With All Thy Might and with All Thy Strength
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. Deuteronomy 6
In some versions of the First and Great commandment, might and strength are used together. It appears that the Lord is being redundant by using two synonyms. The Hebrew word for might is “meod” and it has less do with strength than it does with abundance. The Hebrew “meod” has more to do with “very” or “muchness” or “greatly” or “exceedingly”. The Hebrew language has several words for strength that could be considered to be synonyms but they all refer to force, vigor, ability, power. Therefore, when looked at in the context of Hebrew, might and strength have different meanings and purposes.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy might (abundance), mind, and strength (power); and in the name of Jesus Christ thou shalt serve him.
One of the great fears for people is religious fanaticism. To be fanatic, is to be excessive, to be out of control, to be unbalanced. It would seem that from the extreme nature of the First and Great commandment where “allness”, “exceedingly” and “power” are invoked, we are in danger of becoming religious fanatics. It has been said that, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” What stops us from becoming unbalanced, from being corrupted by power and from being dangerous?
We have this famous exchange between Jesus and Peter,
Luke 22:31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: 32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. 33 And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death. 34 And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.
Peter appears to want to give his all by going to prison and to death. But Peter is missing the point. Discipleship does not mean going to prison or death, discipleship means victory and being delivered from our enemies. Jesus is not asking us to be fanatics in our love for him. He is asking us to lose our lives by finding it in service to others. When thou art converted? Converted to what? Converted to truly understanding what it means to love him by loving our fellow man. It is being converted to the first and great commandment so that we can fulfill the second great commandment of loving our neighbor as ourselves. Strengthen thy brethren? Strengthen them in what way? We strengthen our brethren by teaching them of the importance of the two great commandments. We love the Lord with all of our strength when we strengthen our brethren (our neighbor).
We cannot strengthen our brethren (our neighbor) if we are being fanatic by going to prison and to death. Jesus is not asking that of us. We are far more useful to him if we have life more abundantly by losing ourselves in the strengthening of our brethren (our neighbor). Loving the Lord with all our strength = strengthening our brethren.
Some have interpreted the prophesy of Peter denying the Christ three times as not a matter of Peter being too weak, or weaker than he thought but this was a commandment of Jesus that Peter was to deny his knowledge of Jesus so as to be able to avoid death and prison and thereby be able to strengthen his brethren. Jesus was commanding Peter to deny him. Since Jesus cannot lie and would not command anyone to lie, this seems implausible that Jesus would command Peter to lie. However, it may not be a lie in the sense that Peter truly did not know Jesus or his true nature at that point. Peter would later truly know Jesus Christ when he spent time with him following his resurrection. Whether due to weakness or to commandment, Peter survived to continue his ministry and the work Jesus had for him to do.
It has been reported that Peter was later crucified upside down and that all of the apostles, except John the Beloved, suffered some kind of horrible death. There is nothing in known scriptures to support this, it is based on tradition. Although I have not done thorough research, I have doubts about the veracity of such reports. I would question if any of the apostles suffered deaths at the hands of their enemies. The promise of Jesus to his apostles was unconditional,
“Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”
Jesus did not say that, “this promise only lasted until your mission was finished and then when I am finished with you, your enemies will have power over you”. Jesus’ promises are everlasting and do not fail. I assert that all of the apostles, like John, were promised power over their enemies and their enemies had no power over them. The promise of life over death applied to all of the apostles. The difference between John and the other apostles was that John asked to tarry, to continue his work on the earth while the other apostles were anxious to enter into the rest of the Lord and to be with him. Neither John nor the apostles tasted of death but John tarried and remains in a transformed state. What is important here and is one of the main messages of this writing, is that the promises made to the apostles is made to all,
Watch for what? The enemy. Why? The enemy and his followers are they who would destroy, who attempt murder and mayhem, who are the authors of all evil. They are the serpents and the scorpions who would harm us. But what did Jesus say to all, not just to the apostles?
“…and nothing shall by any means hurt you”
When we are converted to these truths, when we really believe the words of Jesus Christ, when we have the faith of a mustard seed, when our hearts are not waxed heavy and when we have eyes to see and ears to hear, when we have entered in at the strait gate and trod the narrow way, then…we will be able to strengthen our brethren, our fellow man, our neighbor and we will be keeping the First and Great commandment, to love the Lord our God with all of our might and with all of our strength.
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