Monday, April 8, 2019
647 - (Why) Do the Right Thing?
Spirituality Column #647
April 9,
2019
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
(Why) Do the Right
Thing?
By Bob Walters
“… because you will be
doing what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord your God.” – Moses
reporting the word of the Lord, Deuteronomy 12:28 (NIV)
The Ten Commandments appear both in
Leviticus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21 – same commands, same Moses, same God.
We’ll not belabor those commandments
as you likely know them already. Let’s
instead seek insight as to why they appear twice; it’s not just that they are
important.
What’s different about the lists is
what comes after them. Exodus (and on
into Leviticus) continues with literally hundreds of rules, laws, and regulations
detailing what the covenant of God is
with His people Israel. Deuteronomy, in
contrast, goes on for several more chapters explaining why the commands of God should be obeyed.
And boiling it all down, the bottom
line – what I would say encapsulates the great lesson of the Bible regarding
humans doing what God says – is that these are instructions for how things will
go best. Yes, the covenant with Israel
was specific to that nation for how it would praise and honor God, but it was
also how the Jews would best get along with each other as a nation in peace,
harmony, and worship.
We are supposed to love God and others, and Godly obedience facilitates
both.
In the new covenant there appears
an authoritative line similar to Deuteronomy 12:28, in a nearly identical
context. In Ephesians – Paul’s great,
one-stop-shopping overview of the Christian faith – verse 6:3 re-affirms the purpose
of this obedience: “that it may go well
with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”
And what is that context of this
advice in both Deuteronomy and Ephesians?
Both are talking – specifically in these passages – about parents and
children.
The first part of Deuteronomy 12:28
says, “Be careful to obey all these
regulations I am giving you, so that it may always go well with you and your
children after you, [because] …” and finish with the opening line
above. If you’ve ever wondered why so
much of the Old Testament lists family connections and genealogies, it is
because God intended to keep the Jewish nation pure which meant keeping track
of its children as the generations blossomed.
After six chapters of explaining and imploring obedience, God finishes
up in chapter 13 instructing parents to guide children not to chase foreign
gods. Rule 1: “Thou shall have no other God but me.”
Ephesians 6 is also part of a
family package. “Children, obey your
parents in the Lord … Honor your father and mother” it begins. And
following 6:3 comes, “Fathers, do not
exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training … of the
Lord.”
What is more exasperating for
children of any era than parents who do not instruct them in the ways things
will go well – go best – for them? Godly basics, I mean, like the preciousness
of human life created in the image of God, the simplicity of natural identity
(boys and girls, I mean), of family security, loyalty to country, being
educated in creative freedom with responsibility, and sharing the loving, eternal
truth of Jesus Christ.
Obedience is not to avoid
punishment but to fully express love as God intended.
Why do the right thing? For our children, that’s
why, that it may go well with them.
Walters
(rlwcom@aol.com) knows one thing is always true: God’s
righteousness.
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