FIVE THINGS that GOD REQUIRES from US!
February
24 Bible Reading: Deuteronomy Chapters 10-12
FIVE THINGS that GOD REQUIRES from US!
"And
now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord
your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the
Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good?" (Deut 10:12-13)
In
Deuteronomy 10, Moses balances the two important themes of law (vv. 1–11) and love
(vv. 12–22), and in verses 12-13 Moses condenses the essence of all the Old
Testament laws into five things that
God required from the Israelites:
- FEAR God religiously
- WALK in God’s ways
- LOVE God sincerely
- SERVE God wholly
- OBEY God completely
God’s desire
for His people can thus be summed up in the words “to fear...to walk...to love...to serve...to keep” (vv. 12, 13). All
the above five action verbs are
closely aligned and connected with each other. To ‘fear’ God is to give God our highest respect and a holy reverence
to His Person and His authority. Out of our respect for God, we will ‘walk’ in His ways and ‘keep’ all His commandments. Our ‘love’ for God is revealed when we ‘obey’ His commandments. Out of our love
for God, we will try to please Him in grateful obedience, and ‘serve’ Him faithfully with all our
heart, soul, mind and strength.
Let us therefore
fear God by respecting Him, keeping His commandments, loving Him, and serving
Him with all that we are and all that we have. Because God loves us, He has
given us His Word to nourish and guide us. We cannot fully experience God’s
love for us unless we are obedient to His will. To love God with our whole
being is the greatest commandment that God has stated to the Israelites and to
us (Deut. 6:5; Mark 12:29–34).
To walk in God’s ways require that we love Him with all our being and keep His commandments as love and obedience always go together, as Jesus said: "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him" (John 14:23).
