“Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ.” (Colossians 3: 23-24)

What  does Paul mean when he instructs us to do things “heartily?” I like the NKJV, but in this instance the translation doesn’t do justice to the depths of the Greek meaning. We think of heartily as being “full on,” sincerely, genuinely, warmly, enthusiastically, vigorously; sometimes completely or thoroughly. However the Greek word used here is the noun Psyche, usually translated as “soul,” and it’s used in the genitive case which indicates possession ( a random fact I remember from doing Latin at school 60 years ago!), so it means “of the soul,“ or “Belonging to the soul.“

Peter writes: “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.” (1 Peter 1: 22 NIV) Paul’s words in Colossians 3:23 are an instruction that calls for obedience. To obey the instruction to do everything “heartily“ means that we apply our whole purified heart to whatever we are doing. The heart of a born again child of God is the new heart that our Heavenly Father has given us, the heart of flesh on which He has written His law (Jeremiah 31:33). Peter doesn’t separate “obeying the truth“ (and coming to faith in Jesus) from “sincere Love of each other. ” In other words, the very purpose of the new birth which, by the grace of God, is what purifies our souls, is to direct our new hearts towards loving one another deeply, “from the heart.”

This brings us back to the original verse from Colossians, in which we are instructed to do everything “heartily.” We are to put “heart and soul” – new heart; purified soul – into everything we do, and we do this “because we serve the Lord Christ.” Jesus told us to “love one another as I have loved you.“ We serve the Lord by loving one another: what Paul says to us through his letter to the Colossians is, quite simply, to do everything from a heart of love, because in doing so we are serving the King of Love every minute of the day, and are therefore fulfilling the purpose for which He created us anew.

“Let everything you do be done in Love” (1 Corinthians 16:14), “whatever you do, whether in word or in deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3:17) and Colossians 3:23 above are all the same command. Paul reminds us more than once “to put off” the old ways of the flesh that we were born into, and to “put on” the new ways of the Spirit. If you are of a similar vintage to me, you will probably remember the old Steppenwolf song, “born to be wild.“ Indeed we were. But we were born again to love.

And here’s a practical tip to help you check how you are serving the Lord: put a reminder on your phone to come up at any time of the day, asking: “Am I doing what I am doing now heartily?” I wonder what my week’s score will be out of seven …