Loving from the Heart

Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 when He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart…” He said this was the greatest commandment. How does anyone love God with all their heart? Were the Israelites capable of doing this when God gave them that command? Are we capable of doing that now?

We have been encouraged to do this by many teachers and preachers. I don’t have a problem with the command. After all, God is the One who gave the command. The problem comes when we try to keep this command. Keeping this command is easier done than said. Yes, I intentionally reversed the two.

“Heart” in the context of this passage is indicating the inner man. What is the inner man? That is the part of us which is unseen. Our deepest desires, values, and attitudes come from our inner man. Think of this place as the source of “me.”

When God created humanity, He combined Himself with His creation. Have you noticed there is no command given to Adam and Eve to love God with all their heart? That is because loving God was already a part of their inner man. In other words, their inner man already loved God naturally. They did not need to be told to do what they were already doing.

Adam and Eve’s “me” was combined with “I AM” (Gen. 1:26; Ex. 3:14). When their outer man was behaving, behavior was an expression of their inner man – who was filled with God’s character. They were loving God with all their heart. They weren’t following a command; loving God was natural.

After the fall, humanity lost the image of God in their inner man. Our “me” was no longer infused with “I AM.” When Jesus quoted Moses, He was speaking to an audience who did not possess the character of God in their inner man. Even after reminding his audience of this greatest commandment, He knew they were incapable of keeping the command. A dead man cannot do what a living man can do.

Because all of humanity died in Adam (Rom. 5:12), Jesus came to give life (John 10:10). When He put His life in us, He gave us a new heart that is capable of loving God (Jer. 24:7; Acts 15:8-9). He gave us a heart that values what God values and desires what God desires (Phil. 2:13).

When I attempt to love God with all my heart by utilizing human effort, I can become frustrated with myself because I see my failure more than I see my success. This is not loving God from my heart, but rather from my behavior. It is compared to me asking you to walk like yourself. If I tell you to concentrate real hard, you will stop walking like yourself. You will become too focused on replicating a behavior that, before that moment, came naturally.

God told Ezekiel He would give us new hearts that would contain His Spirit (2 Cor. 1:22), Who would cause us to behave the way He desires (Ez. 36:26-27). Living from our heart is not living from our emotions, but rather living out the godly desires and values God has placed in us (Rom. 5:5; 6:17-18; 10:1).

This new creature has a new “me” filled with “I AM” (1 Cor. 6:17). My capability to love God with all my heart comes from who I am, not what I do. To see loving God with all our heart as a behavioral action is to reverse what God has done. God has placed His love in His children so that His children can love Him with all their hearts. This is why loving Him is easier done than said. As soon as we try to intellectualize loving God, we aren’t naturally expressing love to Him anymore.

If you feel like you are struggling with loving God, what are you looking at as the source of that struggle? I’ll bet you are focusing on your sinful behaviors. You are allowing your behavior to tell you who you are. Seeing ourselves through this lens is conforming to the world. When we begin to see ourselves the way God sees us, our minds are renewed to the truth that we are new creatures who love God with all our hearts.

Look in your heart. How do you feel about God? Do you love Him? If you do, then let that love define your life and how you live it.

“The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good…” (Luke 6:45a, NASB)