Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 6:5, And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and will all your soul, and with all your might.
Approximately thirteen hundred years later, Yeshua, repeated those words as recorded in Mark chapter 12.
When asked by a scribe, “which is the first commandment?”
Yeshua replied, “It is written that you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all our soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength; this is the first commandment.”
It’s interesting that Christ added the word mind to the ancient scripture.
He had already used the term heart in this passage. The word, levav, in Hebrew means heart, but it has a dual meaning of mind and heart.
In Hebrew, the heart is believed to be the center of thought and spiritual life.
It makes sense that Yeshua would add the word mind to the ancient text, because Christ stressed the importance of the thought life in his teachings.
Their religion had taught them that it was the physical act of doing something that produced error or sin, but in the teachings of Christ, he included things that went on in the mind as well.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ was teaching his disciples when he said, “you have heard it said of them of old time, that you shall not kill and whoever does is in danger of the judgement.”
“But I say to you, that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgement.”
The teachings of Christ focused on addressing the issues of the mind /heart rather than just taking care of the outward appearance.
Yeshua called the religious leaders white washed sepulchers, which was his way of saying that the outside was beautiful and appeared perfect, but inside was putrid and full of dead men’s bones.
A great example of Christ calling a Pharisee out occurred when Yeshua was invited to dinner.
The Pharisees not only practiced the laws of Moses, but they had adopted more rules called the traditions of the elders as well.
In one tradition, it was believed that if a person did not wash the hands before eating, he/she would become defiled.
On a side note, this tradition was a good one, but Christ intentionally did not comply in order to make a point.
When criticized for not washing, Christ replied that its not the things that go into your mouth that defile you, but it’s the things that proceed out of the heart that defile a man.
Yeshua continued, “for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things that defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands won’t defile you.”
Christ was calling out the wrongs that the Pharisees were doing in secret, yet justifying their actions by their religion.
For example, the Pharisees were continually thinking evil thoughts about Yeshua and plotting his murder.
They justified it, because by their religious standards, Christ was breaking the laws of God. So, according to their religion, Yeshua was worthy of death.
Also, the Pharisees were divorcing their wives when they got tired of them, and taking on new ones because Moses said they could.
Christ called them out on it, saying that it was adultery and fornication.
The Pharisees were extorting the people out of money through their temple practices.
Christ called it a den of thieves as he was turning over their money tables.
The Pharisees continually bore false witness against Yeshua trying to sway the masses away from him.
And lastly, the Pharisees literally saw the kingdom of God in progress while watching Yeshua heal a blind and mute demonically possessed man, yet they blasphemed by calling Christ the Prince of Devils, rather than giving God the glory.
Yeshua was calling them out for focusing on the outward actions of man and not addressing their vile inner thought life of the mind and heart.
That is what religiously minded people do.
They focus on the wrongs that others are doing all the while neglecting to see where their stained hearts need to be cleansed. It sets them up to be hypocrites.
Christ’s kingdom of God that he taught was an invisible kingdom.
He taught that it is not a place where you can say it is here or there, but it is within you, operating in the invisible world of the mind/heart.
The mind/heart is an extremely important arena when it comes to spirituality, because that is where it occurs.
That is where Christ “saw” God working and then, he was able to bring those works out into the tangible world and deliver the miracles to help people.
Why don’t we see this happening today?
Because, there are so many barriers today.
The biggest barrier is religious teaching. Christ was not a religious teacher; he was a spiritual teacher.
If you are listening to religious teachers, you are filling your mind/heart with religion.
The doctrine of the Christian church today is based upon the religious teachings of Paul, rather than the spiritual teachings of Christ.
Disciples are not being produced, because they are not being taught the teachings of the Master, Yeshua.
So many people have fallen into despair, because their religion isn’t working, and they don’t know how to truly connect with God to maneuver through this incredibly difficult life.
It leaves people susceptible to further pitfalls that sabotage a peaceful mind/heart existence.
In the US, mental health problems of anxiety and depression are at crisis levels, and mind-altering drugs are being consumed at crisis levels.
These are not “sinners.” These are people who are trying to find peace in this messed up world.
And, for others who are lucky enough to not be bound up in religion, depression or addiction, they are most likely like everyone else, completely saturated with technology.
It is believed that technology is responsible for the fact that the human attention span has decreased to the point that it is now less than that of a goldfish.
These are all huge barriers to being spiritually alive and achieving peace in the mind and heart.
And, I’m here to bring good news.
The invisible kingdom that Christ taught is alive and well.
Seek God with all your heart and He will show you how to get past the barriers that prevent you from knowing Him and finding peace in your mind and in your heart.