Loving God with All Your Mind
Today, we will explore the call to love God with all our minds. We will look at Matthew 22:37-40 and a few of the Proverbs. Reading them will help fix our thoughts on God. He provides a steady, life-giving source of love. But this mindset must be pursued; we must seek to set our minds to be in tune with God’s truth. In doing so, we will discover an ever-enduring source.
William Neal Craig Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) Candidate in Theology and Apologetics Liberty University, John W. Rawlings School of Divinity
11/23/20253 min read
Love God with All Your Mind
Table of Contents
Introduction
The greatest commandment and its connection to loving others
Why are the two commands inseparable
What It Means to Love God with Your Mind
Setting the mind on God as the source of love
Wisdom in Proverbs 1, 4, and 8
How pursuing wisdom fulfills the greatest command
Resources for Going Deeper
Further study links and tools
Conclusion
The steady, life-giving flow of a mind fixed on God
Wisdom is the path to loving God with all your mind
I. Introduction
In Matthew 22:36-40, the question was asked of Jesus, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.” Now, Jesus did continue, saying, “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Have you ever wondered why we are to love God so, with all of our hearts, souls, and minds, first, then secondly others, but the first command is like the first. How are these two similar, and how are they different? J. Knox Chamblin shines light on this matter: “This second command is like the first, but does not rank with it. The term ‘greatest’ (megalē) is reserved for the first. God alone is worthy to be loved with all one’s heart, soul, mind and strength. Yet for this very reason, there is a sense in which the second command is as important as the first. Though distinguishable, the two are inseparable.”[1] That is when the first command is rightly carried out; the second one will naturally play out.
II. What It Means to Love God with Your Mind
When our mind is set on God, and His Word is lived out through our actions, these two commands become one. Loving God with all our minds means to have our minds set on the source of love, then, like a river flowing from a mountain stream, it will have a continual source of like giving water, or, in our sense, love.
This is not a New Testament mystery; it is a well-known biblical doctrine. In Proverbs 1:2–7, we read that Solom gave these writing so that God’s people can “know wisdom and instruction, To perceive the words of understanding, To receive the instruction of wisdom, Justice, judgment, and equity; To give prudence to the simple, To the young man knowledge and discretion— A wise man will hear and increase learning, And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel, To understand a proverb and an enigma, The words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.” The fool will reject knowledge, but the wise will lean into it, for the fear of the LORD, this is the start of a right beginning.
In Proverbs 4:5-9, Solomon urges us to “Get wisdom! Get understanding!” Wisdom is queen, understanding her children, following close behind, by them you will receive bountiful grace and a crown of glory. Proverbs 8:1–36 is a powerful parable showing the depths and richness of seeking wisdom. The Bible screams out to seek wisdom, and those who read it and live by it fulfill the greatest commandment to love God with all their mind. A rightly guided mind, directed to the source of life, will never die.
III. Resources for Going Deeper
IV. Conclusion
Loving God with our minds means focusing our thoughts on Him. He is the source of Love, of which when our minds are rightly aligned, Love flows steadily, through out and to others. Scripture calls us to this again and again. Proverbs 1:2-7 reminds us that true knowledge begins with the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 4:5-9 urges us to pursue wisdom and understanding with all our strength. And Proverbs 8 opens our eyes to the deep richness found in seeking wisdom itself.
Those who lean into God’s wisdom, who hear, receive, and walk in it, are the ones who truly love Him with all their mind. A mind guided by the Source of life does not wither; it endures, because it draws from the One who never runs dry.
References
[1] J. Knox Chamblin, Matthew: A Mentor Commentary, Mentor Commentaries (Ross-shire, Great Britain: Mentor, 2010), 1105.
