Global GospelSample

Loving God with All Your Mind

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37–40)

When Jesus commands us to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, he paints a picture of devotion that engages the whole person. In the Jewish tradition, the “mind” is not only the seat of intellect but also the place where decisions, convictions, and discernment take shape. To love God with all our mind means cultivating a thought life rooted in God’s truth, allowing our intellect to be shaped by Scripture, and committing our reasoning to serve the purposes of God.

Loving God with all our mind invites an integrated life of worship—one that unites thinking, feeling, and doing. The “mind” anchors this integration by discerning God’s ways and helping us live faithfully in complex contexts. In Whole and Reconciled, missiologist Al Tizon writes that our love for God must be “holistic, not compartmentalized,” that we refuse to separate our private devotion from our public action. When our mind is renewed, we can imagine possibilities for God’s kingdom that go beyond self-interest, cultural conditioning, or fear.

Throughout the global church, believers demonstrate this kind of intellectual love in diverse ways: a pastor in the Middle East learning how to frame the gospel in terms meaningful to their neighbors; an educator in Latin America developing literacy programs so that children can read Scripture for themselves; a healthcare worker in Africa researching solutions for preventable diseases. These are not simply acts of service—they are expressions of a mind fully engaged in loving God and neighbor.

Loving God with all our minds invites us to become lifelong learners in the school of Christ. We allow our studies, our news consumption, our daily conversations, and our long-term plans to be shaped by God’s truth and purposes. This love sharpens our capacity to resist injustice, recognize truth amid distortion, and see each person as made in God’s image.

Reflection Question

Where might theHoly Spirit be inviting you to bring more of your mind into your love for God through study, reflection, or wise discernment in action?

Prayer

Lord, renew my mind so that my thoughts, plans, and imagination are aligned with you. Teach me to think in ways that reflect your truth and to reason in ways that build your kingdom. Amen.