Do You Have Faceted Love For God?

Deuteronomy 6:4-6

⁴ “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! ⁵ You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 

God commands us to love Him with all our heart, soul, and might.  I am curious what the Hebrew is for these three facets of a human being.  I thought we might look at that and see if we can also love the Lord our God with all of our mind as well. 

“Your heart” 

This word in Hebrew can mean: inner man, mind, will, heart.  The idea is that we love God not superficially, but deep within the recesses of our being; within us, with our will, and with our mind.  Our wills should strive to line up with the Father’s as Yeshua’s did.  We should love the Father with our minds, thinking deeply on His word and searching it for instruction and the character of the One who has given us it. 

“Your soul”  

This word in Hebrew can mean: a soul, living being, life, self, person, desire, passion, appetite, or emotion.   Our desires should be that of Elohim.  Our passion should be for Elohim and His will.  Our appetites should be for the things of God.  Nothing should stir our emotions more than YHVH and Yeshua.   Wow.  That is a tall order and very convicting when I weigh how excited about earthly things I can get. 

“Your might”

This word in Hebrew can mean: muchness, force, abundance.  We are to love God with the totality of ourselves.  We are to love Him in abundance not faceted love pulled from the other loves of our life.  The worship of Elohim is of the magnitude that it is all consuming.  He is a consuming fire that envelops our heart, soul, mind, and strength. 

So we need to think deeply on the things of God.  Question the truths we have been taught and show them to be of God or of men.  We are pretty good at loving God with our emotions, but we leave our minds at the door because you can’t get too intellectual with your faith.  It’s about what you feel in your heart right?  Not according to Scripture.  Scripture says in Jeremiah 17:9 that the heart is more deceitful above all else.  

There is only one thing that can be trusted as the right way: the word of God from the mouth of God.  His instruction is the way we that believe should be doing it.  It usurps all teachings of men and baseless claims about what Elohim is like and desires.  Love Him with your mind, do the work necessarily to love Him wholly.