Salvation Summaries

If you are a Christian, how should you live?  Or, if you are a non-Christian, how should you expect “the other side” to behave?

Many posts could be written to answer these questions, but neither you nor I have time for that, so let me keep it simple and use one set of verses from an unlikely source – the Old Testament.

Now, some of you Christians, and maybe even a few non-Christians, might expect me to write about the 10 commandments, which are found in the Old Testament books of Exodus (chapter 20) and Deuteronomy (chapter 5).  Good guess, but no, that would require several posts, and I really am pressed for time.

My short answer is based upon Deuteronomy, chapter 10, verses 12-13. But before I show you what these verses say, let me first get one objection out of the way.

It’s true that these verses pertain to the people of Israel, and some of you might say that they do not apply to those of us today who are not Jews. At first blush, you would seem to be correct, but let me give you two reasons why that’s not the case.

First, the requirements in the verses from Deuteronomy were for God’s chosen people, the people of Israel.  In the New Testament, God’s chosen people are Christians. We see this in 1 Peter:

1 Peter 2:9-10 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (NIV)

Thus, if God has certain expectations for His chosen people, they apply to His chosen people – regardless of race, and whether they lived before or after Jesus (the event that separates the two Testaments).

Second, while it’s true that some of the laws (dietary, ceremony) and practices (animal sacrifices) that God required of His chosen people in the Old Testament do not apply to Christians today (for they were either specifically abolished or fulfilled by the coming of Jesus), other things like the 10 commandments (honor your parents, do not murder or steal or commit adultery, etc.), God’s moral laws (incest and homosexuality are wrong), the need to pray and meditate, etc. still apply.

OK, let’s get to the answer, which is found in the verses below:

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 12 “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require from you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the LORD’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? (NAS)

Thus, if you are a Christian, here is how you are to live according to Deuteronomy 10:12-13:

• Fear God – this means to revere Him and submit to Him
• Walk in His ways – this means you are to live according to what He expects of you
• Love Him
• Serve Him with all of your heart and soul
• Obey Him (keep His commandments and statutes)

If you live in this way, what will the outcome be?  I firmly believe that God will bless you, just like He blessed those in the Old Testament who sought to live in this way.

P.S. My wife thought of the acronym FLOWS as a way to remember how Christians are to live according to Deuteronomy 10. It is my goal to recall this acronym each day in an effort to better live how God wants His people to live.