Loving God with all your soul is a little more complicated of an area to consider. If loving God, when we cannot see Him, is difficult because of the abstract nature of it, then certainly loving Him with all of your soul only compounds that complexity. It helps to understand that while the Jewish believe the heart is where we experience and express much of what makes us a person (intellect, emotion, will), the soul is our essence.
God’s Breath
Rememb
Loving God with all your soul is about loving God with all of who you are. The Jews believe that the soul is the seat of our emotions because our emotions are a part of who we are. So loving God with all our soul includes our emotional responses to God. I’ve always been an emotional person, but the way that manifested before and after God is quite different.
Your Soul is You
Before God, my emotions came out often as anger. During that time, I might’ve called it passion, but it was anger. There were other emotions, but I think
Be You for Them
Again, living out the New Command, “to love each other”, is the best way to see this manifested. If by nature, you’re a nurturing person, that character trait is most directly God-honoring when it is directed back to Him through nurturing His body. If you’re a steadfast “rock “type person, you show your love for God best when you provide support for His people. Because your soul is who you are, if you’re creative, then you create. But you create for the good of others, starting with those in His body. Loving God with all your soul has everything honoring those in His body with who you are.
Excerpt from my book, Three Commands: Jesus’ Fulfillment of the Law Through Love. You can purchase the book HERE.
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