Love God with All Your.... (Mark 12:30-31)

Do you love God? Do you love Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength (Mk 12:30-31)? What does this even mean?

This leaves no room whatsoever for loving God partially, or with loving God with only a part of ourselves. Jesus, quoting Dt 6:5 and Lev 19:18, emphatically emphasizes that loving God must be without any reservation, and that it must include loving those who are not a part of our family or inner circle. My wife will certainly be grieved and saddened greatly if I ever said or expressed to her that, "I love you sometimes, and I am faithful to you most of the time."

What does loving God with our entire being and our entire self mean?

• Love the Lord with all your heart is a matter of character.
• Love the Lord with all your soul is a matter of conviction.
• Love the Lord with all your mind is a matter of comprehension
• Love the Lord with all your strength is a matter of competence
• Love your neighbor is a matter of compassion.

(This is from a lecture by Oscar Muriu given at the Willow Creek Association Global Leadership Summit. Muriu's title is "Viral Leadership: Multiplying your impact exponentially." He is the Senior Pastor of Nairobi Chapel in Kenya.)