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Glory · Who We Are
The Bible uses heart, soul, and mind not as separable compartments of a person but as ways of describing the whole person in our various aspects. The heart is the inner center of a person, the seat of will and affection; the soul is the whole self, the living person; the mind is our understanding and thought life. Scripture calls us to love God with all of them, not as parts but as the whole self given wholly to Him.
https://glorystudy.com/questions/what-is-the-difference-between-the-heart-soul-and-mind · Scripture quoted from the World English Bible
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
As you read: With all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might: the whole person in love.
4Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one.
5You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
6These words, which I command you this day, shall be on your heart;
7and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.
8You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.
9You shall write them on the door posts of your house, and on your gates.
Matthew 22:34-40
As you read: Jesus joins heart, soul, and mind in the one command to love God.
34But the Pharisees, when they heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, gathered themselves together.
35One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him.
36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?”
37Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
38This is the first and great commandment.
39A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
40The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
As you read: Paul prays the whole person, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless.
16Rejoice always.
17Pray without ceasing.
18In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.
19Don’t quench the Spirit.
20Don’t despise prophesies.
21Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good.
22Abstain from every form of evil.
23May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24He who calls you is faithful, who will also do it.
Mark 7:14-23
As you read: Jesus traces the defilement of the whole person to what comes out of the heart.
14He called all the multitude to himself, and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand.
15There is nothing from outside of the man, that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man.
16If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”
17When he had entered into a house away from the multitude, his disciples asked him about the parable.
18He said to them, “Are you thus without understanding also? Don’t you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can’t defile him,
19because it doesn’t go into his heart, but into his stomach, then into the latrine, thus purifying all foods?”
20He said, “That which proceeds out of the man, that defiles the man.
21For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts,
22covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness.
23All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”
When Scripture lists heart, soul, and mind, it is not teaching that we are made of three detachable parts; it is describing the whole person in our depths, our life, and our thinking. The command is single: 'You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might,' and Jesus repeats it with heart, soul, and mind. Paul prays that 'your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless.' These are windows into the same self, calling us to love God with everything we are.
“You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.”Deuteronomy 6:5
“Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’”Matthew 22:37
“May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”1 Thessalonians 5:23
“you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’This is the first commandment.”Mark 12:30
In Scripture the heart is the inner wellspring of the person, where will, desire, and character meet. Proverbs says, 'Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life,' and Jesus teaches that 'out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries... false testimony.' Jeremiah warns that 'the heart is deceitful above all things,' and God's new-covenant promise is to write His law on the heart. The heart is who we truly are before God, and He looks on it.
“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.”Proverbs 4:23
“But the things which proceed out of the mouth come out of the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies.”Matthew 15:18-19
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?”Jeremiah 17:9
“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies.”Matthew 15:19
The word for soul often means the whole person, one's very life. At creation 'man became a living soul,' and Jesus asks, 'What will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his life?' He says those who lose their soul for His sake will save it, and He lays down His life a ransom for many. When the soul is at stake, the whole person is at stake, and God's care reaches to the whole person He made.
“Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”Genesis 2:7
“For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?”Matthew 16:26
“May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”1 Thessalonians 5:23
“For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?”Mark 8:36
The mind is the theatre of our thoughts and understanding, and Scripture calls for its renewal and surrender. Paul commands, 'Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,' and he urges us to think on 'whatever things are true... whatever things are honorable' and to bring 'every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.' Loving God with the mind means letting our thinking be formed by truth and our reason bow to Christ.
“Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.”Romans 12:2
“Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there is any virtue, and if there is any praise, think about these things.”Philippians 4:8
“throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ;”2 Corinthians 10:5
“Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’”Matthew 22:37
These words are not rival parts to be balanced but the whole self to be given. The heart without the mind can drift into superstition, and the mind without the heart into coldness; so Jesus commands love with all of both, and Paul's prayer is for 'your whole spirit, soul, and body' to be kept blameless. To love God with the heart is to love with the whole center of our being; with the soul, with our very life; with the mind, with our best thinking, and with the body, with our actual obedience. It is one consecration of one person to one God.
“Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’”Matthew 22:37
“May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”1 Thessalonians 5:23
“You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.”Deuteronomy 6:5
“Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.”Romans 12:1