Title: 13
Author: JBG
Last saved by: Auth User
Company: Auth CO

© 2000  Joe Griffin

00-07-25.JSH-349 /

The Inscrutable Question: Conscience & Personal Love for God: Tandem Concept, Mark 12:30-31; 1 John 4:7-11
Mark 12:30 - [ Deuteronomy 6:5 ] and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.
Our love for God has its source in doctrine, the stream of consciousness, and the mentorship of the Holy Spirit.  Four aspects of the double column advance are noted in context:
1)	“Heart” is kard…a / kardia / and refers to the seven compartments of the stream of consciousness where ™p…gnwsij/ epignosis / knowledge about God is stored.
2)	“Soul” is yuc»  / psuche / and refers to the essence of the human soul but with emphasis on volition, the decision maker with regard to metabolization of doctrine into the kardia and its application projected outwardly toward God as reciprocal love.
3)	Mind is di£noia / dianoia / and here has the technical meaning of “the ability to perceive.”   Its use in this verse is examined by:
Kittel, Gerhard (ed.).  Theological Dictionary of the New Testament.  Translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley.  Vol. 4.  (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967), 966:
di£noia.  In the Synoptic Gospels, the main sense is “understanding,” “mind.”  The fulfilling of the first commandment, namely, to love God (Mark 12:30 and parallel passage Deuteronomy 6:5) claims the whole man, his whole heart, his whole soul, his whole spiritual life, and his whole strength.  The requirements of the new divine order affect the moral consciousness, the point in man’s being which determines his ethical attitude.
Dianoia thus indicates that the moment knowledge about the Person of God is metabolized it affects the conscience.  The believer’s perception of the love of God causes his conscience to become motivated by a reciprocal love for God.
		4)	“Strength” is „scÚj / ischus / and means “capacity,” “power,” “strength,” and “ability.”
This word is closely associated with the Greek word dÚnamij / dunamis / which also means “power.”  The power in view prophetically is that of the filling ministry of the Holy Spirit and utilization of the Grace Apparatus for Perception.  “All your strength” thus refers to the two power options and the three spiritual skills.
All four of these nouns are an ablative of source.  Therefore, our passage reads this way in corrected translation:
Mark 12:29 -  [CTL] Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel!  Jesus Christ is our God, Jesus Christ is unique;
v 30 -	[ Deuteronomy 6:5 ] and you shall with reciprocity love the Lord your God from the source of all your stream of consciousness, and from the source of all your soul with emphasis on volitional response to revealed truth, and from the source of grace perception that positively affects the norms and standards in the conscience, and from the source of the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.’
v 31 -	“The second is this, [ Leviticus 19:18 ] ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no other commandment greater than these.”
This is the second of the tandem problem-solving devices.  One must be motivated by a reciprocal love for God before he can effectively and honestly project unconditional love toward his fellow man.  

The greatest execution of unconditional love toward one’s fellow man is the Royal Law which our Lord quotes from Leviticus 19:18 and which we will note in our next paragraph.
	3)	The Apostle John also emphasizes the tandem concept in 1 John 4:7 through 5:3:
1 John 4:7 - Fellow believers, let us unconditionally love each other because love is from the source of God. Furthermore, everyone who loves unconditionally has been born from the source of God and has come to know God. 
Only believers have the capacity to love others unconditionally and that love is the result of his knowledge about the love of God. 
v 8 - When anyone does not love unconditionally, he has not come to know God [ failure in left column advance ] because God is perfect love.
v 9 - By this the love of God has been manifested in our case because God has sent His uniquely-born Son into the world in order that we might live [ both temporally and eternally ] by means of Him.
v 10 - By this, virtue love exists, not because we have loved God [ the love of God is impossible in spiritual death ] but because He loves us [ the perfect undiminished love of God from eternity past ] and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins.
v 11 - If God loves us and He does, we also have become obligated to love one another [ rationale for unconditional love and execution of the Royal Law ].

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