“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2-3).
Loving God is more than feelings; it’s what you do. It’s obeying him, choosing to honor him in how you live. The Decalogue, though often divided into “vertical” and “horizontal” rules (meaning, those pertaining to sins against God and those against other humans), can be viewed from the perspective of how each is a sin against God.
The first few are pretty obvious. You shall have no other gods because that suggests that the Living God is on par with the idols (or possibly demons, cf, 1Cor 10:20) which is an insult. God doesn’t share what’s his. If we love him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we’ll have nothing left for another god — be it Ba’al or a modern god like money, success, or social acceptability.
You shall not make an image doesn’t just repeat “no other gods” but mainly forbids trying to “tame” God by misrepresenting him as less than he is. YHWH is not a calf. He is also not a grandfatherly figure who simply wants everyone to be happy. Thou shalt not replace God with a more manageable caricature of himself.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).
“Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” That’s a good question. Is there one commandment we must obey above all else? Jesus said yes and gave the answer above.
What does it mean to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Some will try to break it down into what each part signifies, but it boils down to this: Love God with everything you are and do. Love him with your thoughts, your emotions, your actions, and your intentions. Give him all of you; hold nothing back.
All you have to do is make every waking moment about him. Love him with your feelings and with your choices. As you go through the day, do what you do with a desire to honor him. Always choose to obey. Always choose what represents him well.
It’s incredibly simple. And incredibly difficult. None of us can do this consistently.
Martin Luther, the great reformer, realized that if this is the greatest commandment, then the greatest sin is to fail to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. So we all commit the greatest sin countless times every single day we’re alive.
A holy and just God cannot wink at our sin. To do so would be to compromise his own holiness. This knowledge nearly led Luther to despair. Fortunately for us, it ultimately led him to the scriptures which led him to the cross.
We cannot love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. But Jesus did. And then he paid for our failure in his own blood. Now “righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe” (Rom 3:22). God’s grace covers our sins.
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid” (Rom 6:1-2)! We cannot look at this as permission to fail in our duty to love God. It should be impetus to work harder. The God who created the universe created you knowing that he would have to rescue you from your failure to obey him, and he created you anyway. How should we respond to that kind of love?
In Christ, God not only forgives our failures, but he empowers our obedience. His indwelling Spirit will work with and through us to make us more like Jesus. “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed ... continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Phil 2:12-13).
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27).
Too many rules are hard to follow. We like our rules kept simple. It’s easier to remember them which makes it easier to follow them — we hope. Stay 3 seconds behind the car in front of you. A serving of meat is the size of a deck of cards. Put some Windex on it.
We like our moral rules the same way. We always have. Jesus was asked what the most important rule was, and we know what he said — we call it the Great Commandment. People like to simplify that down to “love God, love people.” That sounds great. Except “love” is a weasel word in our society, and people don’t understand what “love God” really means.
Another popular summary for moral behavior is “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). I love that one. The only problem is “justice” doesn’t mean what a lot of people think it means.
So I offer this as a rule of thumb for this era: “Look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep yourself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27).
When in doubt, look out for the weakest among us. That’s a pretty safe rule. It doesn’t imply that we have to approve of their lifestyle choices. It can be done personally and corporately. If you see someone who is weak, who is in need, who is oppressed, help them.
And along the way, keep yourself from being polluted by the world. God doesn’t just want us to be charitable. He doesn’t just want us to take care of our neighbor. He wants us to love him by living holy lives. This is the element our society loses in “love God, love people”.
This shouldn’t surprise us. We love people who give lots of money to charity. But not when it’s money they embezzled. There is no amount of good you can do that will undo the bad you do. You love God and walk humbly with him in large part by keeping yourself unstained by the world.
Of course, the scriptures have a lot to say about what it means to do right by people and what pollutants we should be keeping ourselves from. We’ll be fleshing out the details. But in a sense, everything is going to be commentary on this one rule of thumb:
Look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep yourself from being polluted by the world.
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“If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell” (Matt 5:29).
Christians are supposed to be kind, compassionate, and forgiving. To other people. Not to ourselves. We should show ourselves no mercy.
Radical surgery is required to remove the sin from our lives. Jesus, with a bit of hyperbole, tells us that if our eye or hand or foot makes us sin, we should get rid of it because “It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” Paul, in similar manner, talks about beating his body to discipline it and make it his slave “so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize” (1Cor 9:27).
It’s been called the mortification (that is, killing) of the flesh, from Romans 8:13. That is exactly what we want to do to our sinful flesh — kill it. Choke it, bludgeon it, starve it to death. Just kill it. By any means necessary.
How do we do that? By taking Jesus’ metaphor of plucking out an eye and cutting off a hand seriously. Not literally — seriously.
The easiest example is porn. These days it comes to people via the internet. So you limit your access, as radically as necessary, even if it means switching to a “dumb phone”.
Adultery requires stopping. Cold turkey. And sometimes that means changing jobs or even cities to get away from that person. (I’ve seen it done.)
Other sins are harder. How do you kill your tendency to gossip? You might have to cut your favorite gossip partner out of your life. How do you kill greed? Some have gone as far as taking a vow of poverty. What about covetousness? Well, how do you feed it? If it’s car magazines or HGTV, then stop putting those things before your eyes. If it’s going to the mall, stop. Whatever your sin, be as brutal as necessary to cut it out of your life.
This is hard. This is painful. That’s why it’s called killing the flesh. But Jesus expects and deserves that we will leave behind the sins he saved us from.
Remember that we do not do this under our own power. It is “by the Spirit” that we put to death the sinful flesh (Rom 8:13). We have to decide to do it, but we have to lean on him for the power and the grace to actually accomplish it.
And never think you’re alone in this. Every believer has to do this. They may not be killing the same sin as you, but they’re killing something. This has been part of the walk of faith for 2,000 years. When you struggle with this, you’re in good company.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (Heb 12:1-3).
Recommended reading: The Process
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“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph 2:8-10).
Whenever we start talking about the need to obey, people start wondering whether we’re exchanging grace for works. God forbid! We are saved by grace, and no one will be able to boast that they did anything to merit salvation. But we were saved for good works. We were called to a godly life.
Some people don’t let that concern them. That should concern them. Faith that saves produces good works. The apostles took this quite seriously.
“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:14-17).
“We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did” (1John 2:3-6).
“Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live” (Rom 8:12-13).
“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. ... So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do...” (Eph 4:1, 17).
Faith produces works. Grace transforms. A life given to Jesus is a life lived like Jesus for Jesus. We do it not to earn God’s favor but to show our gratitude for God’s grace. And we do it because the Jesus who died for us expects us to live for him.
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“May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones” (1Thes 3:13).
Why is it important to live a godly life? Here are a few reasons.
God said so: “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy’” (1Pet 1:15-16) and “without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14). He commands that we be imitators of his holiness. He has set us apart for himself; he expects that we will come out and be separate, to cease to live like the people around us.
To make the gospel attractive: “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt 5:16). So many people have closed their ears to the gospel because of the behavior of alleged Christians. May that never be said of us. Instead, let us live in a way that will “make the teaching about God our Savior attractive” (Titus 2:10).
Out of love for Jesus: “If you love me, keep my commands. .... Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me” (John 14:15, 21). It’s been said that obedience is God’s love language, and that’s probably true, but Jesus says more than that. Obedience isn’t just how you love him; it is the sign that you love Jesus. Don’t tell him that you love him; show him.
As a response to God’s mercy: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship” (Rom 12:1). The only sensible response to what God has done for us is to give ourselves to him, body and soul. And he wants the whole person. A sacrifice was the dedication of an entire animal to God. He wants us to be living sacrifices; he wants all of us, but he wants our life, not our death. This is real worship. If we do not do this, God isn’t interested in anything else. “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams” (1Sam 15:22).
We associate worship with music. And God calls for and deserves that:
I will sing of your love and justice;
to you, LORD, I will sing praise.
I will be careful to lead a blameless life ... (Psalm 101:1-2)
But the worship God most desires is obedience given in response to who he is and what he has done. Telling the truth when it would be easier to lie, helping someone when it would be easier to pretend you didn't see — this is the worship God desires.
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“We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Thes 1:3).
Christianity 101 was about what we believe, why, and what difference it should make. In this series I want to double down on that last part. God forbid that anyone should think it only matters what we believe and not how we live! If we really believe what we say we believe, it should spur us on to a godly life.
All of this flows out of the doctrine of creation. We are created in the image of God to reflect him to the world around us. That is why we’re here, and we are most fully human when we live out that purpose.
That doctrine also tells us God knows how he made us and what makes us truly thrive. God’s rules are not “loud music annoys me” but “look both ways before crossing the street.” They are not meant to be meddlesome but protective, so we should embrace them as a gift from a loving God.
This is not going to be a treatment of Christian ethics. There are lots of good books on that subject already. If you want to learn about just war, reproductive technologies, or capital punishment, read one of those. I will be focusing on the life the world needs to see us live day in and day out.
This is also not going to cover every biblical command. You know not to lie, steal or commit murder. I want to remind us of the commands we like to forget or look at where the commands go farther than we sometimes realize.
Because God does care how we live. And because the people around us need to see that the gospel we proclaim really does make a difference in our lives.
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