Lost in Translation: Matthew 22:37-40

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

(Personal Note: My recent health problems with a series of mini-strokes appears to be mostly behind me. I wanted to thank you all for your prayers. Gary)

For most of the next few months, my articles will be examining some of Jesus’s most popular verses, which I have posted for reference here. We have already covered the first of these, John 3:16, in a Lost in Translation article.

This article is inspired by a letter on Andrew Klavin’s substack, The New Jerusalem. In his letter, Gone with the Windy, He starts by quoting Paul’s1 Corinthians 13 about how if we have all the spiritual powers of prophecy, understanding of mysteries, all knowledge; and all faith mean nothing if we lack “charity.” We can give all our goods to the poor, and still lack “charity.” The word “charity” is the Greek agape, usually translated as “love” (see this article about the two Greek words we call “love.”).

Klavin then goes on to discuss the meaning of agape.

And [agape] can’t just be about what you feel. Feelings come and go. What then? Not in windy words. Practically speaking. What is it? How do I get it?

If agape for God and for neighbor is the basis of all law and scripture, it must be some powerful connection, a way of relating spirit to spirit that brings God and neighbor into the circle of your self-love.

Here, we attempt to answer his wondering in the context of the Jesus verse Klavin references above. Jesus implies that agape is “the basis of all law and scripture” in Matthew 22:40, but that verse is introduced by Matthew 22:37:

KJV: Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Listeners Heard: You should give care to Master, that Divine of yours, in a whole heart of yours, and in a whole, that self of yours, and in a whole, that thinking of yours.

The verses following this, Matthew 22:38, 39,and 40 put this commandment into perspective.

KJV: This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Listeners Heard: This is the great and first commandment. A second is like itself: You should care for those nearby to you as yourself. Within these, the two commandments, the entire law is hung and the prophets.

The Responsibility

The verb translated as "love" in Matthew 22:37 is agapao, the verb form of agape. When Jesus uses it, agapao is almost always associated with an action, an action that fulfills a responsibility. The noun form, agape, means "love of a spouse" "love of God" and "charity,” the word used in the translation of Paul. Both loving God and a spouse have certain specific responsibilities attached to them, as does biblical “charity,” the duty of giving alms to the poor.

Agapao as an emotion is a feeling of responsibility, not one of passion or fondness. The English “giving care” comes the closest. While “to care” can mean a feeling, “giving care” is a responsibility to perform certain actions. When we talk about “caregivers,” we focus on this sense of action. So, when Paul says we must have “charity,” he is saying we must be caregivers. Before our modern age, caring for others was assumed to be a major part of everyone’s lives, starting with caring for children. Those that didn’t have this responsibility were pitied. Modern people, including most Christians, seek to find ways to escape from that responsibility as well as others. This caring starts with the responsibilities we feel in our own hearts, selves, and minds.

Agape starts with our responsibility toward the Divine. In researching this article, I found that most Christians describe our responsibility to God primarily in terms of “obedience.” This is a straight-jacket. For me, my primary responsibility to the Divine is to appreciate Him as I see him in his creation and the Bible: his humor, his sense of beauty, and the cleverness of his ideas. This appreciation should give rise to both affection and awe. Agape is the word that the Evangelist John, uses to describe his relationship with Jesus. It was one of responsibility, including the responsibility for writing his gospel.

Heart, Soul, and Mind

So what does it mean to have responsibility to the Divine with our hearts, souls, and minds? These concepts are all discussed in this article about Jesus’s use of these three Greek words, and those related to them, to describe our humanity, but let us summarize. The heart is the seat of our emotions. These feelings are what drives our actions. The “soul” is the intersection of our spirit, bodies, and minds: the “self” that we identify ourselves as in this world. The mind is the home of our ability to perceive logos, the deeper, abstract, meaning behind words.

Feelings start out, that is “come from” our hearts. These feelings are what gives us the energy to act. We must feel our sense of duty to the Divine and order to “give care” to anything. Without a feeling for the Divine, life feel pointless and empty. This caring should start with our gratitude to the Divine for giving us life, the laws of nature, and history’s record of live’s rules in our ancient writings. If we don’t feel gratitude for these things, we will never take the responsibility for becoming a caregiver for these gifts of the Divine and passing them on.

The “soul” is our sense of “self” our existence at this time and place in the world (see this article, Is the "Self" the Same as the "Soul" or "Life?"). While this “self” can be the source of our selfishness, we can prevent that by recognizing the divine nature of our self-awareness. This consciousness connects us to the Divine and all other people. If we abuse those responsibilities to the Divine and others, we feel dishonor. Our acts honoring our responsibilities to the Divine become a source of ego gratification and pride. This “selfish” giving of care is the basis for our lives having a higher purpose.

The last place we usually understand our responsibilities are in our minds by comprehending the logos, that is, the logic of the world. Religion doesn’t start with learning any catechism. It starts with our minds trying to grasp the higher lessons of our lives, the higher nature of things, their divine nature. For me, that came from studying science and trying to make sense of all the contradictory laws of nature. I found them too whimsical not to be the product of the highest of all possible consciousness, with a deep sense of humor. Over and over again, we discover “scientific laws” that are completely solid until we examine them more and more closely, at which point, they dissolve into contradictions and complexity. These patterns challenge our minds and they all point to a source that is beyond time, beyond human reason, and the font of all power.

Jesus recognizes that our hearts, selves, and minds are “whole.” They are each a complete worldview. Our feelings motivate our actions in every aspect of our lives. We have feelings about everything. Our selves are the centers of our personal universe. Our logic, right or wrong, explains every aspect of our world that we care to explain. Each is a component of being human, but each is consistent within itself.

However, our hearts, selves, and mind cannot be consistent with each other unless they all bow to the Divine. People lead fragmented lives when they try to live without a sense of responsibility toward the Highest.