What Does it Mean to Love God with All Your Mind?

The 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time–Part 1

Luke 10:25-37

In this Sunday’s gospel reading Jesus gives us the Great Commandment and then demonstrates how we can fulfill it.

The first gospel to be written, Mark, has a parallel passage (12:28-31). So does Matthew (22:34-40). In those gospels it is Jesus who gives us the Great Commandment. Luke has the lawyer say these words, but he probably heard them from Jesus, as Jesus replies, “You have answered right.”

Luke may have wanted the lawyer to say the Great Commandment because this lawyer goes on to press Jesus, “who is my neighbor?” This sets up the beautiful, familiar story of the Good Samaritan.

Jesus got these two commandments from two different places in the Old Testament. The first commandment is from Deuteronomy 6:5. But Jesus adds something to the Deuteronomy text!

I think what Jesus adds  is critical for us to love and understand him.

Moses says in Deuteronomy 6:5, “…and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”

In Luke 10:27 we read, “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.” Jesus has added that we should love God with our mind.

What does it mean to love God with all your mind? The first point is that we can see faith and reason are not enemies, but friends. Some Christians believe faith and reason are opposed to one another and that faith is superior for arriving at the truth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fideism Catholics and many other churches reject this idea. God gave us a mind and there is no reason to believe our minds are an obstacle to knowing and loving God. On the contrary!

The Greek word we translate as “mind” is thianoiᾳ. It has some different connotations than “mind,” however. It can refer to the imagination and to especially deep thought. I think God gave us an imagination so we can use it to love God more profoundly.  In addition, thianoiᾳ has a more active implication than mind, as it refers to the exercise of our mind. We could even translate it as, “you shall love the Lord you God with all your thinking.”

Why Do We Need Two Commandments?

With creative fidelity to the Hebrew Scripture, Jesus demonstrates beautifully what it means to love God with your all your mind in this passage. First, by using his imagination to add the commandment to love God with all your mind to the Deuteronomy text. Second, by placing alongside it another commandment from Leviticus 19:18: “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus is brilliant to see that loving God and loving your neighbor are the two great tasks of the spiritual life. God gave us two legs to walk. To progress in the spiritual life, you have to love both God and neighbor. Each one helps us to fulfill the other one more deeply.

Some of us find it easier to do one, rather than the other. But I have found you need to do them both if you want to either one well. Some people are tough to love, but through prayer, God will give you the grace you need to realize God loves them as much as anyone else–including you! Spending time with God in prayer is essential, but it is empty unless it leads to serving our neighbors in need, as the Good Samaritan does. Spend enough time praying, and God will tell you to get out there and serve.

The Hebrew Scriptures are vast, the Jewish law can be complicated. Jesus had the insight to see the connection between these two commandments and to understand they are what matter most. Jesus has made it simple, but it is far from easy!

To follow Jesus, we also need to love God with all our mind. Like him, we need to read the Bible with a creative fidelity. We can trust the Holy Spirit will guide us, to help us make it real. Just living out the profound inter-connection between love of God and love of neighbor is already challenge enough for a lifetime!

God knows, reason has its limits. Just like (this) life, our faith has mysteries beyond our comprehension. But God gave us a mind and we need to use it to come closer to becoming the kind of person God wants us to be.

In my next post on this Sunday’s gospel reading, I will take a look at the story of the Good Samaritan. I think we often miss that here, as usual, Jesus does not quite answer the precise question he is asked, and in his answer challenges the assumptions of his questioner.