“‘You
shall love the Lord your God with all your … soul …’ This is the first and great commandment.”
(Matthew
22:34-38 NKJV)
Like snowflakes, every human soul is unique. In giving the greatest commandment, Jesus and Moses are not referring to Plato’s concept of the “soul”—i.e., that a soul is “eternal” (existing in the past and in the future, before and after entering an individual’s body on Earth; that it can “remember” things it “knew” in its ideal world before entering a body, that this “pre-knowledge” can be accessed by asking Socratic questions, etc.). These concepts of the soul are Plato’s, not the Bible’s. Genesis, on the other hand, taught that Adam’s soul did not exist until God breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath (or spirit) of life (Genesis 2:7). Jesus taught that not all souls continue to exist (quasi-eternally) after death. Jesus warned: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28 NKJV). Contrasted with Plato’s concept of “soul,” Jesus-following-Moses-in-Genesis 2:7 recalls that God formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living “soul.” In simplest terms, your “soul” is your life. If one loves God with all of one’s soul, it means, first of all, that one will gladly surrender one’s life for the sake of God. The Gospel of Mark makes this martyr attitude one of its key features. Many Christian martyrs throughout the years have done precisely that—surrendered their lives for God’s sake. Jesus went them all one better; He surrendered his perfect life not only for the sake of God, but also for our sakes. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: than to lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 NKJV). Similarly, husbands are called upon by the Apostle Paul to love their wives in such a way that they would surrender their lives for their wives’ sakes (Ephesians 5:25).
In addition, the Greek word for soul (ψυχή/psychē), since it is connected with a study of personality, reflects a secondary aspect of even the Hebrew soul (נֶפֶשׁ /nephesh). That secondary aspect is the unique personality or psyche (soul flake, like a snow flake) of every human being. With the rise of the internet as it pertains to marketing, specialists now tend to emphasize psychographics more than demographics. Demographics (as relied upon by advertisers in recent centuries) were content to place us each in various categories based on sex, race, religion, age, occupation, political party, etc., and then design advertisements that would appeal to that specific demographic group. We were seen, not as individuals, but as members of groups. However, with the internet’s ability to identify the unique elements in our personalities and with the internet’s huge data storage capabilities, marketers are now more able to reach out to each of us as unique individuals, with personal tastes and interest not necessarily linked to our demographic categories.
What does all of that mean when interpreting the greatest commandment? In one of my multiple doctoral programs at various academic institutions, I availed myself of the opportunity to take a course under Dr. Clyde Narramore. Most Christians would be more familiar with one of Narramore’s famous students—Dr. James Dobson, founder and host of Focus on the Family—but Narramore himself was a pioneer in applying the academic discipline of psychology to Christian counseling. As Dobson’s mentor, Narramore guided Dobson to pursue academic psychology. Later, Dobson interviewed Narramore in a segment of his Focus on the Family radio program entitled Clyde Narramore: Mentor and Friend.
On page xi of my book The Seven Cs of Stress: A Burkean Approach, I acknowledge: “[T]he seeds for this study [i.e., my book] were planted by Professor Clyde Narramore [who] … taught a course on stress management … in the Summer of 1991.” In that same course, Narramore also argued that the role of parents is to help their children discover themselves. I am paraphrasing, here, but I understood Narramore to be suggesting that job of parents is to help discover and analyze their children’s unique aptitudes and natures and help and encourage the children to develop those aptitudes and natures into (frequently unique) life skills, activities, and careers. Of course, we should not limit ourselves to helping our children; as mentioned earlier, Narramore served as a mentor in guiding James Dobson into academic psychology. We analyze and encourage each other to discover one another’s unique aptitudes and natures and help to develop those aptitudes and natures into (unique) life skills, activities, and careers. “Know thyself” is an ancient Greek maxim, inscribed on the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Whatever the meaning of the maxim may have been originally for ancient Greeks, Plato redirected the meaning to this sense: Know your soul (ψυχή/psychē). Know what makes you unique—your aptitudes and nature.
Frankly, this process of self-analysis occurs throughout our lifetimes. Twentieth century American psychologist Abraham Maslow observed that humans have a hierarchy of needs—those things that motivate us to pursue various actions. Firstly, we have physiological needs (such as air, water, food, shelter, sleep, and clothing). When people say that they work to put a roof over their heads, food on the table, and clothes on their backs, they are motivated by Maslow’s first level of needs. Secondly, we have safety needs (such as personal security and health). When people turn down good-paying jobs, working on high-rise construction, off-shore drilling, mining operations, etc. to, instead, accept lower wages working in safer environments with health insurance benefits, they exhibit the second level of needs. Thirdly, we have love and belonging needs (such as friendship, family, and a sense of belonging). Once we have a roof over our heads, food and clothing, and are working in a safe environment, we may change jobs because we have no interaction with other people. We want to make and have friends. We want to spend more time with our family, where we experience belonging. Fourthly, we have esteem needs (such as status, respect, and recognition). Even though we have friends and family, we like to feel as if we excel at something, we have achieved something, we demand some respect, so we attempt to climb the corporate ladder or pursue honorific professions. Fifthly, and finally, Maslow observes that we have self-actualization needs (the desire to become the most that we can be). We thoroughly self-analyze. We try to discover what makes us unique—our aptitudes and nature. As the Army recruiting slogan for two decades states: “Be all that you can be!”
This (self-actualization) is what loving God with all your soul (ψυχή/psyche) is all about: Analyze yourself, your aptitudes and nature, and then strive with everything inside of you to use all of your unique qualities in the service of God. Don’t be content to restrict your Christian activities to setting up chairs in the church, if your unique talents and capabilities could offer so much more. Don’t get me wrong. Chairs do need to be set up and your need for status should not preclude your being humble. Even Jesus washed people’s feet. If your unique set of aptitudes and abilities has already placed you among the highly honored in your community, you have the unique opportunity to teach the importance of humility—just as President Jimmy Carter worked in the construction of homes for Habitat for Humanity. Nevertheless, just because you can work building houses, never forget that, if you are presidential material, the world needs Christian politicians and statesmen. If you have academic aptitudes, the world needs Christian teachers, professors, and scholars. Even if marksmanship is your unique aptitude, the world needs excellent snipers to protect the safety of our political leaders, as a recent assassination attempt on President Donald Trump demonstrated. Know thyself! Find out what you have the unique aptitude to be really good at, and then practice, hone, and refine your abilities. Study to prepare for God to use you. Spend as much time as you have spent refining your abilities searching for the best ways to use your talents and abilities for God. Then, get engaged in those activities. In short, love the Lord your God with all your soul!
This post concludes a series of four posts unpacking the “Greatest Commandment.” In the third post, we considered the term “heart,” based on the commandment to “Love the Lord your God with all your “heart.” In the second post, we considered how one breaks the Greatest Commandment, by expressly believing in and attributing God’s works to false deities who would stand in opposition to the Lord God, such as Beelzebub, notions of “rebel fallen angels,” Lucifer, and Demons. There are no deities who stand in opposition to the Lord God. Whoever believes in them, at least, comes close to committing the unforgiveable sin.
This brings us back to the first post: the Shema teaches monotheism, but not just any monotheism. There appears to be a trend among biblical scholars to suggest that the Bible teaches something called “monolatry,” rather than monotheism—the view that although the various “gods” of the nations do exist, the Bible commands us to worship only the one God YHWH. I totally reject that view. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:18, “idols” and “demons” are the same thing and in 1 Corinthians 8:4: “We know that no idol really exists; that there is no God but one.” Revelation 9:20 agrees that demons (like idols) are nothing. He writes of unrepentant men who worshiped the “works of their hands”—“demons and golden idols, and silver, and bronze, and wooden, which are not able to see, nor hear, nor walk.”
In addition to the error posed by monolatry, many founders of American democracy flirted with “deism.” Although the majority of founding fathers “generally continue[d] their public affiliation with Christianity, … [Non-Christian] Deists, such as Thomas Paine “argued that human experience and rationality—rather than religious dogma and mystery—determine the validity of human beliefs. … Paine … postulat[ed] a distant deity whom he called “Nature’s God” (a term also used in the Declaration of Independence). … Non-Christian Deists such as Paine refused to use Judeo-Christian terminology and described God with such expressions as “Providence,” “the Creator,” “the Ruler of Great Events,” and “Nature’s God” (https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Founding-Fathers-Deism-and-Christianity-1272214). Despite the “monotheistic sound” of deistic terminology, deism (along with the many “tolerant” versions of monotheism present today, as Americans accept any and every notion of God), such forms of monotheism will not suffice in fulfilling the Greatest Commandment. Why? Because all of the laws associated with the second greatest commandment are given by the one true God, YHWH. They are not open to debate. Using Thomas Paine’s “human experience and rationality—rather than religious dogma and mystery—determine[d] … beliefs,” we are left with the crazy set of political correctness laws that are in vogue in the world, today.
Starting with my
next post, we will begin to examine the laws of God, YHWH, as they constitute
the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.
