September 2, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The message of Deuteronomy is one that the church desperately needs to hear today. These final words of Moses given to the children of Israel as they prepared to enter into the Promised Land serve as a warning, an encouragement, and a charge. Through them, God exposes the idolatry of our hearts and calls us to give all of our love, worship, and devotion to Him alone in every area of our lives! Moses warns the people that when they enter the land there will be things that compete with God for their attention, their affections and their worship. We, too, have hundreds of things that compete for our hearts each and every day. In this book, God teaches us how to properly respond to the amazing grace He has given us by giving Him our undivided allegiance, our whole hearts and our whole lives. Over the next 34 days, let\u2019s seek this ancient way together as a church!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this chapter Moses continues to explain some of the various laws which the Lord gave to His people in order that they would be distinct from every other people. He discusses a wide range of laws governing things such as how the people were to treat one another\u2019s property, clothing, negligence in construction, how they were to run their vineyards, and sexual ethics and conduct. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the first section of this chapter Moses discusses how the people were to treat one another and one another\u2019s property. He commands them that they should never ignore their brother\u2019s wayward animal, but should take it to their own home and care for it until the owner should come seeking it. They were not to ignore the needs of their neighbors, but respond in both compassion and in action to the needs they saw!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The same is true for us who belong to Christ. 1 John 3:17-18 says this: \u201cBut if anyone has the world\u2019s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God\u2019s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.\u201d The kind of love that Christ calls us to as His followers is a love that does, a love that responds in both compassion and in action to the needs that we see around us. John goes so far as to imply that a failure to respond in action towards the needs of our fellow believers would indicate that God\u2019s love is not in us, that we are not even saved in the first place!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is hard to live this way. We live in a culture and time which encourages us to ignore the needs around us and to choose the way which is most convenient for ourselves; inconvenience, discomfort, and sacrificial love are not highly valued in our culture, but they are the things that Jesus calls us to in order to embody His love towards people! Love for other people that does not merely claim to care but shows that care and compassion through action is one of the defining marks of a true disciple of Jesus!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Law and the New Testament agree: we cannot claim to follow God and ignore the needs of those around us. We must respond in a compassion that move us to action!<\/p>\n\n\n\n