The Whole Heart

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

THE WHOLE HEART

Luke 10:25-37

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"  27 He answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" 28 "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."  29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30 In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.' 36 "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"  37 The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise." 

NIV

It is difficult to break this whole conversation up into segments, so we must deal with the whole while finding nuggets of truth within. First, is the question; “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Second, why did Jesus ask him what was written in the law? Do we not inherit eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ? Did not Jesus fulfill the law? Yet, the answer does bring us to faith in Jesus Christ. If we Love the Lord our God, who is the Holy Trinity, who includes Jesus, then loving Jesus would have to include having faith in Him. However, the kicker here is that we must love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. We know the expert in the law was quoting from Deuteronomy and Leviticus and we could spend hours, and enough words to write a book, researching both the Greek and Hebrew definitions of those four words, heart, soul, strength, and mind, but the whole of the idea is to love the Lord totally, completely, with everything within us. This would be love that is lacking nothing or that is not divided. This may be one of the most difficult ways to live because we do live in this world that requires a certain amount of attention to provide for our sustenance and be engaged with concerns for our family, motivated by our love for them. In doing so, does that mean we are living with a divided heart, or is that in accordance with the command to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and all our mind, because the command also includes loving our neighbor as ourselves. Our family certainly is included as our neighbor, but then with the parable that Jesus told, it would appear many others are also our neighbors. So then, loving others is not having a divided heart because that is obeying the Lord our God out of our love for Him. However, that love is for others, and not for things. When we start having love or desires for things, more than our desire for God, we might get into a dangerous place. When we use too much of our heart, soul, mind, and especially strength to attain success defined by the accumulation of things, or our degree of knowledge, skills, or abilities we might not even have a divided heart, but a completely distracted heart. Let us always keep our hearts bent toward God, our love for Him first and foremost, as he has instructed us to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and He will add all these things we need to us. Then we will be living with a whole heart.