THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT, PART 2: WITH ALL YOUR SOUL

What does it actually mean to obey Jesus and love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength? I want to focus in this writing on specifically what it means for believers to love God with our soul. Let’s begin with a definition of the word “soul”. An internet search brings in many possibilities. For our purposes, we will stick with the dictionary.com definition:

the principle of life, feeling, thought, and action in humans, regarded as a distinct entity separate from the body, and commonly held to be separable in existence from the body: the spiritual part of humans as distinct from the physical part.
The spiritual part of humans regarded in its moral aspect, or as believed to survive death and be subject to happiness or misery in a life to come.
Other words for soul are spirit, heart, essence.

Our soul is the part of us that will live on past our time on earth as we know it. It is the part of us that let’s others know who we really are, what is important to us, and what we really value. Our soul feeds our mind, directs the actions of our body, and drives us to love God, love ourselves, and love others in appropriate ways. Human beings are soulish creatures. We are not merely bodies that breathe. God breathed His life into our beings, creating humans from nothing, and setting mankind in paradise.

Sadly, we have allowed our souls to be influenced by the enemy of God, often setting us at odds with God and others. Sometimes, we are even at odds within our own selves, struggling to know how to seek intimacy with God, and how to stop ourselves from doing the things we do not want to do. I am reminded of Pauls’ lament in Romans:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Romans 7:15-20 (NIV)

How many times have you said something similar to Paul’s words? I know I have had my fair share of laments. I want to do the right thing, but my soul is not yet strong enough to carry me through all my temptations.

That’s where discipleship comes in. I am a firm believer that all believers should be discipling someone who is not as far along in the faith, and that we should be looking to someone farther along in the faith to be discipling us. It doesn’t matter how long we have been walking with God, we need someone to walk along with us. Sometimes that can be a peer who is on the journey with us, but they can help us see the blind spots in our souls that bring along the lament of regret. But more about that later.

Let’s talk a bit more about the soul and how it interacts with God. Let’s start with one of my favorite passages of Scripture—Psalm 139. Beginning in verse 13, we see the place of our soul’s beginning:

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
  How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
  they would outnumber the grains of sand—
  when I awake, I am still with you.
Psalm 139:13-18 (NIV)

What a beautiful description of the initial relationship we have with our Father. Time and again I return to this passage, just to sit and remember the truth about who I am and how intimately God knows me. Stop for a minute and let that settle in. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. You are too! Maybe I will write on that truth one day. So we understand that we begin by being known by God.

And then sin enters our thoughts, with Satan’s grand plan to try and snatch our souls before we can even begin to know God in our hearts and minds. And the roller coaster ride we call life begins. Sometimes we give in to the lies, other times, we long for the presence of God, and lean in to Him. Psalm 42:1 says, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.” Get that picture in your mind. Does your soul long for God above all else? Does my soul regularly long for that level of intimacy? I posit to you that we will only return to that level of intimacy when we commit to spend time in the disciplines of the Spirit: study of the Word, practicing silence and solitude, prayer, fasting, observing Sabbath. Those are just a few of the ways we can encounter God with our souls.

I often wonder why so many are so quick to step away from the intimacy with God that our souls are hungry for. What is that driving force that causes us to believe the pernicious lies of the enemy? Too often believers walk in fear of obedience and surrender to Christ. I am reminded of the words of Matthew 10:28, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” The enemy does not have the power to affect our soul unless we allow it. I could go on for hours about that subject. But that’s another topic for another time.

Many years ago, a group named Selah sang a song that had a powerful effect on my soul. The words cut to the core of my soul and gave me a deeper understanding of how God still interacts with our souls. Some of you may begin to sing in your souls as you read these words. If you have never heard the song, take a listen and let it wash over your soul. I leave you with these very poignant lyrics:

WONDERFUL, MERCIFUL SAVIOR

Wonderful, merciful Savior
Precious Redeemer and Friend
Who would have thought that a Lamb
Could rescue the souls of men
Oh, You rescue the souls of men

Counselor, Comforter, Keeper
Spirit we long to embrace
You offer hope when our hearts have
Hopelessly lost our way
Oh, we’ve hopelessly lost the way

You are the One that we praise
You are the One we adore
You give the healing and grace
Our hearts always hunger for
Oh, our hearts always hunger for

Almighty, infinite Father
Faithfully loving Your own
Here in our weakness You find us
Falling before Your throne
Oh, we’re falling before Your throne

You are the One that we praise
You are the One we adore
You give the healing and grace
Our hearts always hunger for
Oh, our hearts always hunger for

You are the One that we praise
You are the One we adore
You give the healing and grace
Our hearts always hunger for
Oh, our hearts always hunger for