"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. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Matthew 22: 37-39
Several years ago, before Bible search engines were available to us, I began marking the word "heart" in my Bible. A quick Bible word search boasts of 917 times that the word "heart" occurs in Scripture. Even though I can't flip too many pages without seeing a red outline of the word "heart" in my Bible, I am fairly certain that I have not found all 917 occurrences.
Why is this term so important to us as Christians? In general usage, the word "heart" often refers to the core of a person, the center, but also makes a large brush stroke to include emotions, intellect, personality, will, and relationship with God. In Scripture, we see that in the heart resides good, evil, grief, integrity, questions, gladness, hardness, fear, generosity, stirrings, courage, pain, obstinance, trust, and knowledge. Most importantly, our heart is how we are to love God and others with ALL of our hearts.
In Matthew 22, the Pharisees, still trying to entangle Jesus with His own words, sent a lawyer to question Him about which was the greatest commandment. Jesus answered with the great commandment that we are to love the Lord God with ALL our heart and soul and mind, and also to love our neighbor as ourselves. Further, all the Law and Prophets, all the rules they were adhering to at the time, depended on these two commands: to love God and others with ALL our heart.
This verse first occurs in Deuteronomy 6:4-9, often referred to as the Shema, which the Israelites prayed daily and is still recited by Jewish people today. In this passage of Scripture, we also learn that these words are to be ON our heart--meaning in everything we do, every day.
Jesus makes this sound so easy and simple, but how do we love with ALL our heart? As the Shema states, "With ALL our heart" is to teach Scripture to our children, to talk of them as we sit in our homes, as we walk through each day, as we lie down and as we rise, as we walk with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. (Ephesians 4).
I have been a Christ follower and loving God and others since I was a child, and I'm still not sure I fully understand "with ALL my heart". But, this I do understand: because of Jesus, in His life, death, and resurrection, God made the way for us to love Him and others. He fully understands my heart, and until I meet Him face to face, I will continue to grow my heart for Him.
