Luke 10:25-29 – “And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?”  27 And he answered, “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” 28 And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; DO THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE.”  29 But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” NASB

There are several messages that could and should come from this passage, but I want to focus on the ALL in “All Your Heart.”  All means all of what it is talking about and here ALL means TOTALITY.

Jesus was being challenged by a lawyer about eternal life.  The lawyer, like so many, was looking for some means to discredit Jesus’ message and to establish a means whereby to justify himself.  He asked, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”  

Jesus, as He often did, answered the question by making the man think saying, “What is written in the Law?  How does it read to you?”  The man gave a correct response – “You shall love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, and with ALL your soul, and with ALL your strength, and with ALL your mind; and your neighbors as yourself.”  Once Jesus acknowledged the correctness of this statement, he continued to look for a loophole and asked, “Who is my neighbor?”  Wrong focus leads to wrong conclusions and wrong destinations.

Back to the response – With ALL your heart, soul, strength, and mind – – Simply with your ENTIRE BEING!  Love Him with everything in you and at all times.  Love Him supremely above everything in this life. 

With that kind of devotion to the Lord, you will find that it is easy to follow his directives because as you love God you draw near to God.  And as you draw near to God you come to know God.  And as you come to know God you grow in love for or with God.  In that state of love, you can love your neighbor as yourself because you see your neighbor as God’s creation, and loving God you love His creation.  You may not like their actions or even ideology, but you can and must love them.

Loving God enables you to love His word.  Loving God enables you to love others.  Loving God enables you to hate sin.  Loving God is the beginning point of spiritual life and without that foundation, there is no development spiritually.

May God be with you as you go through your day!