What God Requires

19 January

And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul. Deuteronomy 10:12

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Micah 6:1-9

We would now consider what is the sum of the contents of the law, as well as the aim and object of its instructions. Paul elicits the true goal of the law when he declares that its end is "charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned" (1 Tim. 1:5). Even in Paul's day, the law had false interpreters, who, Paul says, "turned aside unto vain jangling," when they swerved from its true objective.

Now as the law is contained in two tables, so also Moses reduces it to two objectives: that we should love God with all our heart, and our neighbor as ourselves. Though he does not unite the two objectives in one passage, yet Christ, by whose Spirit Paul spoke, explains that to us in Matthew 22:37. When Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment of the law, he replied that it was the first: that God should be loved. The second greatest commandment was to love our neighbor. So, the perfection of righteousness, which is set before us in the law, consists of two parts: that we should serve God with true piety, and that we should conduct ourselves toward others according to the rule of charity. That is also what Paul says, for faith, which he calls the source of charity, includes the love of God.

The declaration of Christ stands sure, that the law requires nothing of us but that we should love God and our neighbor. From that we understand that what is required of us to live a good life is piety and justice.

John Calvin

FOR MEDITATION: Piety and justice are such simple concepts and yet so difficult to put into practice. The way of the law is clear: looking to Jesus as fulfiller of the law, let us pray for the grace needed to follow it.

365 Days With Calvin

Selected and Edited by Joel R. Beeke