Matthew 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Context: Matthew 22:35-36 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Matthew 22:38-40 This is the great and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
From the lexicon: Love=take pleasure in, desire. All=whole. Heart=inner being. Soul=breath of life. mind=center of thought.
Pulling it together: To test Jesus, one of the religious crowd asked the question, “Which is the most important commandment?” Undoubtedly, he waiting for the answer expecting that he would be able to find fault for how can anyone single out one commandment from all the rest? But Jesus’s answer was beyond challenge. Without minimizing any of the other commandments, he maintained that the chief one is to love God. Only through obedience to this can we hope to fulfill the rest of what God tells us to do.
But note the commandment–with all your heart, soul, and mind. In other words, with your seat of emotions, your life, and your thought. Can any of us say we do this completely? Yet this is what the Law demands. This is why we need a Savior and the new birth. I can never attain to God’s standards without His redemption of me.
Even then, I am not perfect. I am a work in progress as I yield to the direction of the Holy Spirit.
Lord I pray, for grace, for your Spirit to transform me so I love You more perfectly each day.