CALL TO LOVE AND OBEDIENCE

Deuteronomy 10:12,16-17,20

“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? He requires only that you fear the Lord your God, and live in a way that pleases him, and love him and serve him with all your heart and soul.

Therefore, change your hearts and stop being stubborn.

“For the lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords. He is the great God, the mighty and awesome God, who shows no partiality and cannot be bribed.

You must fear the Lord your God and worship him and cling to him. Your oaths must be in his name alone.

What did God require from the children of Israel? 

Love and obedience.

As simple as it is, they couldn't comply. With all the great miracles God did in their presence, yet they could not commit. What really was their problem?

They cried out when they were suffering in Egypt, the Lord came and delivered them, they yet cried out on their journey to the promise land. What really did they want?

Moses saw their nature and spent his last days admonishing them to walk in love and obedience. They had to let go of their stubbornness if they were going to enjoy walking with God.

It is the same for believers today, the same way salvation has come to us, all we need to do is to love and obey to continue with the Lord.

What has the Lord required of us as believers?

1 John 3:1,22-24

See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.

And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.

And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us.

Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.

It is the same love and obedience that is required of us who are of the new covenant.

Remember when the expert of the law asked Jesus what he needed to do to have eternal life:

Luke 10:25-28

One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?”

The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!”

It is quite simple.

What then is the problem?

The heart is not really with the Lord.

We see this with the rich young man that came to Jesus to ask the same question:

Matthew 19:20-22

“I’ve obeyed all these commandments,” the young man replied. “What else must I do?”

Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

But when the young man heard this, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

That is the problem. That is why Christ has to sacrifice Himself to bring true salvation to man.

We could try to do all the form of righteousness from the law but if our heart is not with God something remains missing. As we see with the young man, his heart was not really with God but with his possessions!

We are called to love and obedience, this love is firstly for God. Then it refects to others.

Mark 12:29-34

Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord.

And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’

The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

The teacher of religious law replied, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other.

And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.”

Realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.

You cannot say you have encountered Christ and not walk in love and obedience, you really have not started the journey.

You can make all the noise and do all the shows and displays, unless you have gotten the basics right, you are yet to begin.

O help us Good Lord.

PRAYER

Dear Father bring me into full love and obedience in my walk with You. Father You saved me I am committed to You forever, may no other thing take Your place in my life. I lean on You Lord, I will never fail. Glory to Your name Lord forevermore.

He calls us blessed.

Love

@the watcher.