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I read ALOT. I love to read. I haven’t always been this way, in fact I used to hate to read. But now, I read so much I don’t have time to write down thoughts. So, today I am taking the time to share some awesome thoughts I from a book I have been reading called ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. (I recommend this book to anyone as a fresh, thoughtful, yet accessible work on the centrality of Jesus.)
…Anyway in the chapter entitled Three…Two…One…Engage! Frost and Hirsch lay out an beautiful and biblically sound picture of what faith is. As the post title suggests, there are three elements which make up true biblical faith: head, hands, heart. At different points along the way, Christians (myself included) have unfortunately lost the balance of each of these three as geniune elements of faith.
As they point out for far too long the church has focused on orthodoxy (right belief) as the litmus test for those who are in and out. While this is an element–yes a critical element–it is not the only element of biblical faith. Justified critique has come along to demonstrate that the Word is about action too–I think the books of James and most of the minor prophets have much to say about this.
At other points in history groups within the church focused solely on action–what some have called the “social gospel”–to the exclusion of orthodoxy. Their mantra was, “Doctrine divides while ethics unite.” The liberal church has demonstrated to us that when you throw out the Word and Orthodoxy as unimportant you get an empty dead moralism–lots of action but hardly can be recongizable as salt and light.
Some have said that my generation in particular is “passionate about being passionate.” I think this is also a justified critique. Scripture also warns about zeal without knowledge (Rom 10:2).
Jesusof course had it all right when He was asked what is the greatest commandment. To which He replied, “Love God with all that you are: all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. The second is love your neighbor–every human being–as yourself.”
The heart is the seat of the emotion–the passion which has a direct impact on our will. Our mind is of course our head and thought processes. Our soul is that which overlaps with our mind and heart. This is what controls our actions. Strength is another way of talking about our bodies. (The word in Hebrew for strenght from Deut 6:5, which Jesus is quoting here, is literally “muchness” or “force.” So it turns this idea up quite a bit saying, that we are to love God in a way that we exhaust our bodies for Him.)
Love is the very important qualifier, which biblically speaking, touches on truth in each of these areas. To love God with our mind is to think thoughts after God. It is to see things as He sees them as He has shown us in the Word. To love God with our heart is to be emotionally and passionately pursuing Him. To love God with our soul means that we willfully act in ways that demonstrate our love for Him. In a word this is obedience. To love God with our strenght mean that we, in the words of Paul, offer our physical bodies as living sacrifices to God and avoid conformity to this world but seek to conform in totality to Christ (Rom 12:1-2).
Where is my head today?
Where are my hands today?
Where is my heart today?
