What Do You Mean, All

Some years ago, one of the people in the Tigard Oregon church testified, (somewhat tongue in cheek) that he had looked up the word "all" in the Greek dictionary to discover what it meant. After he paused a moment for effect, he proceeded to explain that all in the Greek meant All! As I thought of this post, I looked up the word in Strong's Hebrew Dictionary and the Bible says in Proverbs 3:6, "In all thy ways acknowledge Him." And indeed, according to Strong's Hebrew Dictionary, the word "all" in this scripture means in essence just that, all. I also looked the word up in the Greek to find, if I could, a matching reference. The closest I could come was found in Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30 and Luke 10:27 where Jesus used the word to express the first and great commandment which is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart..." But again, the word all, in the Greek means all!

I am reminded of an old song we used to sing, "Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid, does your heart the Spirit control?" I wonder if we have ever really asked ourselves the question expressed in the song, is my all on the altar of sacrifice laid? When the Bible says, "In all thy ways acknowledge Him," what does all really mean? Certainly for a true Christian, to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourselves should go without saying. But what does all really mean? Does it mean to love Him but retain our own ways? The Bible says in Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25 that "There is a way which (that) seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Are our ways God's ways? The Bible says in Isaiah 55: 7-9 "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." 

Let me say here that we ought not to think that God is, or should be like man, but we should rather try to be like Him! When the Bible says to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we ought to do so with everything that is within us. When the Bible says to acknowledge God in all our ways, we ought to do it with our all. If you love the Lord Jesus with all you heart soul mind and strength and you want to acknowledge Him in all your ways, repent of your sins, be baptized in Jesus name and God has promised to give you His Holy Spirit that He may abide with you forever. (see John 14:16)