By
now, we are familiar with Deuteronomy
6:5-9, which is known as “The Shema.” That is, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your strength.” We’ve heard that many times before. However, there
is something different about the “Shema” in the New Testament when Jesus says
it. Did you notice?
In
the Gospels, located in Matthew 22:37;
Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27, we see Jesus stating the “Shema,” but his
recitation seems different. Well, it is. Jesus adds an additional phrase. Jesus
said we are to ALSO love the Lord, our God, “….with all your mind.” Mind? Huh?
What does Jesus mean by that?
The
word “mind” is the Greek noun “dianoia”
that means “understanding,” “imagination” “way of thinking” or “way of feeling.”
Its application implies how we exercise our minds. That means, “in English,” how
we must choose to protect and manage our “thought life.”
I
think what Jesus is saying, by adding “all your mind,” is that we must guard
our thought life and take great care to make sure all that we think about,
dream about, memorize, learn and contemplate is in line with the love we have
for God the Father.
We
also must shelter and protect how we use our minds….that is, how we process the
information we receive each day (what we view and read, such as on Facebook,
the news, television, music, etc) and how we use our imagination. We must make
the time to study, research, and discern information so that we can know truth
from fiction.
The
last thing we need to be, as Christians, is gullible, misinformed, misguided,
and unprepared to the point that we become easy prey for the “…roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8). Therefore, if we love God
“with all our minds,” we will not easily give it up to our enemy so that he can
destroy and pervert our thought-life.
A
Christian, therefore, should not be saturating their minds with worldly things.
We honestly must discriminate against the type of music we listen to….the
programs and movies we watch….the types of books/magazines we read….the subject
matter we think, dream and imagine about.
We
must associate with those things that are moral, wholesome, holy and godly. If
confronted with anything that is not, then we must take action and guard our
mind by turning away, walking away, and choosing “not to participate.” Sometimes, it is as simple as "stop thinking about it....stop dwelling on it!"
It
is hard and can put you in a very awkward “fork in the road” that is
stressful. You may face scrutiny,
rejection and persecution…but, your love for God, should empower you to make
that sacrifice and the right choice. Let’s take inventory of what “goes into
our minds” so that we can truly “Love the Lord our God…with all our mind.”