DT 6:6

IS THERE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HEART, SOUL, AND MIND?

DT 6:6; MATTHEW 22:37; MARK 12:30; LUKE 10:27 

I) Is There a Difference Between Heart, Soul, and Mind?

Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27

October 11, 2018 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Matthew 22:37; Loving God; Heart Versus Mind

Another great and difficult question rolled in the other day:

I have a question I’m hoping you can answer for me. In Matthew 22:37 (also, Mark 12:30 and Luke 10:27) it seems that there is an implied distinction between “heart,” “mind,” and “soul”. Is it possible, though, that the writer was using these terms just to emphasize that we must love God with our entire being and that there really is no distinction between these terms? Or, if there is a distinction, what is it?

Tough question. How would you answer it?

I think the Lord is speaking of our entire being. However, that doesn’t mean that there are not distinctions between the heart, soul, and mind.

Heart, soul, and mind can be unique. But they can also be used interchangeably as often happens in the NT.

Heart = inward self where feelings, emotions, and thinking occur.

Soul = the entire inner person.

Mind = the inward part of us where thinking occurs.

As you can see, all three terms overlap in meaning like a Venn diagram. But they are not identical. So when speaking of the place where belief occurs, the NT authors can speak of the heart (Mark 11:23; 16:14; Luke 8:12; Rom 10:9) or the mind (Rom 12:2; 2 Cor 4:4) or even the soul (Acts 14:22 seems to fit in this regard).

I found this very helpful article on what the Biblical word heart means.

I found this misguided article which argues that believing with the mind is not enough to be born again; one must also believe with the heart, that is, with the heart we “trust God,” that is, we “live for God.” The author, Mark Ballenger, makes this Lordship Salvation statement, “Those who truly know God will love God with all of their heart and mind (Matthew 22:37).”

Here is a similar article (anonymous) on heart and mind (discussing Matt 22:37), at the Ligonier.org website, in which the author says, “You can know all the facts about Christ but yet be damned because you do not love Him. Knowing and loving the true Christ are both essential to salvation.”

Because I’ve been immersed in the Gospel of John and Free Grace Theology for so long, I am startled when I see people take Matt 22:37 as a salvation verse. How anyone can reconcile that understanding with John 3:16 is puzzling to me.

There is a grave danger if our theology leads us to say that believing in Jesus Christ for everlasting life is not enough to have everlasting life. If we use the supposed heart and mind distinction to say that one must love God in order to have everlasting life, then we have distorted the message of everlasting life which the Lord of Glory gave us. We must not do that. 

II) EXCERPTS FROM STACK EXCHANGE ON DT 6:4-5

The vast majority of translations of Deuteronomy 6:4-5 read something like this:

"Hear, O Israel, YHWH is our god; YHWH is one. And thou shalt love YHWH thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."

Because the New Testament was written in Greek, and, in that particular language, the word heart did not, at that time, carry the same deep meaning as in Hebrew. In order to express the latter, the word mind was employed.

You will notice that this phrase was spoken by Christ in Matthew 22:37 and Mark 12:30 and also spoken by the lawyer in Luke 10:27. So, again, this was a general understanding of the depth of the commitment of the OT law.

Matthew 22:37 (KJV)

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 

Mark 12:30 (KJV)

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

In addition, you will notice, in Luke 10:27, the lawyer also includes “and thy neighbour as thyself”. This was not included in Deuteronomy 6 but specified in Leviticus 19:18.

Lev 19:18 (KJV)

Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.

This is further evidence of the general understanding of the commitment to love God in every way possible, which included the people He created. The law is full of commands to treat your neighbor well which was fully understood by the scholars of Christ's day.

The writers of the gospels were apparently more concerned with bringing the full sense of the command in a way that was understandable to their audience rather than copying the LXX (or Hebrew) word for word.

Even in Matthew, who wrote to the Jews, there is a slight change. While Deut 6:5 has heart, soul and might/strength, and we can assume that this was also what Jesus said, Matthew has heart, soul and mind. It is possible that Matthew was first written in Hebrew, and if so, the third word could well have been the same Hebrew word as in Deut. Then the "mind" would come from the Greek translator of Matthew. We cannot know. In any case, all three gospel writers considered it important to include the mind, because they were writing in Greek.

In Greek as in English, the thoughts are in the mind, not the heart, so it is good communication to include "mind" for a Greek audience. To cover the meaning of Hebrew "heart" one needs both heart and mind in Greek and English.

The citation of the Old Testament is by a lawyer, not Jesus:

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”

27 And he answered... (Luke 10) [ESV]

"Lawyer" is νομικός, which in the NT is used of an interpreter and teacher of the Mosaic Law. Essentially his answer demonstrates his interpretation of Deuteronomy and Leviticus:

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)

καὶ ἀγαπήσεις κύριον τὸν θεόν σου ἐξ ὅλης τῆς καρδίας σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς σου καὶ ἐξ ὅλης τῆς δυνάμεώς σου

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:5)

Jesus included "mind" (dianoia) to account for the differences between Greek and Hebrew thought.

Jesus was intentional to include the word "mind". Jesus knew the Torah (especially Deuteronomy 6:4-5 as it was part of the Shema), and so he knew he was adding something important to it. The addition of the word "mind" or "understanding" in Matthew, Mark, and Luke was a teaching moment by Jesus. He wanted to make sure that his followers understood that loving God included not just a person's heart, soul, and might, but also that person's understanding and acceptance of why God sent Jesus to earth in the first place. In other words, by adding the word "mind", he was once again expressing how he was not sent by God to condemn the law, but to complete or fulfill the law. 

Neither Judaism nor Christianity disputes the lawyer's assertion that Deuteronomy 6:5 should be taught to include loving with all of the mind. Therefore the passage in Luke does not reflect corrupted texts or the influence of Hellenism. Rather, it demonstrates the teachers of Law were able to succintly explain the Mosaic Law using the Greek language.

Love with all of your "לֵבָב" or "καρδία" means both the heart and the mind. However, the lawyer accomplished this by placing mind (διάνοια) at the end of the passage which also has the effect of interpreting the Hebrew "might" (מְאֹד) as "strength and mind."