Loving God With Our Whole Heart

“’Hear, O Israel: The LORD (Jahovah/Yahweh, The Self-Existent One; the Ever Present One) our God (Elohim—Creator), the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.’” Deut. 6:4-5

“Jesus answered him, ‘The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love (agapao) the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength (ability, force, might).' This is the first commandment.” Mark 12:29-30

What is God requiring of us in this great command?

The Hebrew word used for love in Deuteronomy 6:4-5 embodies a sense of intimacy.

The Greek word used for love in Mark 12:29-30 is the word agapao, the verb form of the noun agape. Agapao is a demonstration of love by choice, by an act of the will; an unconditional love demonstrated by an undefeatable benevolence and unconquerable goodwill that always seeks the highest good of the other person, no matter what; a self-sacrificing love that is given freely without asking anything in return, without considering the worth of its object.

The Lord is calling us into an intimate relationship with Him, a relationship in which we choose to extend undefeatable benevolence and unconquerable goodwill toward Him (and subsequently to others) regardless of our circumstances and situations in life.

How is this possible? Isn’t the ability to agapao something that God alone possesses?

When we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ, Romans 5:5 tells us that “…the love (agape) of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” We discover in 1 John 4:8 that God is love (agape) and in 1 John 4:19 that we are able to love (agapao), because He first loved (agapao) us. Therefore, when God calls us to love (agapao) Him with all of our heart, He provides that love (agape)!

The Hebrew word for heart used in Deut. 6:4-5 is a wonderful word which means:

• the middle or center of anything
• soul (the spiritual, rational and immortal substance in man, which distinguishes him from animals)
• mind (seat of intelligence)
• knowledge (which is the illumination of the mind)
• thinking (our ideas, supposings, judgments, intentions, meditations) reflection (our consideration of past thoughts, opinions or decisions of our mind or of past events)
• memory (the area of our heart where past events are retained)
• inclination (those things we are drawn to in our minds)
• resolution (the fixed purpose or determination of the mind)
• determination of will (the faculty of the mind by which we determine either to take or not to take an action; the aspect of who we are that decides among two or more objects, paths, or decisions, which we will embrace or pursue)
• conscience (internal self knowledge, or judgment of right and wrong; or the faculty, power or principle within us, which decides on the lawfulness or unlawfulness of our own actions and affections and instantly approves or condemns them; the moral sense)
• as seat of: appetites (natural desire of pleasure or good; the desire of gratification; passions directed toward an object)
• emotions (the moving of the mind or soul)
• passions (zeal or vehement desire; violent agitation or excitement of mind)
• as seat of courage (bravery; that quality of mind which enables men to encounter danger and difficulties with firmness, or without fear or depression of spirits; valor; boldness; resolution). 

(Word definitions in parentheses, Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

The Greek word kardia is the word used for heart in Mark 12:29-30 and has a similar meaning to the Hebrew word for heart; it means:

• the centre of all physical and spiritual life
• the soul or mind (seat of intelligence, as it is the fountain and seat of the thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, endeavors)
• of the understanding (which is the ability to comprehend the real state of things, also known as the intellectual faculty)
• the faculty and seat of the intelligence (information communicated)
• of the will and character (the will being the secret purposes, intentions, or designs we possess in who we are)
• of the soul as the seat of: the sensibilities (capacity of acuteness of perception), affections (a bent of mind towards a particular object), emotions (the moving of the mind or soul), desires (an emotion or excitement of the mind, directed to the attainment or possession of an object from which pleasure, sensual, intellectual or spiritual, is expected; a wish to possess some gratification or source of happiness which is supposed to be obtainable)
• appetites (a strong desire of pleasure or good; the desire of gratification; passions directed toward an object)
• passions (zeal or vehement desire; violent agitation or excitement of mind)

(Word definitions in parentheses, Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

We discover then, that we are commanded to love (agapao) God, to pursue intimacy with Him, surrendering every aspect of who we are to Him with our:

inner most parts; soul; mind, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory, inclination, resolution, determination of the will, conscience, seat of thoughts, appetites, emotions, passions, desires, purposes, endeavors, understanding, intelligence; seat of our courage.

The heart is multifaceted, multilayered, and complex. How do we know if we are loving (agapao) God with every crevasse of our heart? How do we know if our memory, our inclinations, our determinations in our will, our passions, desires, etc are surrendered to God?

Jeremiah exclaims, “’Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”’” Jer. 17:7-10

When we surrender our lives to the Lord, His Holy Spirit comes to dwell within our hearts. As we give Him permission to sift through our hearts, the Lord uproots that which impedes our relationship with Him and pours out an abundance of grace in those areas that are submitted to Him.

The Psalmist, David, understood this principle and captured the essence of it in this prayer: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way (pain, sorrow, idol) in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24

David recognized that he himself could not see into every recess of his own heart. The Hebrew word for “wicked way” in this passage means: pain, sorrow, or idol. We are finite beings who possess finite knowledge and insight, even into our own hearts (maybe especially when it comes to our own hearts!). Unbeknownst to us, we may have unresolved pockets of pain or sorrow hidden in our memories, in our thoughts, attitudes…and unbeknownst to us, we may have an idol or two hiding in there as well.

David understood that only God Himself could reveal some of the hidden things of his heart and only God Himself could heal and restore his heart once he had surrendered any unresolved pain, sorrow, or idols buried therein.

Let us come before the throne of grace (Heb. 4:16-17) and open our hearts before the Living God, our Father. He alone can probe the inner recesses of our heart, sifting out and restoring the unresolved pain, sorrow, and idols, so we may lay them at the foot of the cross (repentance), receive his grace and forgiveness, and then be freed to love (agapao) God with all of our heart.