The Rule of God’s Law: First Things (17)

Click here to watch a brief video introducing this week’s study. This week’s video is the same as for lesson 2.

“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him…” Deuteronomy 10.12

Jesus explained that the Law of God, and the elaborations and applications of the Law provided in the rest of the Old Testament, are summed up in the twin commands of loving God and neighbor. Of these, loving God with all our hearts is the primary affection, for unless we love God we shall not be able to love our neighbors according to what God prescribes in His Word (Matt. 22.34-30).

But how do we nurture love for God, as well as for His Law? We cannot simply decide to love God and then suddenly love Him. Love for God must grow out of knowledge of Him and experience with Him. Unless we know the Lord and have some experience of His steadfast love and faithfulness, we will not be inclined to love Him.

Thus love for God must begin somewhere else. And that somewhere else is in the fear of God. When all the affections of our heart are united as one in the fear of God, then we will begin to love Him and delight in His Law (Ps. 86.11).

This will seem strange, I have no doubt, particularly since it is almost entirely foreign for contemporary Christians to think of relating to God out of fear. But if we know God for Who He is – holy, just, almighty, and so forth – and if we know ourselves truly – as rebellious, ungrateful sinners – then we should fear what God can do to such people. Over and over in the Law, God reminded His people of what He had done to stubborn and rebellious Pharaoh. And He warned them that such discipline would come to all who reject His promises, rebel against His Word, and disobey His commands, which He graciously gave in order to bless them.

People thus should fear the Lord, and, in their fear, walk in His ways, according to all He has commanded us. As we do, we discover the mercy, grace, and blessings of God, Who gives us such abundance though we are precisely the kind of people who deserve only His wrath.

Thus fearing God and obeying Him, we will be blessed by His grace and will, with grateful hearts, come to love Him more. Our obedience thus transitions from being based in fear to being based in gratitude and love, for these are inseparable affections, like the front, back, and edge of a coin. We must never cease to fear the Lord, as Jesus explained (Lk.12.5). He is always ready to apply His never-pleasant discipline to correct His wayward children (Heb. 12.3-11). Thus, through fear and gratitude, love for God increases as the commanding affection to direct all our desires and guide us in the way of obedience. And as love for God increases, delight in His Law increases as well.

Fear of God and love for Him, linked by gratitude, must be the commanding affections of our hearts. We nurture these affections by careful and consistent study of and reflection on the character of God, and by daily, thoughtful experience of His steadfast love and faithfulness.

Next steps –Transformation: As you pray through the Ten Commandments, ask the Lord to reveal the greatness of His wisdom, goodness, love, and power through His Law. Consider what the fear of God requires of you this day if you are to walk in obedience to His Law.

T. M. Moore

The Law of God is the soil which, fertilized by the rest of God’s Word and watered by His Spirit, brings forth the fruit of the Christian life. If you’d like to understand this process better, and how to make best use of the Law in your walk with and work for the Lord, order the book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, from our online store.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.