What does loving God really mean?

Mar 12:30  And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 

What does loving God really mean? The Greek word for "love" used in this first commandment is the verb “agapao”. As can be gathered from the verse above, to "agapao" God means to totally give ourselves over to Him —“with all our heart and with all our soul, with all our entire mind, and with all our strength.”  God requires a total commitment of our wills and our lives.

What does it mean to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? The word here for “all” in Greek is “holos”, and it means, “all, altogether, every whit, throughout, whole” (Strong’s Greek Definition). This means if we were to draw a pie chart for each one of them, the heart, soul, mind, and strength, each of these would show 100%, a full pie, of which we should love God with.

Now, if I asked you, “Do you love God”? Most of you would automatically say, “Yes, of course I do!” But how much do you love God? Yes, there are degrees of love. Remember Jesus asked Peter: “Lovest thou me more than these?” (John 21:15). We can say we love God but how much if we compare it to some other things in our lives? Do we love God more than our jobs? Do we love God more than our wealth?

How should we love God?

1. With all our HEART – A spiritual relationship with God begins from within, the heart. But how can someone love another person from the heart whom he has never seen? He can, when he knows how much that person has loved him and done for him. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

2. With all our SOUL - The “soul” refers to one’s whole being as a living person. It means our lives are centred on honouring Him. Paul summarises it in these few words: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). To love God with all our soul is to live for Him. It means our entire being is to display that we love God. “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

3. With all our MIND – How often is God in your mind? Do you remember God only on Sunday mornings? Remember the time when you were in courtship? Whose face kept your mind busy? Wow, her face appeared when you woke up, walked, ate, worked, played, and slept. Can you love God the same way? Is God in your thoughts daily when you wake up, walk, eat, work, play and sleep? Do a check: What occupy your thoughts daily? Do you spend time communicating with God? Do you pray whenever you have the time? (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Indeed, to love God with all our mind is to be daily focusing on Him. “But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:2).

4. With all our STRENGTH – The word “strength” means “ability, force, strength, might” (Thayer Definition). In 2 Kings 23:25 we are told that King Josiah “turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might.” It means he put in the greatest zeal and effort to walk with God. When you see your child pinned down by a very heavy object, you will use all your strength and every inch of muscle that is in your body to lift up that heavy object. Likewise, the Christian life is not easy. There will be lots of temptations and distractions. Therefore, one must put in his greatest effort, with all his might, strength, and energy, to complete this race. “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” (Hebrews 12:1).

We see that loving God means no longer living for ourselves. To live for self is self-love. How often do we seek to put His will and His desires above our own? How often are we consumed with what He wants for our life and not what we want out of life? If Jesus were to ask us: “Lovest thou me more than these?” What will our answer be? Can we honestly say that we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength?

Jimmy Lau

Psa 119:97  Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.