Deuteronomy Chapter 13 – Love and Obedience
This chapter asks us very simply and straightforwardly – how can you say you love if you do not completely and faithfully obey?
Being engaged has emphasised to me that the greatest manifestation of love is the denial, followed by the committed submission and sacrifice of self for the good of the other. In like manner, our relationship with God is sure because we keep our hearts set on Him, free from deception and distraction.
However, unlike man, the Lord our God has every right to test the hearts of His people (Proverbs 17: 3, Jeremiah 17: 9-10), for only He truly knows all our inner workings (He knows how we will fair in His tests even before He puts us through them). God tests us to reveal to us and those around us the true state of our love for Him, to show us how much or how little it takes for us to forget and stray from our First Love.
God’s Words are all for good, for us to benefit from. They definitely highlight God’s omnipotence and sovereignty but His Words and Works in our lives are directed at/toward us, intended for us to know Him, even if just a mere fraction of the depth of His knowledge of us as individuals.
Therefore, is it too much for God to ask that anything that or anyone who causes you to turn from Him, takes away from your faithfulness to Him, takes away from your love for Him, must utterly be destroyed for the preservation of this sacred relationship? How are you still able to find it within yourself to allow yourself to continually be enticed from the way in which God has clearly and lovingly commanded you to walk?
God’s grace and mercies are simultaneously sufficient and abundant, but above all, God is holy and is thus, a consuming fire. So, with each fleeting moment, let us remember and grow to know, more and more, our place as His people, the immeasurable weight of His Words and Works, and how to let God be our God.
