“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?” (Deuteronomy 10:12-13, NIV)
The high school golf season is about to start in our area, and as a coach I will again find myself telling my players what I expect of them in the way that they work and the way that they act.
Many believers in Jesus wonder the same thing about God: what does he expect of us? If you were a Torah-observant Jew, you would find more than 600 directives and regulations in the Old Testament that detail your daily living. But as one who is “free in Christ,” where do we turn for God’s guidelines for life in him? Interestingly enough, we turn to the Torah, to the book of Deuteronomy, where Moses preached not a message of specifics but a message of overriding principles. Here they are:
– What does God ask of you but to fear him?
– What does God ask of you but to walk in obedience and wholehearted service to him and his commands?
– What does God ask of you but to love him?
Fear of God is not a crippling sort of dread but a reverent sort of respect. This is the awesome Creator and Ruler of the universe. Under his eyes we live. No wonder such an awareness is the beginning of wisdom, for the fear of God changes our entire perspective.
Obedience to God does require that we read, know and live out the threads of Scripture. Both Old Testament and New challenge us in justice, mercy, generosity, sexual purity, truthfulness, and—above all—undivided faith.
And in loving God, we find our purest motivation for the perspective of reverence and the practices of obedience. We serve him because untainted relationship with the one who knows us best is the abundant life. It is how he designed us to live. It is the life to which we should be ever-returning.
—
Jeff Hopper
January 13, 2012
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