The Greatest Commandment

The greatest commandment according to both the Old and New Testaments is to love the Lord with your whole heart, mind and soul. To do this is completely contrary to our fallen, sinful nature and this is why we need the intervention of God in our lives. Grace is the opening of our eyes by the gentle hands of God so that the truth is revealed: that we are completely dependent on Him for life, that He provides for us daily and that His plan is the best plan possible for our lives.

With that in mind, I believe that God gave us a body to experience His works, a mind to experience is Word and a soul to experience His heart. When we enjoy the physical world, appreciate even something simple like a nice walk or a picnic, these things glorify God as the creator. We see His works and marvel, and the bible testifies that nature is full of examples so that all are without excuse.

Our minds are also important, because our minds are the seat of our awareness and decision making. The bible tells us many times to be sober minded, to test the spirits and to meditate on the wisdom of God. Interestingly, "meditation" in the biblical sense is diametrically opposed to the modern day understanding of meditation, as in the new age, Eastern mysticism version.

To meditate in biblical terms is more akin to the famous statue of "The Thinker" by Auguste Rodin. It is to deeply and thoroughly reflect on a matter. Christ's words are life, and that is because as we dive deeper and deeper into scripture we are refreshed with hope, courage and strength. We see the sovereignty of God through prophecy, we see the justice of God through history and we see the love of God through the gospel. The bible is a truly unique book.

Last but not least we are given a soul. There is great debate about what this means, and I will not open it here, but suffice it to say that the writers of the bible believed in a contingent soul. Yes all human beings, and created things, have souls - but the idea of a ghost that leaves the body and floats around was a pagan idea that came into our understanding from Greek and Egyptian influences. There is a very good reason for this, it wasn't accidental. But that reason will be for another time.

The point is that we are completely dependent on God for life. Our soul, our essence, who we are and our entire being - all of this can disappear in the blink of an eye. Life is fragile, and yet how vibrant and beautiful it is. God created us with the ability to write and read poetry, music, do dancing, paint, speak, build things, decorate, cook and so many other wonderful things. We have a conscience, we have an intuition and we have spiritual gifts like seeing visions or even being able to heal others in various ways.

Our soul exists so that we can delight in God's heart. We were created in His image, and through Christ we are conformed to His image. Through the gospel, the perfect heart of Jesus is "downloaded" into our broken and sinful hearts - creating an alchemical and irreversible change that, among many things, allows us to see who God is.

This transformation leads to a new life, new works, new feelings and new ways of seeing the world - God's ways. We are no longer slaves to sin but instead have the capacity to finally start loving God with our full being - body, mind and soul.

Through our body we can experience a brilliant physical world that testifies to our Creator and His genius.

Through our mind we can experience His timeless wisdom through the scriptures - history, prophecy and the good news.

And through our soul we can experience God's heart through the lifechanging regeneration of our conscience so that we learn to think more like He does.

This process is the process of sanctification, which begins after the moment a person accepts Jesus as the Lord of their life and surrenders to God's will. It is a lifelong process, and most of it will be done in eternity.

Therefore, the many times the bible tells us about the greatest commandment - it is also revealing to us a prophecy: that we will love God with our full being. This is our future as believers in Christ, and what a brilliant future it is.

Stay connected at: www.danceoflife.com