Full-hearted and faithful

As the people of Israel stood on the cusp of entering the Promise Land, it was a pivotal moment. After years of wandering through the desert, they were finally about to enter their own land. Moses knew it was going to go one of two ways. Either they would serve God faithfully, and things would go well, or they would forget God and all he had done – and suffer the consequences.

The Law had been given to help the people both to remember what God had done for them out of his great love, and to respond to that love with appropriate behaviour. That is why this series is called ‘Full-hearted and Faithful’. God’s people are the recipients of God’s love, not because we deserve it any more than any other, but simply because he loves us. And we are to love him back with our whole hearts, not with half, three-quarters, or even fifteen-sixteenths.

So how do we do that? As Christians we no longer have to follow the letter of the Law; Jesus fulfilled the Law and its requirements for us, and gave us his Spirit to enable a new way of life, to bear fruit (see Galatians 5:22,23) and equip us for service (see 1 Corinthians 12:4–11).

But the Law was about more than behaviour: it reminded the people of Israel of all God had done, and of their identity. Today, as God’s holy people, we are called to remember his love for us, and to follow him full-heartedly and faithfully.