Love. | A Weekly Word 2022

Genuine love requires our whole selves. It calls for a synchronicity between the mind, the body, and the soul. It is more than its definition of an intense feeling, and more than its description as a verb or action. Love, while romanticized as a privilege reserved for those who earn or deserve it, is a free gift  from a gracious God that we should aspire to reciprocate and learn to lavish on ourselves and others.

We are not merely called, but commanded to love as God loves. The first and great commandment is to love, and knowing who we are helps us to do that. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, created in God’s divine image, and we are a temple of the Holy Spirit that resides within us.

The gospels say this about how we are called to love, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” And then, we are commanded to love ourselves and others in the same way. 

Our heart does not describe our physical heart here, but our spiritual core. The word heart is synonymous with our passion, affection, and desire. When we say that we love God with all our heart, it means we love with our feelings.

Like the heart, our soul represents an inner part of us, separate from the physical body. The soul is described in the story of creation as the “breath of life”, which God breathed into man bringing his physical body to life. We love God with all our soul, when we love with our being. 

Our mind is what enables us to understand and reason. One of the key ways to grow in our walk with God is to study His word, as it will transform our minds. We love God with all our mind when we love with our thinking. 

Our strength is the ability that we exert in our love. It is perseverance and the relentless pursuit of better. When we overcome challenges and obstacles to love God with all our strength, we love with our doing.

And while each of these aspects of how we are commanded to love – heart, soul, mind, and strength – can be explored individually, it’s the collective meaning that’s most impactful. The idea is that we are not to love only with parts of us, but that we are called to do so with our whole selves through the totality of our feeling, being, thinking and doing.

Passage

Let all that you do be done in love.

1 Corinthians 16:14

Prayer

God, thank you for your deep love and affection. Thank you for commanding us to love ourselves like you love us. Thank you for modeling for us what genuine love looks like. Help me to love like you. Help me to know my whole self and to love with my entire being. Allow me to practice that love daily. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Practice

This week, I will practice loving God with my feelings, emotions, thoughts and actions. I will commit to extending that love to myself and others.