I don’t know how many times I’ve read the Bible cover to cover. I listen to it in the morning when I walk/run. I read and study it. I’m the type of person that starts digging through my Bible during sermons or Bible studies because something said sparked a thought that required looking something up, that leads me to look up something else, etc. Even though I’ve done so much study for years and years, but I had a new revelation last week.
Don’t you just love it when God does that?
Here it is:
Deuteronomy 6:5 tells us what God’s greatest commandment is (Jesus affirmed this in Matthew):
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
LOVE God with ALL your heart and ALL your soul.
Got it?
Now, Deuteronomy 10:12-13 says:
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?
This says we’re supposed to SERVE God with ALL our heart and with ALL our soul!
We’re to LOVE God and SERVE God with the SAME PASSION!!
I love this so much.
I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
God’s grace is what allows me to claim victory over sin and be a true follower of Christ. HOWEVER, more is expected. I can’t just sit back and take the grace and never act.
Acts 16:31 tells us that if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we will be saved. But, the word believe is the same word as the word OBEY. The Greek word is pisteuō – and it means both believe AND obey. Christ told us to obey His commandments, and claimed the greatest commandment was to love the Lord God with all of our hearts, minds, souls, and strength.
And we learn that LOVING God is to be the same as SERVING God.
James 2:14-26 makes it clear that FAITH without WORKS means NOTHING.
I think what I realized reading Deuteronomy last night is that LOVE for God without SERVING God goes totally hand in had with FAITH and WORKS.
Exciting stuff!!
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