What Does Matthew 22:37 Mean?
Jesus said to him, You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your living soul, and with all your mind.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
The heart, soul, and mind are not separate compartments of devotion; together they name your whole living self in love.
THE MEANING
Love for God reaches your inner center, your living self, and your understanding. Nothing in you stands outside that relationship: thought and life belong within it as much as feeling does.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that devotion is only an emotion, while your thoughts and ordinary life belong somewhere else.
THE ROOT
ψυχή
psychē
GROWS FROM
ψυχ-
psych-
The Greek word family names the living self, life, or person.
“living soul” in this verse is psychē. Here “soul” is the living person, not a detachable part of you. The same Greek noun can also mean “life,” so the verse gathers your whole lived existence into its picture of love.
ALSO GROWS
psychē: Living soul; life; person
ψυχή
The same noun can name a person’s life, showing that “soul” includes the life you are living.
psychikos: Natural; belonging to living existence
ψυχικός
This related adjective keeps the word family tied to the living self, rather than to an isolated spiritual compartment.
διάνοια
dianoia
GROWS FROM
νοῦς / νοέω (nous / noeō)
To understand, think, or perceive.
The mind here includes understanding and thought: love reaches how you make sense of what you encounter. Your understanding belongs within the whole-person response the verse describes.
ALSO GROWS
nous: Mind; understanding
νοῦς
This related word makes clear that the family concerns perception and understanding, not only passing thoughts.
noēma: Thought; intention
νόημα
This branch brings the family into the thoughts and intentions that shape how you see and respond.
ἀγαπήσεις
agapēseis
GROWS FROM
ἀγαπ-
agap-
Love; regard with affection or care.
The Greek uses a verb: love is an active orientation of the whole person, not a feeling confined to the heart. The verse places your living self and understanding within that love.
ALSO GROWS
agapē: Love
ἀγάπη
The related noun names the love that the verse expresses as an action of the whole person.
agapētos: Beloved; dearly loved
ἀγαπητός
This related word shows the same family describing a person held in love.
THE PATTERN
Love reaches through the whole person, joining inward life with embodied response.
And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your living soul, and with all your might.Therefore I urge you, brothers, through the compassions of God, to set your bodies beside God as a living sacrifice, set apart, well-pleasing to him, which is your true service.And may the God of wholeness himself set you apart through and through, and may your whole breath, living soul, and body be kept blameless until the presence of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.THE THREAD
And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your living soul, and with all your might.Matthew’s words carry the Shema’s whole-person pattern forward: לֵבָב (levav, heart or inner person), נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh, living soul or life), and מְאֹד (me’od, might or full strength) all belong within love of God. Matthew names the mind explicitly, making clear that understanding, too, is part of that whole.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us