FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH - ENTERPRISE
WEDNESDAY NIGHT BIBLE STUDY
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QUICK STUDY
WALKING WITH GOD
DEUTERONOMY 10:12; MATTHEW
22:34-40
05/18/2016
MAIN POINT
A disciple of Jesus Christ
is actively engaged in the God’s redemptive plan and daily transformed into the
image of Christ.
INTRODUCTION
What is your favorite form of
exercise? Why?
How do you feel about walking?
Do you do it for exercise or for fun?
Do you do it voluntarily or only when you
have to?
The benefits of walking
regularly abound. From reducing the risk of heart disease to enhanced mental
health, doctors rave about how wonderful walking is
for all people who are able. With that in mind, it’s especially interesting
that when the Bible speaks of the way believers
relate to God, it often uses the word “walk” to describe that relationship.
Walking is active, intentional and
transformational, not at all unlike our walk with Jesus Christ. To walk with
Jesus is to be is actively engaged in the God’s redemptive plan and daily
transformed into the image of Christ.
UNDERSTANDING
Use the biblical commentary
(at the end) to discover what the Scripture says or means about a particular
topic.
READ DEUTERONOMY 10:12.
What do you think it means to
fear God?
Is that different than being afraid of God? How?
What, in your own words, does
it mean to walk in all of God’s ways?
This passage isn’t a demand
from a harsh king; it’s a command from a loving God. Through His past deeds,
God had shown Himself to be the great Protector and Deliverer of His people. In
light of His loving character, God’s people should wholeheartedly love, worship
and fear Him. In other words, they should, walk with Him. As we love, worship
and fear the Lord on a regular basis (that is, as we walk with Him), we are
daily transformed to be more like Him.
The Gospel of Matthew records
an encounter between Jesus and a group of Pharisees in which the Pharisees
asked Jesus what he believed the most important commandment to which people
should walk. Jesus’ answer has since been labeled as “the Great Commandment.”
READ MATTHEW 22:34-38.
What makes loving God the
greatest command?
The Great Commandment
emphasizes loving God with all your heart, soul, and might. What do each of
those aspects of a person’s being
represent?
Love for God rises as a
response to His gracious love for people demonstrated in the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus. Our love for God is to be unconditional and undivided in
the way that He and His love for us is unconditional and undivided. This love
is actively engaged in God’s redemptive plan and extends from all our heart,
soul, and might. The Jews believed human
thoughts originate in the heart. From the soul came a person’s will and
feelings. The might represented a person’s
physical nature. Combined, these words highlight the requirement to love God
with all our being—emotion, spirit, and
body.
Why do you think loving God
comes before loving others?
What does it look like in practical terms to love
God with your heart, soul, and might?
How does practicing this transform us
into the likeness of Christ?
Making God the supreme
priority of our lives requires constant attention to Him. As we involve ourselves
in day-to-day living, our commitment to God above all else should guide our
thoughts and actions. But when asked what the greatest commandment is, Jesus added a
second commandment to the first one. The two cannot be separated from each
other. We can’t love others well if we don’t love God well.
READ MATTHEW 22:39-40.
Jesus took a command from the
Old Testament, this time from Leviticus 19:18, “Do not take revenge or bear a
grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself; I
am Yahweh.”
Who would Jesus say is your “neighbor”?
What does it mean to love another person “as yourself”?
“The second is like it” is a
profound statement that shows the two commands are intrinsically tied together—if
people love God then they will love those
whom God loves. The way people interact with God affects how they interact with
others. Jesus redefined the Jewish
concept of “neighbor.” To the Jews, a neighbor was another Jew to the exclusion
of non-Jewish people. Jesus, however, with the parable of the good Samaritan
(see Luke 10:25-37), expanded on that definition. According to Jesus, a
neighbor was anyone who needed help. Jesus added that a believer should love others
as themselves. Certainly Jesus never promoted an egocentric self-love. However,
people do watch out for themselves. Love for others should equal or exceed
concern one has for oneself.
Why is each of these commands
foundational to the life of a Christ follower?
What happens if you choose to
obey one but not the other?
What actions and attitudes make it evident that
people love their neighbors as themselves?
APPLICATION
Help identify how the truths
from the Scripture passage apply directly to their lives.
What is one part of your walk
with God you would like to be different?
What are some ways we can make sure we
aren’t performing external acts of obedience while forgetting the gospel?
Why do you think love is such
a defining mark of the Christian?
Do we tend to think of love as the primary
mark of the Christian life? If not, what do we think of as that mark? Why?
What most frequently stands in
the way of you truly loving others?
What are some tangible expressions of this kind of love you might
practice this week: At your workplace? In your home? With your friends?
PRAY
Close in prayer, asking God
to help you fully embrace the heart posture He has given you in Christ. Ask Him
to help the rhythms of your life lead you closer to Him. Thank God for the love
He’s shown us in sending Jesus to die for us. Pray that He would help us to
love well, as we are called to do—to love Him with our whole being, and to love
others as ourselves. Pray that we’d see the needs of our neighbors, wherever
they are and we’d be moved to act.
COMMENTARY
DEUTERONOMY 10:12-19
10:12–13. The appeal to
covenant re-commitment is in the form of a rhetorical question packed with
covenant vocabulary. What does the Lord your God
ask? He asks for five things specifically, all of which have been addressed
over and over in Moses’ pareneses throughout
the book (cf. also Mic. 6:8).
He demands first of all that
his people fear him. The verb employed is one that speaks of terror, indeed,
but more than that. It expresses reverential awe, the kind one shows in the
presence of transcendent and awesome power and that motivates one to worship
and obedience (cf. Deut. 5:29; 6:2, 13, 24; 31:12–13). Proper fear leads to a
godly walk or lifestyle. The language of travel or pilgrimage is a favorite
biblical metaphor to express adherence to principles and pathways of obedience
(cf. Deut. 5:33; 11:22; 19:9; 26:17; 28:9; 30:16).
Love, though most commonly
bearing emotive overtones, is much at home in covenant contexts as a synonym of
election. That is, God’s choices are a
function and expression of his love, a love that must find its response and
counterpart in the commitment of the chosen one
to love (i.e., choose) God in return (Deut. 5:10; 6:5; 7:9, 13; 11:1, 13, 22;
13:3; 19:9; 30:6, 16, 20). Such response, to be meaningful, must be manifest in
deeds. Thus, Israel was to serve the Lord with unreserved and unqualified
devotion, one that marked them out as God’s peculiar people who had been made his
servant nation in achieving his redemptive purposes (Deut. 6:13; 7:4; 11:13;
13:4).
Specifically, this service
consists of observing the Lord’s commands and decrees. Service is not abstract
or vacuous, then, but in covenant relational terms it speaks of strict
conformity to precise stipulations (Deut. 4:6; 6:1; 8:6, 11; 11:8, 22; 12:14; 26:16;
28:45).
10:14–15. The introduction to
the horizontal demands of the covenant is couched in an appeal to recognize the
absolute uniqueness and dominion of the
Lord, he who is Lord of heaven and earth (v. 14) and who, therefore, has the
authority to elect whom he will to
salvation and service (v. 15). The phrase “highest heavens” does not suggest
some cosmological scheme in which there are
levels of heavenly realm, but it is merely a Hebrew construction indicating
totality. As Creator, the Lord obviously rules over all things and disposes of
them as he will.
It is all the more remarkable
then that he took notice of the patriarchs. He set his affection on them, that
is, he loved them, that is, he chose them. In a
powerful and breathtaking sequence of elective terms Moses described the grace
of God in choosing only Israel out of
all the options at his disposal. All three verbs are essentially synonymous as their
usage elsewhere clearly shows.
The condescension of the Lord,
Sovereign over all, to choose Israel is a theme expressed at the very beginning
of the nation’s covenant history, for in the desert of Sinai the Lord had
invited Israel into covenant partnership on the very basis of his elective
grace. “Although the whole earth is mine,” he said, “you will be for me a
kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod. 19:5–6). This sentiment is echoed
in Deuteronomy 7:6–8, where Israel is reminded that they possessed no special qualifications
to be God’s people but became such only as he chose them among many options.
10:16. Israel therefore had no
claim on God and no right to be arrogant or proud. In fact, Moses said, the
people should circumcise their hearts and
stop being stiff-necked (v. 16). Circumcision was the sign of outward
conformity to the covenant ideal and was not only perfectly acceptable but
required (Gen. 17:9–14; cf. Exod. 12:48). However, it was not enough if it was only
physical and formal. More important was an inner conformity to the requirements
and purposes of God, a circumcision of the inner person (cf. Jer. 4:4; Rom.
2:28–29). To be stiff-necked is to be unsubmissive, like an ox that refuses to
bow its head to the yoke and to turn at the command of its owner. Throughout
the Old Testament “stiff-necked” is a metaphor for stubbornness and
recalcitrance (cf. Job 9:4; 2 Chron. 30:8; 36:13; Neh. 9:16–17, 29; Jer. 7:26;
17:23; 19:15). In the present context it denotes a lack of compliance to the
covenant requirements.
10:17. Such a spirit of
indifference is incomprehensible in light of who God is, the “God of gods and
Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome” (v. 17). Such a description
does not admit to the reality of other gods but simply emphasizes the absolute
uniqueness and incomparability of the Lord and his exclusive right to
sovereignty over his people (cf. Deut. 3:24; 4:35, 39). As Lord over all he
cannot be enticed or coerced into any kind of partiality through influence
peddling (v. 17) and, in fact, is the special advocate of defenseless persons
who are so often victims of such unscrupulous behavior (v. 18).
10:18–19. What God does in the
social realm his people are to imitate (cf. Exod. 22:22–24). They must be
especially sensitive to aliens living among them, particularly since they also
had been aliens in Egypt (v. 19). The word for alien here is the same as
appears in Leviticus 19:34: “The alien living with you must be treated as one
of your native-born. Love him as yourself.” Exactly the same sentiment (but
with “neighbor”) is expressed in Leviticus 19:18, the verse Jesus quoted when
he was quizzed about the greatest of the commandments (Matt. 19:19). Jesus
attached this to the command to “love the Lord” with all one’s being (cf. Deut.
6:5), thus joining love for God with love for others. This is precisely what
the present passage is teaching as the enveloping structure makes clear.
MATTHEW 22:34-40
22:34-36. The Pharisees and
Sadducees had been assaulting Jesus with a variety of difficult questions
(Matt. 22:15-33). They were hoping to trap Him in a point of religious law or
to make him give an unpopular answer. When the first two attempts failed, a
Pharisee tried again by asking Jesus to name the most important commandment. He
hoped Jesus would answer in a way that would provide a reason for destroying
Him or His credibility.
22:37. To answer the Pharisee’s
question, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:5, part of the Shema (Deut. 6:4-9) that
Jews recited twice a day. Instead of “strength” in Deuteronomy 6:5, Jesus used
mind. He probably wanted to emphasize a person’s need to make all life
decisions based on love for God. Love translates the Greek verb agapao that
refers to God’s unconditional love. God loved us enough to send His Son Jesus
to live, teach, minister, die, and rise again for us (John 3:16). Jesus’ answer
was not what the Pharisees hoped for and indeed trapped them. Instead of
trapping Him, they had to agree with Him.
22:38. Having quoted
Deuteronomy 6:5, Jesus announced loving God with one’s entire being constituted
the greatest and most important commandment.
Recognizing God’s lordship and love and loving Him through worship and action
in daily life comprises God’s greatest expectation from His people.
22:39. Jesus then added a
second commandment and quoted Leviticus 19:18. He stated the second commandment
was like the first, meaning both commandments complemented and completed each
other. Both commandments begin with the same call to love directed at
individuals. Jesus expected each believer to love God and others with every
aspect of their being and life. One cannot love God without also loving others
(see 1 John 4:7-12, 20-21). The Jewish religious leaders
basically would have agreed with Jesus here, accepting the importance of the
commandment to love others (although perhaps not seeing it as equal to the
first commandment).
22:40. Jesus stated these two
commandments summarize the entire law and the teachings of the prophets. All
the law and all the prophetic teaching flow from the commands to love God and
others.
I have always loved summer. School is closed and the pools are open. Refreshing, ruby-red, ice-cold watermelon! Fishing. Baseball. Family gatherings. Cookouts. Shorts and T-shirts. Excursions to the beach, lake and mountains. Summer is a wonderful time to slow down, relax, and rejuvenate…it is the time for vacations.
