Pure love for God embraces and involves our entire being. Our goal must be to love God with all our soul and strength. This means that our minds, hearts, and consciences must be daily consecrated and devoted to loving God, and all our strength of body – whether exerted in words or deeds – must reflect and express the love we have for Him.

The Lord mentions here heart, soul, and strength. Both the immaterial and material facets of our lives are to be devoted to loving God. The heart is the vital wellspring of all existence, for from it flow all the other issues of life (Prov. 4.23). All our affections are to be devoted to loving God. The mind refers to the various cognitive functions we perform each day – thinking, imagining, recalling, synthesizing, analyzing, and all the rest. It too must be devoted to the service of the living God through love (2 Cor. 10.3-5). The soul probably is intended here to encompass heart and mind in the larger spiritual entity, the soul, and so includes what the New Testament refers to as the conscience (Acts 24.16; 1 Tim. 1.5). We must discipline our affections, thinking, and priorities (will), bending them toward loving God as of the first importance in all we do.

Love for God comes to expression through the exertions of our body – what our text refers to as “strength.” These are of two sorts: speaking and doing. The Scriptures abound in teaching concerning each of these; thus, there is more involved to loving God in word and deed than we can consider here.

T. M. Moore

The Law of God is the soil which, fertilized by the rest of God’s Word and watered by His Spirit, brings forth the fruit of Christian life. If you’d like to understand this process better, and how to make best use of the Law in your walk with and work for the Lord, order the book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, from our online store.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.