That may seem confusing to you. Just stay with me as I take you through to it.
Without mincing words or complicating things for you, from that Greek verse the word translated as HEART is καρδίᾳ (kardia), which means the seat of thought, thinking, decision-making and intention.
Let me explain, as this is quite different from the meaning you can get from all the English dictionaries we have.
In Greek, when you love with all your heart, it means your THOUGHT is based on your affection for the person you love.
Don't forget to love is simply to have a feeling of affection for someone.
And HEART in Greek means seat of THOUGHT. This implies that your thought will always be based on your affection for the person you love.
To buttress this so that you can understand this better...
Apart from seat of thought, HEART in Greek, as I showed earlier, means seat of your thinking, decision-making and intention.
Permit me to single out decision making.
This means that when you decide to do something and you make the decision based on your affection for the person you love...then that is to love with all your heart.
Same thing goes with your intention.
You might think this is simple. It's not as simple as it sounds because when people do things, most times, people consider only their actions without paying cognizance to their intentions.
There is no action without intention.
Surprisingly, someone can do something GOOD with a BAD INTENTION, and someone can do something BAD with a GOOD INTENTION. That's the Almighty God doesn't allow us to judge people.
Matthew 7:1
Do not judge...
So, when one's intention is based on one's affection for God, that is what the Greek language refers to as love God with all your heart.
Hope I'm breaking it down enough for you?
Now, let's cite an instance from the Bible...
Genesis 22:10
10 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
To us, this story appears in a different way because we are reading about it.
However, to Abraham, it wasn't a joke. The moment God revealed what he wanted from him, he decided right there and then to sacrifice his son.
Amazingly, Abraham loved God so much. More so, he loved his son so much, too: He was the child of his old age.
Imagine the kind of love Abraham must have had for a child he had after suffering from barrenness for 25 years.
He loved the boy so much, yet that was what God wanted from him.
He was left to decide who to choose between his God and his son.
As it appears that he never wasted time on it, and without even consulting his dear wife, he decided to choose God and slay his son.
If you are really following me, you will have discovered that I kept mentioning the word DECIDE as kept talking about Abraham.
I did that intentionally as i intended to draw your attention to that word. Mind you, I showed you from the Greek Bible that decisions are made with our HEARTS, and not our minds as many some people believe.
And don't forget when we love someone with all our heart, it means our DECISIONS—according to Greek language—will be based on our affection for the person we love.
As Abraham decided to kill the one he loved because of the instruction of God, we can see clearly, from his decision, where his affection lies.
If he never loved God more than his beloveth son, he wouldn't have decided to slay the boy for God.
In other words, he loved God more than he loved his son, Isaac.
And to just love (have feelings of affection) is different from to love with all your heart (make decisions based on the affection for someone)...for Father Abraham, he loved God with all his heart and that was revealed by the decision he made in killing his son for him.
Onward, from henceforth, never you joke with the decisions made by people, as the Bible already revealed to you that decisions are made from the heart.
The moment you know the decision of someone, you've rightly known their heart.
So, when you love God with all your heart, your decisions, your thinking, your intentions will be based on your affection for him.
That also insinuate that if you don't have affection (feelings) for God, you cannot claim you love him.
If this sounds gibberish, just think of the very first time you fall in love with your fiancé or fiancée.
Can you remember how you felt then?
That kind of feeling is what the Greek language is talking about.
If you don't have that kind of feeling for God, you cannot claim you love him.
Moving on...
When you have feeling for God as explained, then you can now start to make decisions based on that feeling (affection) for him.
Don't assume one will always make decision based on one feeling for the person one loves. That is not always the case most times in life.
That is, one can love someone and still decide to do something in life without considering one's feeling or affection for the person, which is why the Bible added the phrase "with ALL your heart" to the word "love."
To close this first part, and to reiterate from this Greek explanation of what it means to love God with all your heart, we can say Abraham loved his son but loved God with all his heart.
Hope you get that?
To love and to love with all your heart is two different thing.
Hmmmnnn...
Greek Explanation Of Love God With All Your Mind
Back to the Greek Bible, Matthew 22:37 says...
ὁ δὲ ἔφη αὐτῷ Ἀγαπήσεις κύριον τὸν Θεόν σου ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ καρδίᾳ σου καὶ ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ ψυχῇ σου καὶ ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ διανοίᾳ σου.
From that Greek verse the word translated as MIND is διανοίᾳ (dianoia), which means seat of understanding and insight.
Since you are already aware of what it means to love God with all your heart, you won't find it difficult to know what it means to love God with all your mind.
According to the Greek Bible, as quoted above, mind means understanding and insight.
That means when you understand things based on your feeling or affection for someone, it means you love the person with all your mind.
This is why loved ones are always the best supporters of one even one does something wrong.
Of course, God is holy. He cannot do something bad or evil. Even if what he does seemingly appear as evil, if you love him with all your mind, you will understand what he has done based on that your feeling of love for him.
That's sound unwelcoming, but that is the way love works.
Comically, and in all seriousness, this is why people who love with all their minds appear to others as crazy individuals... apology for that negative word.
Let me show you something like that from the Bible.
Genesis 29:20
So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her.
Please, take a second look at my underlined phrases above.
To Jacob, 7 (S..E..V..E..N) YEARS seemed like 7 days because of the love he had for Rachel.
Now, let me explain this...
Remember to love with all your mind—according to Greek language—means to understand things based on one's affection for someone.
Mind you, it was not only understanding that was mentioned in the meaning of mind in the Greek Bible, insight was also mentioned.
This is quite simple...
Understanding simply means the ability to understand things while insight means the way one understand things.
Meaning, both understanding and insight are still related to understanding.
Then...
There is another word called perception. I mentioned the word to make you know that another word that can replace the word insight is perception.
In English language, they call it synonyms. That means perception is synonymous to insight.
While insight means the way one understands things, perception means the way one understands the things one sees.
Hope you grasp that?
So, to love with all your mind also means to understand things one sees based on one's feeling for someone.
This explains why Jacob "SAW" (perception) 7 years as 7 days... He loved Rachel so much that LONG THINGS appear small to him. His perception of things changed.
Isn't that what the people of the world call craziness?
...when love makes you see things others are blinded to.
Hope you remember that after waiting for 7 years, Laban deceived him and still delayed him for another 7 years...making 14 years.
Imagine your fiancé or fiancée telling you wait for 14 years before you marry him or her.
Will you wait?
Be sincere.
Don't misquote me, I'm not saying you cannot wait.
If you can wait that long for your own Rachel, it means you love her with all your mind.
So, if Jesus says I'm coming, and your great-grandfather died waiting for him, and your grandfather died waiting for him and your dad too died still waiting for him, and you at your age...still waiting for his coming...
And upon that long a time, you still feel he has not really taking much time, then it means you love God with all your mind.
For those who feel Jesus has taken too long a time, they are simply telling you the kind of love they have for him.
Again, decisions are made with our HEARTS and understandings are received with our MINDS.
Lastly,
Greek Explanation Of Love God With All Your Soul
Matthew 22:37 says...
ὁ δὲ ἔφη αὐτῷ Ἀγαπήσεις κύριον τὸν Θεόν σου ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ καρδίᾳ σου καὶ ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ ψυχῇ σου καὶ ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ διανοίᾳ σου.
From that Greek verse the word translated as soul is ψυχῇ (psychē), which means the breath of one. That is what birth your life...the ESSENCE of your living.
Now, what is essence of one's living?
It is simply what characterizes your life...more or less like your daily activities.
So, when you carryout your daily activities based on your feeling and affection for someone, it means you love the person with all your soul.
Furhermore, you won't do anything at any point in time of the day or night without basing it on the affection you have for the person.
To bring it down, think of what makes up your daily life...eating, drinking, exercising, working, sleeping, talking etc. When you do all of these things based on your affection for God, then you love God with all your soul.
In details, you won't eat food God does not like Daniel and the three Hebrew boys, you won't drink what he does not like the Rechabites, you won't say what he doesn't like, you won't do the kind of work he doesn't like and so on. That is what it means to love God with all your soul.
In conclusion, I strongly believe you now understand what it means to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind...if you do, kindly share this educating post NOW with other Christians you know on any social media of your choice.
Here is the sharing button.
👇👇👇👇👇
