your might or all your strength or all your mind, what you’re saying is nothing is excluded. There is no place that I can carve away and say this belongs to me only. I have met people who call themselves Christians. They go to church on Sunday, they can talk a little talk, but their life outside of the church doesn’t look anything like God, nothing at all.

41:32
Thoughts, this kind of love, this is I’m still reading this what he says love is. And he says this is I’m still reading this what he says love is, and he says nothing is excluded. Thoughts are to be focused. Now, to have a focused thought. You know, the older we get, it can be harder, but thoughts are to be focused, words are to be spoken and for someone who, like I think I’ve shared this before that I tend to be somebody who doesn’t like to confront, you know, I don’t, I don’t. That’s not my favorite thing to do and I’m I’ve learned that I have to do that and there are times when I have done that. I haven’t aced that. I’m still working on that, but in my abilities or in my attempts to do that.

42:18
There are things sometimes that you have to say, and it’s the same idea In our culture. There are words that need to be spoken. We need to be saying what’s in this Bible. We can’t be shying away or cutting parts out or saying the culture doesn’t want to hear that. I don’t care if they want to hear it or not. This is the one thing we can’t be afraid of. This is what God says. There are major ministries out there, major ministries well known, worldwide known, and when confronted with very difficult questions, they will shy away and not answer. They won’t answer what the Bible says and they’re actually going to be held accountable for that. We have to say, we have to stand up and say I actually watched a little interview clip of.

43:04
I believe his name is John Rich. He’s a country singer and he was being interviewed and he was talking about when he first had pressure put on him to conform to what the culture wanted him to do and his record label wanted him to conform and not do interviews with certain people and not say certain things. Don’t talk about certain subjects and you can talk about this. In fact, we want you to talk about this. They wanted to control everything about him. And when he began to do interviews with people they didn’t like, they really put the pressure on and came after him and at that same time, another gentleman I think his name his last name is Aldine he’s another country music artist His wife was attacked for something that she either posted or said that was not, culturally, what they wanted to hear from them.

43:50
And he had a choice to make. And he went to John Rich and asked him what should I do? What should I do? And he said you better come out swinging and tell the truth, because people will be with you. Those who are with you will be with you. You can’t stand down. You can’t, you can’t bow to this thing. It’ll ruin your life. You’ve got to do it and he did. And now his success has more than doubled because he did the right thing. We have to be those. There sometimes are words that have to be spoken and deeds that are to be done. Our love for God, our all-encompassing love for God, nothing excluded, all-consuming love for God, will demand that we have thoughts that are focused, words that are spoken and deeds that are done.

44:48
I wanted to read one more thing on this. Let me see if I can find it quickly for you. Let me see if I can find it quickly for you. Okay, yes, this verse is a three-fold demand to love God. It serves as the opening for a miniature manual on the art of loving, for a miniature manual on the art of loving. Acting out the behaviors of love promotes the corresponding feelings of love. Going through the motions fosters the corresponding emotions. So let’s look real quickly. I’m going to take some of his notes here. Look at these different things that it says separately. We’ll break down the verse separately.

45:50
So, with all your heart, that word and I’ll probably pronounce this wrong, but it’s spelled L-E-I-V, that is the Hebrew word for your heart. In the Bible, that word leave can refer to both thought and feeling. So this is about your mind and your thoughts. So, even though in this particular scripture that I read, he didn’t say mind, that’s actually referred to in the heart, their mind, and it means both thought and feeling. So with all your heart entails being totally mindful of God’s teachings and accepting them wholeheartedly and unreservedly. He’s saying that what this actually means to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart is that you are very mindful of the scriptures, meaning you are someone of the word. You make sure you know what the word says. You love him enough that you read his word.

46:54
I could say that I love my husband, but if he wrote me love letters and I never read them, I don’t love him. If I don’t care what he says, I don’t love him. If I love him, I care what he says. It’s the only way for me to know what’s inside this, what’s in his mind, what’s in his thoughts is what he’s written here. So I am to love him and be mindful, totally mindful of God’s teachings and accepting them wholeheartedly. I don’t get to read something and say, well, that was for then. You know that doesn’t really fit. For now that you know our culture does different, our culture says different and so we just do it different now it doesn’t matter. God’s you know gracious, he lets us, it’s okay.

47:44
There are many who think this way and it’s a completely false way of thinking and it’s not loving Christ at all. It’s a very worldly, selfish, unyielding. You’re not actually living surrendered. You’re unyielding. You’re holding to what you want and not yielding to what God is calling you to. So, being totally mindful of God’s teachings and accepting them wholeheartedly. I accept this teaching. If God says I’ll give you one, if God says the homosexuality is wrong, then you have to accept that wholeheartedly. I’m sorry. It doesn’t mean that you are not loving and kind to someone. It doesn’t mean that you don’t want to tell them the truth of God’s word and pray for them, for deliverance, for healing whatever wounds are in their heart and in their mind, for their bodies to be healed. We pray, we love, we care about them for their bodies to be healed. We pray, we love, we care about them. That’s the good Samaritan, that’s loving my neighbor. But we do it in such a way that we have spoken truth. It goes back to certain words have to be spoken. I accept this word wholeheartedly and unreservedly by using a single term for thought and feeling being the heart. Both mind and emotion are enlisted in an all-consuming love.

49:04
Okay, now let’s go on to with all your soul, possessing both biological and psychological elements. The word used for soul here is either nepesh or nefesh I’m not sure, or am I saying that right at all? And that constitutes self or one’s life force, meaning you’re in your soul, what gives you life, all your life, all your source. It goes even further than that. It. It goes further than just the self and it means connecting to the children, which is actually mentioned later in the prayer. Part of the scripture that I didn’t finish it talks about you’ll teach this to your children meaning that I am to love the Lord with with all of my soul right, all of my soul, and in loving him with all my soul. That means that everything that comes from me, all of my life force, so that means my children. They come from me, so I love him so much that I pour him out to my children and I teach my children these ways. Part of loving your soul is raising your children in a godly manner. Who knew right. Very important.

50:25
The expression connotes a personhood that includes one’s self, with all of who you are and one’s progeny, your children are, and one’s progeny, your children. It’s with your utmost. So the word that I read you was all your might, and that word might actually means your utmost, your everything, your mayode, I think, is how it’s pronounced M-E, apostrophe-ish, whatever they call that, mark O-D, and it has a double meaning. First, it means your might, suggesting you must love the Lord with all your strength. And other versions of the scripture which I’ll read to you say that. Second, it connotes financial means. Shocker right, shocker right Newsflash, when he is actually teaching them to love them with all of their might, their utmost. He’s also saying to them this word actually means your financial means, suggesting that you must love the Lord with all of your wealth and possessions. Suggesting that you must love the Lord with all of your wealth and possessions. So, for those who don’t give, if you’re not a giver, you’re not loving him with all of your heart, you’re not loving him with all of your might, you’re not truly, you’re not following his command. To say that God does not require that of us. That you’re just wrong. You’re just wrong. The scripture says it and that’s what the word means.

52:14
This is the basis for why they would recite this prayer twice a day, twice a day, to remind themselves. Twice a day. Imagine if you recited this twice a day with that understanding Twice a day, just twice a day. I love you, lord, with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, or my might and my strength, all of it. I love you with all of it. If I reminded myself of that just twice a day, that is supposed to stir up in me all the love that I have, which strengthens me to do exactly that, to act out with those focused thoughts, those actions that I’m taking, the words that need to be spoken, the choices I need to make. Those things will happen and they will happen from a seat of love that I’ve taken that higher position. Let me just read to you the same scripture in Mark, chapter 12. This is verse 28 through 34.

53:16
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another and, seeing that he answered them well, asked him which commandment is the most important of all? What is the most important thing I can do for God? Jesus answered the most important is this, answered the most important is this hear, o Israel, the Lord, our God. The Lord is one, 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. So he said it in the explanation of what those words meant in Hebrew. The second is this you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.

54:12
Wow, okay, let’s go over to Luke, chapter 10. We’re going to read verses 25 through 28. And behold, a lawyer stood up and put him to the test, saying Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him what is written in the law? How do you read it? So first he’s testing him. Do you even know? Do you love the Lord to know his scripture? Do you know what the word says? I mean, we read that explanation that I it’s all consuming and that I’m expected to know his word. And he answered you. Jesus said to him and this is actually the portion. But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus and who is my neighbor? And Jesus explained who his neighbor was. That takes us into this.

55:32
The second portion of this scripture is to love your neighbor as yourself. Because loving our neighbor, jesus is saying you will show that you have loved me, that you understand what loving me looks like, what loving me looks like, and that understanding that you have will be evidenced by how you love others. And you know it’s interesting, because people who don’t love themselves are not very kind to other people. They misjudge other people, they attack the wrong people. If you don’t love yourself, you won’t know how to love other people. So you first have to deal with that. Those are areas of the heart. That’s loving the Lord enough to say, lord, you created me in your image. That’s loving the Lord enough to say, lord, you created me in your image and you love me. That means I am worthy of your love, based off of what you have done for me, not what I am of my own, not decisions that I’ve made, but based off of who he is and what he’s done. I have to receive his love in salvation so that I can love myself. So if I can’t love other people, I have to question my salvation, because if I don’t love myself, then I have not received his love. I might say I love him, but I can only be if I’m, if I don’t love myself.

57:25
What usually happens is we get caught up. The human nature is if you don’t love yourself, you get caught up in a horrible, tangly mess of only having thoughts about yourself. They’re they’re pitiful thoughts. You are the victim always. You only see your life from yourself inward. You don’t ever have vision that sees outside of yourself, that sees other people and their needs. In fact, one way to deal with getting your mind off of yourself is to go serve others, and it removes that weight of looking at yourself. It’s why they say going and doing such things actually makes depressed people feel better if they’ll go do something for somebody else because they get so caught up in thinking about themselves and they dig themselves a hole. I mean they build walls too high to climb and dig pits too deep to get out of because they refuse to look outward. They remain inside and this understanding helps us.

58:19
Loving my neighbor will be, if I truly love God and it’s affecting what I think and how I think and the actions I take and the words I speak and the focus that I allow my mind to think on. That will affect completely every single person I come in contact with. So they naturally go together. If I love the Lord, my God, with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength, with all my mind, I will love my neighbor as myself. And here’s the tricky lie, because we’ll say we don’t love ourselves, right, we’ll say we hate ourselves. We’ll say we hate that we do that. We’ll hate certain aspects of what we do and we hate that we did. We’ll say we hate that we do that. We’ll hate certain aspects of what we do and we hate that we did certain things and we hate, that we feel certain ways and we get all down on that and we think we don’t love ourselves. But here’s the truth. Many people who say those kind of things will also make sure that if they’re hungry, they eat and they choose to eat what they want to eat. They pick what they want to eat. They go participate in the activity they want.

59:21
If they’re an addictive person, if they have addictive behaviors, they might have addiction problems and they will go and do whatever they can. Okay, this is I hope you can see this Someone who is addicted, let’s say, to a very strong drug and their body feels pain and they are in so much pain that they go do whatever it takes, no matter if it’s to steal, harm somebody. They act out in behaviors that they detest and do things in order to attain the drug, to take that drug. Here’s the lie of the enemy you actually do love yourself, because if you didn’t love yourself, you’d allow yourself to feel pain. Right, you don’t want to feel pain. The reason you’re going to get that drug is because you care about yourself and you don’t want to feel that anymore.

01:00:15
Now, you didn’t love yourself the way you should so that you didn’t end up in that addictive behavior. You didn’t love yourself enough to not participate in a certain behavior, but you were loving yourself in some way that you allowed yourself to. So you know whether that was. If you started a certain thing because somebody was putting pressure on you, well then you loved the affection of that person more than you loved yourself, and yet you loved yourself. I know this sounds like a crazy wheel, but this is how the enemy gets us in these crazy cycles. But you loved yourself enough because you actually wanted their approval. So the price to you of getting their approval was worth what you paid.

01:01:02
We have to face the truth of what the thought processes are in our head and why we’re doing what we’re doing. I can’t remain in those places and think that my life will go any differently if I don’t make those changes necessary. But those changes are only truly possible if we truly love God, because we have to come out from that position of God first. If I love him first everything else will fall in line. Everything else will become clear. Everything else will make itself known the direction we need to take. We need to take.

01:02:04
I was puzzled I’ll end with this. I was puzzled when I saw that this particular passage was repeated in three of the four Gospels and I thought surely it would be in the book of John. I mean John’s John, the Beloved John is the one who was laying on Jesus’s chest at the Last Supper. He’s the one who was always leaning close and wanting to hear the heart of God. Surely he would have said this, but then I realized he did. He just, instead of quoting the scripture, he taught its fullness and its meaning. So I will end with this Go to John 14, and we’ll start with verse 15, which says this is Jesus talking.

01:02:43
If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Now we just have been diving deep on what is the most important commandment. This isn’t just the great suggestion. It’s called a commandment for a reason, and Jesus was questioned on a commandment. It means just that you are commanded. That’s why what I read you said demands it’s a command. It’s an actual command. To obey commands means I have submitted my life, I lay down my life, I give you authority over my life. I now serve you, jesus, so you give the commands and I walk out my life in obedience to those commands. That is Christianity, I mean. I know that people like to make it look like it’s. You know this religion and it’s this fluffy way of living life and loving everybody and everything, and that’s not Christianity. That’s not Christianity.

01:03:52
Jesus came and made disciples and then he said you go, make disciples. There are commands we follow and I have to if I’m going to love the Lord, my God, with all my heart. I have to accept that that’s what his word says, wholeheartedly. That’s what we read, that’s what I was telling you. This all makes sense, but we have to choose to actually believe this with our whole heart and then live it. It’s a game changer, if you will. It’s a complete game changer.

01:04:23
But it takes that commitment, it takes that real understanding and love for the Lord. It takes a real understanding of what he did for you and the condition that you were in without him. And your love for him causes you to completely give yourself in thanks because you, without him, you were doomed not just here, but for eternity. You were damned to hell without him. That’s just the truth and we can think, yeah, I’m a good person. No, you don’t understand. Then Then you don’t understand the sin nature and you don’t understand yet. And if you don’t, I pray that you ask him for understanding that he can show you and that you will.

01:05:08
You will choose to look with his eyes and see as he sees. I mean he clearly when, when Samuel went to go anoint David, he didn’t know it was David and he thinks it’s Eliab. And then he thinks it’s the different ones because of how they look. And God specifically told Samuel I don’t see how man sees, I don’t look and see the way you see. I look at someone’s heart. I don’t look at their stature, I don’t look at their outside, I don’t look at what they’ve done. I know what’s going on in their heart. That’s what I look at, and we have to be able to see things the way God sees them in order for us to see truth and to make right decisions. Samuel would have made the wrong choice and anointed the wrong person, but he subjected his will in obedience to God and chose according to what God saw, what God’s idea was, what God wanted done.

01:06:03
Okay, look at in John 14,. I want you to also look at verse 21. And it says whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. You love me if you keep these commandments. Verse 23,. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. Verse 24, whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And then, lastly, john 15, verses 12 to 14. This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. This is the love your neighbor as yourself portion. Have loved you. This is the love your neighbor as yourself portion. Greater love has no one than this that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.

01:07:12
You know there’s a song that we used to sing in the church I am a friend of God. I am a friend of God. And the truth is we don’t get to say I’m his friend. It’s he who says we are his friends and he determines if we are his friends based off of if we obey his commands. I don’t get to just say God’s my buddy, he’s my friend. No, we don’t get to say that he determines who his friends are.

01:07:43
So I say to us today love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Let me pray for you, father. I just I feel your presence and I’m so grateful for your word. I’m so grateful that you allowed us to know your heart, how to please you. You gave everything for us. You sacrificed everything for us, created everything for us, have been so good to us. How could we but love you with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all our mind and all our strength?

01:08:45
Father, I ask today that, as these words take root in the hearts of the hearers, that, lord, you would strengthen them by your grace and mercy, that, if they are feeling conviction, father, that your beautiful presence swoops in and covers them, that they know they can turn to you and all can be made right, that you are merciful and long-suffering and so good, so faithful, always ever-present, never leaving us alone, always ever-present, never leaving us alone. Father, give us your eyesight today that we are able to see how to do this very thing and to love you the way you so deserve. Let it change our thoughts and our actions, our feelings and our motivations, o God, let us love one another, let us truly be your disciples and follow your commandments, and as we do, I thank you that your blessings follow. Be with each one today, throughout their day, empowering them, bringing answers and clarification and the way they should walk, and we will give you all the glory In Jesus’ name. We pray Amen.

01:10:03
Thank you again for taking time with me today. If this was a blessing to you, I encourage you to like and subscribe. You could also send this to someone who may need to hear this today. I pray this totally was an encouragement to you. It was to my heart and again, I’m grateful that you spent time with me today. If you’d like to send me a praise report or a prayer request, I do want to hear them both and I would love to pray with you about it. You can email me at mail at Jaime, or you can visit me at my website, Jaime, and find every way to contact me or other resources that we have available for you there. It was my pleasure being