But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

  - James 1.25

For the law does not make one holy by hearing, but doubtless by performance; each should honour the Lord, not simply by words and bodily toil, but by ripeness of character and purity of heart.

  - Columbanus, Sermon II, Irish, 7th century[1]

Being blessed of God and honoring Him constitute a continuum of the same process of sanctification, with obedience to the Law of God the active agent in each. We can’t honor God unless we know His blessing. If we know His blessing, we will honor Him.

But we can’t be blessed or honor the Lord apart from obedience to His Law. Obedience to God’s Law is the fulcrum on which blessing and honor are balanced.

How does that work?

As we read and meditate on the Law, the Spirit teaches us (Ezek. 36.26, 27). He shows us the glory of God in the Law, opens His own mind to us, and convicts us of sin, righteousness, and judgment (2 Cor. 3.12-18; Rom. 8.5-8; Jn. 16.8-11). He directs us away from all sin and into what is holy and righteous and good (Rom. 7.7, 12). Thus He works within us to form Christ and nurture His righteousness in our souls; we know God’s blessing and presence as He does, and are filled with joy and rejoicing (Jer. 15.16).

In thus blessing us, God causes His love to well up within us and overflow from us (Jn. 7.37-39) into the everyday words and deeds of our lives, so that we honor Him by living according to His will. Being filled with Jesus (blessing), we go forth to fill all things with Him (honor), through obedience to His Law in the power of His Spirit.

Is this what you experience from your time with the Lord? Deep immersion in the glory of God? Listening for and responding to His Spirit? Being transformed and blessed? Then going forth to honor Him with your life?

This is what God intends for us. As we daily read and meditate in God’s Law, we are weighed down with blessing; then the weight of that glory impels us to honor God in our Personal Mission Fields in all we say and do (1 Cor. 10.31).

Weighed down with the Lord’s blessing, we lift up His glory in our daily lives.

How, then, can we possibly go wrong by making the reading and study of God’s Law an important part of our daily disciplines? The Law is the Law of liberty, as James says (Jms. 2.12). It liberates us from slavery to sin into the power of God’s Spirit and the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

The Law is not a burden to crush us (1 Jn. 5.1-3); rather, it weighs us with glory, as the Spirit of God meets us in the Law, teaches it to us, and enables us to carry out all that it requires in a life of giving honor to God (Phil. 2.13; Eph. 3.20).

We are weighed with blessing as we delight in God and His Law, then we lift Him in honor by living that same Law before the people we see each day.

Great adventures in blessing, and in bringing honor to God, await us, if only we will take up the Law of God.

Psalm 119.171-176 (Regent Square: Angels from the Realms of Glory)
With our lips we praise You, Jesus, for you teach us, full and free.
Now Your Word will ever please us; Your commandments true shall be.
Let Your hand come forth to ease us; we Your word choose gratefully!

For Your saving grace we plead, Lord, and Your Law is our delight.
We to live and praise You need, Lord, all Your help by day and night.
Straying sheep, we do not heed, Lord; come and seek us by Your might!

Heavenly Father, help me to keep Christ’s commandments in all things, and let my life shine forth in bright deeds to the people around me. Adapted from Sechnall, Audite Omnes Amantes

Organizing with the Spirit
Dr. Kent Miller explains that the Spirit has His preferred ways of getting work done in the Kingdom, and we do well to learn from Him and follow His ways. Watch our Conversation with Dr. Miller on “Organizing with the Spirit” by clicking here.

Visit our bookstore to order The Law of God, a compilation of Old Testaement commandments, laws, and statutes, set up for daily reading and meditation, and The Ground for Christian Ethics, an explanation for why the Law of God matters still.

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T. M. Moore, Principal
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All Psalms for singing from The Ailbe Psalter. Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.