Unity and Diversity

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) 

            We never do well to try to describe the Trinity. Every illustration fall apart. I'm reluctant to make the attempt, but these verses suggest something that might help us understand a little, with the help of something I learned from reading one of Dallas Willard's books. On page 38 of Renovation of the Heart, he has an illustration of concentric circles, with the spirit being the inner most circle, then mind (feeling and thought), body, and social interactions, with soul being the outer most ring. The soul is the whole person. We are more than any one of those rings, we are all of them together at one time.

            So when God commanded that we love Him with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our strength, He is commanding us to love Him not in three separate ways, but in one, with our entire self. There are times when it seems as if we are divided into parts. That is one of the effects sin has on us, but we are still a single entity. The body is not the heart (among the ancients, the heart was the will) but the body is no less (and no more) us than the will is. In our activities in life, each "part" plays some role. Sometimes we distinguish among them because it helps us understand or describe our experience but that doesn't mean the distinction is real.

            We become most like God when we not only live in right relation to Him (loving Him) but when we do so as a unified entity that is simultaneously diverse.

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Birthday of

Niccolo Machiavelli