Wisdom Wednesday: The Mind of Wisdom–Part 1
The Greatest Commandment
Submitted by Debbie’s Dad
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 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 foremost commandment. Mt 22:36–38..”(NASB 95)
Speaking in the temple at Jerusalem to a large crowd, including religious leaders that were challenging Him, Jesus answered a question from a lawyer. The lawyers, also called scribes in some translations, were those who were schooled in the Law of Moses and could interpret and apply the law to questions of theology and practical life. They were the leaders that expounded the Law in the Synagogue and wrestled with thorny questions; their interpretations were considered to be authoritative by the Jewish leadership.
This lawyer asked Jesus to select out one commandment as the greatest–to rank order the commandments by defining one above all others. Jesus responded with two commands in order:
- First – is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and mind. (v. 37)
- Second – is to love your neighbor as yourself (v. 39, cf. Lev. 19:18)
Rather than rank order the 10 commandments, Jesus gave two categories. The first category encompasses the first five of the commandments that focus on the acknowledgement and fear of the Lord (wisdom), while the second category focuses on the second five commandments that relate to other humans–our neighbors,
Today we want to examine the three areas where we are to love the Lord our God. We are to love Him in three areas or capacities:
- Heart–This is the center of our will, our “inner man”. Earlier, Jesus described the heart as the center of our sinful nature, the source of outward thoughts and ultimately physical, bodily actions. (See Jesus’ explanation to His disciples in Mark 7:14-23 where He described that problem with the outward religious behaviors that were for show, but not genuinely derived from a man’s heart.)
- Soul- This speaks to our life itself, our being, personage, or conscious self. It is distinguished from our temporal physical body. Jesus said, “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.’ (Matt 10:28).
- Mind – And this is our capacity for thought, or cognition. It is our intellect, memory, and the thinking process that we associate with our brain.
In the next parts of this series of articles, we examine the role and the means of loving God with our mind – the things we bring into our thought process: the things we expose our senses to, the things we learn, the things we “think about”, the things we articulate. These “things” are concepts – abstract representations, ideas, intentions, plans, and objects in our minds.
Paul expressed the importance of expressing our love for God in our mind by controlling our thought-life: (2 Cor. 10:4-6)
… for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.
The wise mind is the mind controlled by the heart, renewed by God’s Spirit and applied to the fear and love of the Lord. In the next parts of this series, we will examine the many aspects of loving God with our mind.