10 Ways On How To Love God

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)

Hi everybody, now let me break down the above scripture. There are key terms in this scripture heart, soul, strength and mind. To love God you need to understand what they mean. The message bible puts them in this way…

He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbour as well as you do yourself.” (Luke 10:27) MSB

What I see from the message bible is the interpretation of the words heart to passion, soul to prayer strength to muscle and mind to intelligence. Let’s study these words in their ancient origins and get to know what they actually mean. It’s important I lay a foundation in order for one to know how to love God the right way.

Now let’s begin with the word heart in greek (kardia) does not refer to the physical organ but is always used figuratively in Scripture to refer to the seat and centre of human life. The heart is the centre of the personality, and it controls the intellect, emotions, and will.

For example, no outward obedience is of the slightest value unless the heart turns to God. The kardia is the seat and centre of human life and is often referred to as the “control centre” if you will of our being. Others say it is the subconscious mind in other words it controls 95% of what we do on daily basis.

Christ goes ahead and says For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. Before this scripture, he says But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a man. So in loving God the heart has to be set right.

The HolySpirit can only do this. He has the power to transform your heart into loving God. I pray for anyone reading this post that God will begin to transform your heart via his Spirit.

The next component is the soul. The Greek word is ψυχή, psuche it has several meanings including the intellectual part of a person, the breath of life, and moral being designed for everlasting life. One of the bible scriptures to support this is (Psalms 103:1)

“Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! It is the soul that gets to remain after one dies. The soul lives forever while the body passes away.

Look at this scripture… And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.“ – Matthew 10:28.

Now, what’s the understanding here Jesus came to save us and he did! So your soul has to be saved through Christ. In loving God your soul has to be immersed in Christ to know the things of God. This is what he says in this part of the verse…

But the natural man receiveth, not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

What about strength, this is the powerful force, virtue and might. Does this strength come from us ourselves? not really. The strength Christ is speaking about is the power of the HolySpirit in us that makes us love God. God can’t let us do things in his kingdom without him empowering us.

Look at this scripture to support this

for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13) meaning your strength power or dunamis! is coming from him. Don’t work in the kingdom without God’s Power.

Lastly is the mind. The message bible interprets the word mind as intelligence. So your thoughts and feelings should reflect on Christ. For he says, we have the mind of Christ.  As well we have been given a sound mind! Remember Christ never meant we were going to love him without him giving us a way to do so.

The mind of the HolySpirit becomes our mind. He says For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. (Romans 8:7)

There you have it. Hope you have been blessed. Please comment below and let me hear your thoughts.