Message
Mark 12:30
All Your Soul
We are in the second week of having a very close look at
Mark 12:30-31
30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” 31 The second is this: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no commandment greater than these.’
Specifically this morning the focus is on Loving the Lord our God with all our soul. If we want to know how to love God with all our soul, we first need to answer the question “What is the soul?”
It is not such an easy question to answer. Because the Hebrew and Greek words which get translated as “soul” are words which can be translated in a number of ways.
So, to make it a little easier, it will help all of us to know the Hebrew and Greek words behind the English translations.
Hebrew is ?????? = nephesh
Greek is ???? = psyche
When the Septuagint translates Hebrew to Greek it almost always uses psyche for nephesh.
So now, when the Bible verses are up on the screen, you will know which word is being translated from the Hebrew or Greek.
Back to our question “What is the soul?”
Genesis 2:7
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being (nephesh).
Dust is formed into humanity by the Lord God.
Nephesh is given to humanity when the Lord God breathes His own breath into the man that has been formed.
Nephesh then is the “Lord-God-life-breath” given to mankind.
It is not just the actual air we breathe.
It is not just the flowing of blood around our bodies.
It is not just the functioning of our body parts … our head, our hands, our feet, our internal organs.
It is not just the initiation of who we are as individuals … our desires, our character, our will.
Nephesh is the totality of all of this.
The New Testament recognises the foundation of Genesis 2:7 – and then builds on that foundation.
Mark 8:34-36
34 Then (Jesus) called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life (psyche) will lose it, but whoever loses their life (psyche) for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? (psyche).
What good is it if you gain the whole world
… if you experience all the world’s experiences.
… if you feel all the world’s impulses.
… if you embrace all the world’s temptations.
What good are such gains if, in the process, you destructively injure the totality of who you are? Utterly destroying your psyche.
Destroying the Lord-God-life-breath.
Destroying the outcomes of the actions of your head, hands, and feet.
Destroying the consequences of your will, desire, and character.
Destroying the totality of who you are.
The soul … the nephesh/psyche … is all of our individual being. And there, at that point, is where we are called to love – command to love – the Lord with all our nephesh … all our psyche. That is what the first and greatest commandment calls us to do.
So how do we do that?
How do we love the Lord our God with all our nephesh/psyche?
Jesus’ question in Mark 8:36 is a good place to start.
What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? (psyche).
Right now each one of us are in a battle – a battle for our soul.
On one side of the battle there is the world.
Not the world as a big globe circling the sun.
But the world that is seeking to distract, disarm, divert and detour.
It is a world full of empty promises, meaningless purposes, false prosperity and counterfeit pleasure.
Temptation.
Sin.
Worldliness.
It is all in the same basket – all directed to one primary objective.
1 Peter 2:11
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul (psyche).
The primary objective of the world is to wage war for your soul. The world wants to be the ultimate authority that provides the foundation to the totality of your being. That is what we face everyday.
If we don’t understand …
Or if we underestimate …
Or if we minimise …
… the stated objectives of this war we will lose the war. A war that is exclusively directed towards causing you to NOT love the Lord your God with all your soul.
So how do you win such a war?
We have already seen the answer in the verses we have been looking at.
Mark 8:34
34 Then (Jesus) called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
To deny oneself is put aside all self-promotion, all self-centeredness, and all self approving ambitions.
In other words you take that which is your soul – the totality of your being – and you are refusing to allow “self” to set the agenda.
Denying self is not the same as just giving up on delights of life …
… I’ll deny myself food.
… I’ll deny myself a holiday.
… I’ll deny myself finances.
Denying of self is opening ourselves us to God’s initiatives and to God’s control.
Opening our body parts … our head, our hands, our feet … to the initiative of God.
Opening our individualism … our desires, our character, our will … to the initiative of God.
Denial of self affirms that the call of God in our lives is a call of submission to His will and His way – even when that can be inconvenient.
For those who are proud, it means discarding the need for status and honour. For those who are complacent it means abandoning the path of ease. For those who are aggressive it means controlling the urge for retaliation.
Denying oneself … is how we love God with all our soul.
To take up ones cross and follow is a vivid imagery that would have communicated fear and danger – even before Jesus was crucified. Crucifixion was widely known to be a cruel extreme torturous punishment. To be crucified is to join the ranks of the despised and the doomed.
Taking up the cross is not a fashion accessory, or a spiritual exercise, or something that we just try on for size.
Taking up the cross is not for admirers, or seat-warmers, or part-time volunteers, or those who just want to make modest adjustments.
It is a totality call being given to our soul.
And it is a totality call that Jesus Himself has followed.
Mark 10:45
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life (psyche) as a ransom for many.’
Jesus gave his psyche … his nephesh … his soul … when he literally took up the cross.
It was an act of service.
Deliberately directing his totality
… his body which was broken.
… his blood which was shed.
… his will “Not my will but yours be done”.
Loving God.
Then we follow. Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, not fixed on the temptations. Keeping our heart fixed on the Word, not fixed on the excuses and the minimisations. Keeping our soul fixed on serving the God of grace who promises to always go with us.
Taking up the cross and follow … that is how we love God with all our soul.
How else do we love God with all our soul? We acknowledge the status we have in this world. A status that we have already seen described in 1 Peter 2:11
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul (psyche).
In this world we are foreigners and exiles.
In the first century a foreigner was not a full citizen. They didn’t have the rights of a full citizen or the responsibilities of a full citizen. They were allowed to live in the community and they had some legal protection, but they were always outsiders.
The first century exile was a person who had temporary resident status because they had been forced to move from another nation. Exiles were regarded with high suspicion because the citizens knoew the exiles didn’t really choose to live in that land. As an exile you very much had to prove your position and acceptability.
In a world which is waging war against our soul this is the spiritual status we strive to have.
We don’t just try and blend in.
We can’t live by the mantra that “every one is doing it”.
We refuse to allow ourselves to be just like everyone else.
Foreigners and exiles of the world don’t give over their soul to the world.
Instead we give ourselves over to the Word.
Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you (your psyche).
James 1:21
Living as foreigners and exiles … that is how we love God with all our soul.
How do you love the Lord with all your soul?
You deny yourself.
You take up the cross and follow.
You live as foreigners and exiles.
Our totality, our individualism, or body, our will … at the very core of our being … we take the battle to the word and we devote ourselves to attaining victory in the war.
It is a deliberate choice. A decision to act. Jeremiah 6:16 describes the options in these terms:-
This is what the Lord says:
‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls (nephesh)
We find rest. A sense of peace and purpose knowing that the ancient path is the path the goes back to the days of creation. The days when there was no war for our soul because there was no worldliness. The ancient path that is described constantly through out the Scriptures as the only path that enables us to love God in the fullness of the calling.
The deliberate choice to give all in totality.
It isn’t the choice that comes naturally and many loose the war against the world.
Jeremiah 6:16 finishes with these words
But you said, “We will not walk in it.”
Where will you walk? Because it isn’t always an easy road.
Loving the Lord our God with all our soul … it puts us on the front-line of a war.
When you are on the front-line it is exhausting. Constantly being vigilant. Always keep an eye for traps and tricks. Carefully assessing the strategy of the enemy and being prepared to counteract that strategy.
Spiritually we are on the frontline. It can be exhausting – but it doesn’t have to be a place of defeat. For the Saviour who gave his life … his psyche … also says to us
28 ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (psyche).
Matthew 11:28-29
The ancient path … where worldliness is defeated … is the path we can be on.
Standing … deliberately choosing … the way of Jesus when we are confronted by the war of worldliness.
Being at because we are fulfilling the command – to love the Lord God with all our soul.
Prayer
