Jesus said that all the laws in the Old Testament could be summed up in two principles; Love God and Love others (Matthew 22:36-40). In our Scripture today we are going to break in on a situation where the religious leaders of Jesus day were having a discussion with Him about which was the most important of all the Jewish Laws. Jesus answer to them went far beyond what they were even thinking. 

The Jews of Christ’s day confessed that there was one true God; the son of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. As Christians, we confess that this is the same God who meets us in the Savior Jesus Christ. It is impossible to love a principle with all our heart, but we can give our whole life to a personal God who first loved us so much that He sent His only Son to die for our sins on the cross. 

(Mark 12:28–31) (HCSB)

One of the scribes approached. When he heard them debating and saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked Him, “Which command is the most important of all?” 29 “This is the most important,” Jesus answered: Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is One. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind,  and with all your strength. 31 “The second is: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.” 

Worship of God is the theme here in these verses. This is the most important of all the things we do as the Church. Worship can be explained this way. Our love for God is a response to God’s love for us. How do we worship God? How do we love Him? Several thoughts from this passage. 

We worship God by loving Him with all our Heart

It has been said that the command center of the entire body is the heart. Think about this. It’s where all our decisions are made. It’s where all our plans are created. It’s the very center of our being. The heart controls our feelings. It controls our emotions, desires, and passions. It is with our heart that we decide whether we are for or against God. 

It is true that we confess with our minds and our mouth, but it is the heart that holds our truest loyalties. Jesus illustrated this with His story of the prodigal son in (Luke 15:29). The older son remained with his father while the younger son went out and squandered his inheritance. When the younger son returned, the older son reminded his father that he had been there for him the whole time physically. But the problem, it seems, is that his heart wasn’t really there. Jesus taught that what defines a person is what comes out of the heart (Mark 7:21-22).   

We worship God by loving Him with all our Soul 

The breath you are breathing at this moment is given freely by God Almighty. So together with the heart, the soul determines our behavior. The Apostle Paul is a wonderful example of a person who loved God with his whole soul. All his energy was entirely focused on pursuing God’s purposes (Philippians 3:13). It was this kind of love for God that lead Paul to endure shipwrecks, beatings, being stoned, hunger, and thirst (2 Corinthians 11:23-29). People who love God with their entire soul will commit all their energy to him. 

We worship God by loving Him with all our Mind 

The mind is the part of us that directs our opinions and judgments. This is much more than experiencing an emotional high and remaining busy just to be busy. That’s why we have to love God with our intelligence. So could it be that when we worship God with our whole mind, we are not just emptying our minds, but we are filling our minds with his Word and allowing His Word to speak to us so that we can right the wrongs we have done against him? When we come together to worship God corporately as we have today, we don’t check our minds at the door and put it on cruise control while we are here, but we are encouraged, rejuvenated, and ready to go back out and face the world for another week and tell them about Christ’s love. 

We worship God by loving Him with all our Strength 

Finally, strength refers to the physical part of the world. This includes everything we own. Remember the story of the widow? (Mark 12:41-44). She didn’t come to the temple to recite prayers. She came to give everything she had. The rich people in the story, instead gave what they had scammed off the top of their excess. The widow gave out of her poverty and didn’t worry about what she would have left over. This is the perfect example of loving God with all your strength.