Jesus knew the Scriptures of his day. It wasn't unusual for him to answer questions, in response to critics and followers alike, by echoing the words of Old Testament prophets. When the question was put to him, "Which is the great commandment in the law?" the Master responded with a passage taken from Deuteronomy: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." Matt. 22:36, 37; see Deut. 6:5.
For many of us, Christ Jesus captured in that brief statement the essence not only of our spiritually natural feeling toward God but also, in a sense, of our feeling toward the book that has for centuries majestically revealed God's nature to mankind. The Bible. No other collection of writings over the centuries has encountered the kind of devotion, skepticism, scrutiny, suppression, and passion heaped upon this Book of books.
To love the inspired Word of God with all our heart can lead in a variety of directions. We live in a world that needs more heart—more heartfelt warmth and affection, tenderness and compassion. Yet, so often society makes its assessments with a kind of cold analysis. And, if we come to the Bible without this deep, heartfelt ingredient, something is missed. In fact, everything is missed. Nevertheless, the heart can mislead. When it stands alone, it can be overwhelmed by emotion, hardened with a rigid and unenlightened orthodoxy, and shaken by unstable motives.
