Read today’s texts first: Deuteronomy 13-15; Galatians 1
The congruence between our words and actions is called “integrity” - the “integration” of faith and works!
Some Christians dismiss much of the Old Testament, thinking it focuses on the law while the teachings of Jesus and the New Testament seem to focus on love. Then they tie the law to “legalism,” a bad thing, and love to “relationship,” a good thing. Next they start to disconnect obedience to God’s laws with their love for God. The end result - Christians who lie, steal, dishonour their parents, and commit adultery during the week, but sing love songs to God on Sunday morning.
Jesus wasn’t the first one to connect God’s laws to love. He summed up all the commands in two: love God and love others. But He got that idea from OT law (compare Matthew 22:37-40 with Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18). The first 5 of His 10 commandments have to do with loving God; the next 5 relate to loving people. We prove our love for God by obeying His laws (John 13:34,35; 14:15).
We see this over and over in our readings today. If we love God with all your heart and soul, we will not worship false gods (13:3), we will eat what God tells us to eat (14:2,3), we will set aside our tithes for Him (14:22,23), observe the sabbath day and sabbath year, take care of the poor, and so on. We prove our love by our obedience - walking the talk! The congruence between our words of love for God and our actions is called integrity – “integration” between our faith and works.
“Lord, I want to love You with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, my words and my actions.”
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