Yes, There is Good News! Part 10

It might seem, according to the previous entry, loving God with one’s whole heart is a big enough task to accomplish.  But this scripture we have been looking at tells us that there are two more prerequisites in coming to this love that our God would have from us.

In Matthew 22:37 we find the second item mentioned is to love God with our all our “soul”.  Many people believe this word “soul” has some mystical, ethereal, or spiritual quality that separates it from our bodies.  But this is not the case.  A simple study of the word from the Bible will show that the soul can and will die.  This word “soul” is not limited to humans, in fact the first time the word appears in the bible it is applied to animals (it is found in Genesis 1:20, “…let the waters teem with living creatures”.  The word translated “creatures” from Hebrew is the same word that is translated “soul” elsewhere in the bible.)  The Hebrew word here is “nephesh” and its basic meaning is “breath of life”.  Ezekiel 18:4 says, “The soul who sins will die”.  In the New Testament, the Greek word for soul “psuche” has much the same meaning – “the breath of life”.

OK so what are we learning here?  This second aspect of loving God, to love Him with all of our soul, actually means we are to love Him with all of our life.  God is the author of life.  The life we have in us is a gift from Him and we are capable of doing many things.  We may take a walk on a beautiful summer morning with the sun shining on our faces.  Because we have life we can smell the fresh scent of flowers and behold the array of colors that surround us.

Yes, the life we live is a gift from God.  We can show Him our love when we enjoy that gift and give Him the glory for all we have and all we do.  The key here is to give Him all the glory.  To love God with your whole life is to appreciate each day you have and to give the credit to God for all you are able to do, no matter how great or how small it may be.

God’s love for us is unconditional – our love for God must be with all of our heart and also with all of our life.  In other words, with a whole hearted love that encompasses all our lives.  And yet there is a third aspect.

Stay tuned!