Level Five Love

UV 2289/10000 Level Five Love
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Matthew 22 v 37

Since Jesus said that this uni-verse is the first and greatest commandment, it is vital we understand the three dimensions of loving God: with all of our heart, with all of our soul or spirit and with all of the mind. With all of our heart implies with total commitment to our personal covenant with God to believe all that He has said and to act or live according to that which He has said. Love of the heart is the commitment to love God above all else including our own selves, our families, our near and dear. All our emotions are to be in accordance with the patterns of the Lord. We need to take every emotion captive to Christ. To love God with all of our hearts is to focus on Him as the locus of our lives. Everything else gets its meaning, purpose and power in relation to the Lord.

With all of our souls or spirits implies that our purpose of being is best fulfilled in our communion or intimate relationship with the Lord. Our spirits are focussed on knowing the Lord and becoming one with Him. This kind of love is expressed in prayer, meditation, fasting, worship. We focus on keeping the commandments of the Lord. With all of our minds means that we should take every thought, idea, intent, word and reaction captive to Christ. To take something captive to Christ is to redeem it, to free it to develop it to the highest potential. To love the Lord with all of our minds is to translate our thoughts and ideas into actions, to exert our will power to execute that which needs to be done.

With all of our strength to love the Lord is to develop our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual gifts, resources and abilities to the highest levels attainable. Every cell phone has two indicators: signal strength and battery strength, one being the strength of the waves of the service provider while the other is the internal strength of the battery powering the instrument. Our hearts, minds and spirits should have both signal strength to receive messages and grace from the Lord at five or maximum level as well as the internal strength of five. When both types of strength are at peak level, we are at our best, doing our best, feeling the best, serving as best we can, achieving the best we can, behaving the best and having the best.

Prateep V Philip