Loving God With All Your Soul

Loving God with our soul—the Choices We Make

How often do we make choices without even realizing what we're doing? When we spontaneously choose something (impulse buying), when our reflexes react to something, when we "go with our gut" without considering the matter?

On the flip side, how often do we make a choice when we think we're delaying the decision? We might think we're considering the matter when really we're dodging the issue! Avoiding the decision is actually a decision!

How many couples, for instance, have been "engaged" for years—but they have trouble making a commitment? They can't decide when they're going to actually tie the knot and get married. They put off the decision (it seems it's usually the guy who's afraid to commit)—but putting it off is a decision.
Octavio Guillen and Adriana Martinez hold the record for the world's longest engagement—and quite possibly, the world's coldest feet. Octavio Guillen and Adriana Martinez were engaged in Mexico in 1902 but kept putting their wedding off—over and over and over and over again. Finally in June 1969, after 67 years, Octavio must have run out of excuses and the world's longest engagement came to an end. They were both 15 years old when they were engaged; on their wedding day they were 82!

Well, you say, at least they finally decided to get married. True. But there were consequences for their earlier decision to wait. Their lives would have been drastically different if they had married earlier.

A couple of weeks ago we began a study we're calling Love Matters. Jesus said the greatest, most important commandment—the one that all the other commandments hang on—is this...

• Love the Lord your God with all your
• heart
• with all your
• soul
• with all your
• mind
• and with all your
• strength.

In other words, if we want to honor God as God—if we want to please God—then we will love him with everything we are, everything we have, and everything we do. We will love him with our whole being!

Now I want you to notice something: Fred spoke last week on loving God with all your heart—leaving me to speak on loving God with all your soul. It seems to me that it's much easier to talk about the "heart." The pictures communicate something—but how do you picture "soul"?

If you were playing "pictionary" and I asked you to draw a picture of the "soul"
(and I said you could not use the bottom of your foot as an image),
how would you draw a picture of the human "soul"?

• You can say I have a "broken heart"
• or "please be my Valentine."
• You can say "I love NY." A picture of a heart communicates something. People understand intuitively what you're talking about.
• You can even remove the picture and still communicate a message: "I left my ___ in San Francisco."

But the concept of the "soul" is more ambiguous. It's vague. More abstract. How do you define "soul"? How do we love God with all our soul? And how is loving with our soul different from loving God with our heart?

• When it comes to love, no one says, "I [soul] NY."
• No one says, "You broke my [soul]."
• We do talk about soul food... or soul music... or a soul mate. We say, "Don't sell your soul." We say, "Confession is good for the soul." We send an SOS ("Save Our Souls"). But how do we love God with all our soul?

The dictionary definition can confuse us!

SOUL 1 : the immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating cause of an individual life; 2 a : the spiritual principle embodied in human beings, all rational and spiritual beings, or the universe 3 : a person's total self; 4 a : an active or essential part b : a moving spirit : leader <Steve Jobs is the soul of Apple>; 5 a : the moral and emotional nature of human beings b : the quality that arouses emotion and sentiment c : spiritual or moral force : fervor; 6 : person <not a soul in sight>; 7 : personification <she is the soul of integrity>; 8 a : a strong positive feeling (as of intense sensitivity and emotional fervor)

OK. Try loving God with that! How do we love God with all our soul?

What about the Bible? How does God's Word define it?

The NT word for "soul" is psuchḗ which appears 101 times in the NT Greek. In the NASB it's translated as "soul" 47 times and life (or lives) 43 times. Strong's concordance defines it as: "the breath, the soul."

It's the word the English language borrows for ideas like: psychiatry, psychology, to psychoanalyze, psychosis, psychosomatic, psychotherapy, to "psych" your team up, to "psych" your opponents out...

What about the OT? The Hebrew word for "soul" is nephesh and it appears in the OT Hebrew over 780 times. In the NASB it's translated into English 251 times as "soul"; 181 times as "life"; 68 times as "person."

But the NASB uses 48 other words to translate nephesh—no one English word can capture the full breadth of its meaning. This is why when Deut. 6:5 is quoted in the NT it comes out different in the various gospels. One might say "soul" and another will expand on it and say "soul and mind" or "soul and strength."

Strong's concordance defines it as: "a soul, living being, life, self, person, desire, passion, appetite, emotion."

The word nephesh is linked to the verb naphach which means "to breathe, to blow."

Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed [naphach] into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being [nephesh] (Gen 2:7, NASB)

In other words, the soul is the essence of life! As a result, I think we can describe the "soul" like this:

It's the inner essence of our being or personality—it's who we are at the core. It's our conscience, our inner self, our identity. It's how we define who we are. It's our will, where we make our decisions and choices.

And that brings us back to the drama we began this message with! The choices and decisions we make ultimately come back to our soul—back to who we are and what we're made of.

And then—the decisions we make in life—one after another—become a series of choices, decisions put together in an ongoing pattern to determine our lifestyle and behavior.

So, to love God with all your soul means that you will love him in the way you live, in the choices you make, in the behavior and lifestyle you adopt.

If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. (John 14:15, NASB) And if you don't keep his commandments, if you do your own thing, that would tell us that you don't love him.

Loving God with all your soul means to love him by the things you choose to do. What you DO is a much better measurement of what's in your soul than what you SAY.

It's all too common: A man begins to abuse his wife. He pushes her around, knocks her down, beats her up. But then, when he comes to his senses, he's overwhelmed with remorse: "I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me. I don't want to lose you. I really do love you." And so she forgives him and they try to patch things up. But his words of repentance ring hollow when he keeps abusing her. His behavior says something different than his words.

If you SAY you love the Lord, then don't abuse that relationship by the way you treat him! Show your love for the Lord by the things you DO.

Loving God with all your soul means to love him with your whole being, with who you are.

Loving God with all your soul means your personality and your identity will be defined by your love for God.

One of the big problems these days is "identity theft." Criminals can steal your identity—pretend to be you! They will spend thousands of dollars simply by using your name and leaving you with the bill. Or they will empty out your bank account and transfer your funds into their own pockets.
That happened earlier this year to my wife. Somebody waited until she stepped out of the office at the hospital where she works part-time. In about two minutes they waked into her office walked out with her wallet. That wasn't a really big deal since she hardly ever has any real money in it. But within a couple hours—before she even had missed her wallet—the crooks had run up nearly $2,000 in charges on her credit cards and bank debit cards. They stole her identity and pretended to be her.

Loving God with all your soul means your personality and your identity will be defined by your love for God. But a lot of people have sold themselves out for something else! Their identity has been stolen by something else. Their identity is defined by their attraction to other things. They can't define themselves as a "lover of God" because they love something else more.

Paul wrote to Timothy and said, "¹ ...in the last days difficult times will come. ² For men will be
lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, ⁴ treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." (2 Tim 3:1-4)

Jesus said [at the end of the age] "most people's love will grow cold." (Matt 24:12, NASB)

Let me ask you something: Do the choices you make reflect your love for God? Or do the choices you make suggest that something else has stolen your identity—your soul?

Does your lifestyle show that you are sold out to God? That you are devoted to him?

Do the decisions made in your soul demonstrate that you are committed to God? That you love him with all your soul?

Are you a lover of self? A lover of money? Are you a lover of pleasure rather than a lover of God?

You can evaluate yourself fairly easily. It comes down to the choices you make. Ask yourself: How do I spend my money? What do I do with my time? What kinds of things do I read? What programs do I watch? Where do I go for relaxation? What kinds of friends do I have?

Here's another way you can take a personal inventory. Imagine Jesus with you at any given time during the week. Imagine him sitting on the couch, watching TV with you. Or imagine him riding home from work with you in the car, listening to the radio. Or think of him looking over your shoulder while you're sitting at the computer. Are you comfortable with that? Or would you feel self-conscious about your activities with Jesus there?

Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. (1 Peter 2:11, NASB)

Do your choices in these areas show that your soul is sold out to God? Do your choices in these areas reflect your love and your commitment to God? Or are there other affections that have captured you? Are there other interests that have taken your soul away? Are there other activities that have consumed your soul?

Jesus said, ²⁵ "For whoever wishes to save his life [psuchḗ] will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. ²⁶ For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul [psuchḗ]? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matt 16:25-26, NASB)