Talking Points with President Woodford: All of You Belongs to God

All of you belongs to God. Your heart. Your mind. Your body and soul. All of you. Jesus teaches us this when he answers a Pharisee’s question: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matt. 22:36-37).

Consider the first part of the command: “You shall love the Lord with all your heart.” The Greek word for heart is καρδία (car-dia). You can hear it in the source of our English words like cardiac and cardiology. But the biblical word means much more than the physical organ of the heart. It describes the center of the inner person. More directly, it refers to the seat of one’s desires, the core of one’s commitments, and the wellspring of one’s affections and trust. This is especially important because modern Americans tend to hear the word “heart” and think it refers to your “feelings” rather than the central make up and constitution of our being.

Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy 6:5. The Old Testament Hebrew understanding bears this out as well. The Hebrew word for “heart” in this verse is לֵבָב (levav) and refers to the place where one thinks. In other words, the place where one decides, wills, and trusts. This is far more than the physical organ, and more than mere feelings.

“Love the Lord with all your heart” is to let God possess your deepest allegiance, your strongest desire, your most intimate affection, and the most confident trust of your inner life. It asks us: What do I desire most? What do I fear losing most? Where do I run when I am afraid? What do I think will finally make me safe? What do I believe I cannot live without? The answer to these questions reveals the god of your heart.

Think of it like a compass needle. It always points to true north. Even when bumped, though it may wobble, it continually seeks north. So also, the Christian heart. Your heart experiences things like grief, fear, excitement, disappointment, and confusion, but faith continually turns your heart back toward its true north. Back to the Lord Jesus.

The question, then, is not whether your emotions fluctuate or wobble. They will. The question is: Where does the needle finally settle? Where it does is the “heart” of your being. All of you belongs to God.

Next: “Love the Lord with all your ‘soul.’” The Greek word for “soul” is ψυχή (psu-ke). You can hear in it the English word psyche, which also gives us psychology. However, the biblical word does not simply mean the modern use of “psyche” or consciousness. It’s much deeper and richer. It denotes your “inner life,” your “living being,” your very “soul.”

Here again, the Old Testament Hebrew is particularly helpful. Since Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 6:5, the Old Testament Hebrew word for “soul” is נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh). That word frequently means the “whole living person” or “one’s very life.” It makes clear that human beings do not have a soul, but we are a soul—an enflesh spirit—an embodied soul.

That helps us hear (psu-ke) “soul” correctly. It is not merely: “Love the Lord with the spiritual part inside you.” It’s much closer to: “Love the Lord with your very life, your whole existence — body, soul —with every fiber of your being.”

Thus to “love the Lord with all your soul” means your life belongs to Him. Not simply your Sunday thoughts. Not merely your religious sentiments. Your existence. Your days. Your future. Your death. Your resurrection. Your entire living self - past, present, and future!

That’s why Paul says it this way to the Corinthians: “You are not your own, you were bought with a price. So glorify God with your body.” (1 Cor. 6:19–20). God creates, redeems, and sanctifies the whole human person. Christian faith is lived bodily rather than as an escape from our embodied existence. Love the Lord with all your soul. All of you belongs to God.

The last of the three is “love the Lord with all of your mind.” This one is often the least emphasized. The Greek word used for “mind” by Matthew is διάνοια (dianoia). But it’s really two words put together that point us to something more than the brain.

It’s made up of the word dia for “through” and nous for “mind.” When put together, it literally means “through the mind” or more specifically, “thought running through the mind.” So, dianoia refers to our “understanding,” our “intellect,” and our “faculty of thinking.”

Thus “love the Lord with all your mind” means to think under God. Bring your reason, imagination, judgment, intellectual curiosity, and worldview under the authority of God’s Word. Christian faith, you see, does not ask Christians to stop thinking. It asks them to think faithfully. Take your mind captive to the Word of God. “Do not be conformed to this world” says Paul, “but be transformed by the renewal of your mind...” (Rom. 12:2).

Christianity has never required you to stop thinking, imagining, or learning. Quite the opposite. The Christian is free to investigate the world because the Christian knows whose world it is. We study biology because God made life. We study physics because God made matter. We study history because God acts in history. We study literature because human beings made in God’s image tell stories. We study language because we have a God who speaks, where the Word became flesh. We pursue truth because all truth belongs to He who is the way, the truth, and the life. All of you belongs to God.

Every faculty of the human person belongs to the love of God. You are “to love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” The word “all” is common to each. So, what happens when you don’t?

Even here, all of you belongs to God. The obedient parts and the disobedient parts. Wounded hearts, searching souls, and wondering minds. All of you belongs to God. Jesus has bought and paid for you through His shed blood. He knows your weaknesses. He knows your failures. He knows your shortcomings, your biases, your arrogance, and your lack of love for others. And He went to the cross of Calvary to make you His.

So, it’s not, “Christians, work harder to give your heart to Jesus.” Instead, it is Christ Jesus who possesses a pure heart, and where your heart falters, His remains pointed toward the Father. Where yours trusts in idols, His delights in the Heavenly Father. He does not merely demand a right heart; He gives you a clean heart. As the liturgy prays: “Create in me a clean heart, O God…” (Ps. 51:10).

So, it’s not, “Christians, pledge your soul to perfection.” Instead, it is, “He who knew no sin became sin for us.” (2 Cor. 5:21). Where your soul is darkened, His is filled with light. Where yours is beaten and battered, His was raised from the dead. Jesus does not merely demand your whole being, He redeems it and makes your embodied soul to be “a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God” (Rom. 12:1).

So, it’s not, “Christians, think harder about Jesus.” Instead, Christ Jesus possesses the perfect mind. Where our minds wander, His remained fixed upon His Father’s will. Where we swallow falsehood, He answered Satan: “It is written.” Where our thinking becomes prideful, fearful, and lustful, Christ’s mind remained perfectly obedient to His Father. That’s why the Apostle Paul tells us to “have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor. 2:16)

Jesus does not merely demand your mind. He renews it. Through the Gospel, through baptism, through the Lord’s Supper—all of you—belongs to Christ, all of you receives His gifts, hears His Word, and is conformed to His way of seeing reality.

All of you belongs to God. Your heart. Your mind. Your body and soul. All of you belongs to God.

In Christ,