The Law of Liberty (34)

 The hallmark of true Christian faith is love – love for God and love for our neighbors (Jn. 13.34, 35; 1 Cor. 13.13; 1 Jn. 4.7-12).

Everybody wants to think that his or her life matters. Only the fool tries to build a lifestyle on fleeting fancies, frivolous endeavors, and movements of whim

No other gods

The Commandment

God, by virtue of His exclusivity and uniqueness, and the grace He has exercised toward those He redeems, demands their exclusive devotion and service.

1. 1. Be holy to the Lord

The precepts and statutes in this section are designed to teach and reinforce devotion to the Lord. God’s people are called to discipline their hearts to love and fear Him, their consciences to prefer and choose Him, and all their practices to serve Him. Thus would they be a people holy to the Lord, separated unto Him for the praise of the glory of His grace.

Deuteronomy 11.1, 2

“You shall therefore love the LORD your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always.

Deuteronomy 6.4-9

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

Then Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

Leviticus 18.1-5

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the LORD your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes.

Leviticus 19.19

“You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material.”

1. 1. Honor no other gods

God’s people are to honor no other gods – no other ultimate sources of counsel or truth, and no other objects of veneration or devotion. They must guard against any inclination to turn to other gods or other counselors; He alone must be their God.

Deuteronomy 23.17-18

“None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute. You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of the LORD your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God.”

1.3 Exercise stewardship unto the Lord

Believers are called to be good stewards unto the Lord, to use their personal property as a way of demonstrating and reinforcing their separateness unto the Lord. The tithe, the selling and redeeming of the land,, and the practice of devoting things to the Lord all provided ways for the Lord to remind His people that the earth and everything in it are His, and that they must express in tangible ways that they are a people holy to the Lord.