Deuteronomy 23-25 offer us a long list of miscellaneous commands. They cover the range of who was permitted to worship in the Tabernacle and who wasn’t, how runaway slaves where to be treated (they were to be given refuge!), that children weren’t to be punished for the sins of their parents, or parents for the sins of their children, and many others commands. As one who doesn’t like rules in general, these precise rules concerning so many matters make my head spin. We must keep reminding ourselves their purpose was to empower the Israelites to serve a holy God, and to become a holy people in the process. God’s holiness is always a matter for our imitation. While we have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus, we are still called to be holy as the Lord our God is holy. Our freedom from the Law is not a license to sin, but rather a source of strength for living according to God’s will and purposes.
Deuteronomy 26 offers another restatement of how tithes and offerings were to be presented, as well as a call to obey all of God’s commands. By now we are surely getting the point: God expects obedience from His people! Again we live under grace, not law, but Jesus told His disciples, “By this will all know you love Me: you obey My commands!” The Great Commission includes the instruction: “…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” As my friend Dale Milligan always said, “To love God is to trust Him enough to obey Him.”
Today, we start reading through the Gospel of John a second time. As I have reminded us, the goal in our reading, then re-reading each gospel is so we will gain a deeper understanding of who Jesus is and all He has done for us. We read from the Gospels everyday in our New Life’s 1 Year Prayer and Bible Reading Plan, because the entire Bible points to Jesus as the Messiah, and as Lord and Savior of us all. While we want to read through the entire Bible each year, so over time we will have an understanding of who God is and how God has operated from creation, until now, and what will happen ultimately for those who love Him in the future, we must know Jesus as Savior and Lord, and live in the power of His Spirit. Reading from the gospels daily, helps us to gain the information we need to apply Jesus’ salvation in our lives.
As we recall, John 1 starts quite differently from the other three gospels. John’s goal was not to tell us about Jesus’ birth or the preparation John the Baptist made for Jesus’ coming–at least not first. First, John wanted to establish Jesus is God. He was with God in the beginning, and He is the one who gives us the right to become children of God through His grace and truth. As we read through John 1 again, let’s focus on the different names John gives Jesus, and what they mean in our lives as we apply them to our daily living.