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Always Vigilant--The heart, as we have seen, is deceitful and desperately wicked. Yet we must love God with all our heart, and to aid us in this calling He has provided His Law.
The Rule of Law: Government of the Heart (7)
We must keep a close watch on our hearts.
“Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do.” Deuteronomy 12.32
The heart, as we have seen, is deceitful and desperately wicked. Yet we must love God with all our heart, and to aid us in this calling He has provided His Law. But we must “be careful” with respect to what the Law teaches, so that we allow it to exercise its full power to shape our hearts in the way of love for God and our neighbors. And, since on our own we have no heart for God or His Law, we must rely on the indwelling Spirit of Christ to help us in carrying out this call to vigilance.
The Law of God anticipates the day when God would “circumcise” the hearts of His people so that they would understand and obey His Law (Deut. 30.1-10). That day, as we have previously explained, dawns upon us with the coming of the Spirit of God to dwell within us. He will teach us the Law of God, and all the Word of God, but we must “show up for class” if we would benefit from His instruction. And we must also cultivate the ability to listen for the convicting voice of the Spirit as He searches our hearts and minds against the presence of any evil there (Jn. 16.8-11; Ps. 139.23, 24).
The more we learn how to be filled with the Spirit of God and to walk in Him, the more we will strengthen our hearts to bring forth the fruit of His presence and to realize the promises of God in our lives. We must be careful not to quench the Spirit by failing to submit to His curriculum. And we must not grieve the Spirit by not seeking to fulfill the purposes for which He has been given to us (1 Thess. 5.19; Eph.4.30).
The Spirit of God is the Guardian and Teacher of God’s Law. When He is also the Guardian and Teacher of our hearts, then we will grow in love for God and neighbor from this deepest and most important recess of our souls.
For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.