FROM THE SERVANT GENERAL
OUR THEME FOR 2022
(Part 8)
CHOOSE LIFE AND GOOD
March 3, 2022
Today’s readings:
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Psalm 1:1-6
Luke 9:22-25
God wants His people to experience blessings beyond bounds. As He told His chosen people, “the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.” (Dt 30:16b). The blessings are already there reserved for them. It is just up to them to take God up on His promises.
But even blessings are not forced by God on His people. They do have a choice. “See, I have today set before you life and good, death and evil.” (Dt 30:15). It would seem to us that it is a clear choice. But that is not the way it has been in the history of God’s people. Even today, many Christians choose the way of death and evil.
Further, in choosing the good, the people have their part to play. There are conditions (though God’s love is unconditional). “If you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I am giving you today, loving the Lord, your God, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and ordinances, you will live and grow numerous” (Dt 30:16a). God’s people are to love Him with their whole being, to obey His commands, and to walk in His ways.
And as if such blessings are not enough to get people to obey Him, God also makes clear what is the alternative. “If, however, you heart turns away and you do not obey, but are led astray and bow down to other gods and serve them, I tell you today that you will certainly perish; you will not have a long life on the land which you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.” (Dt 30:17-18).
With people today, including Christians, many have chosen the wrong path.
- Hearts have been turned away from God. Many Christians are lapsed or cultural. They conform more to the zeitgeist than to God.
- Many do not obey God’s commands. These are both sins of commission and omission.
- Many bow down to other gods and serve them. These are the isms of today—secular humanism, materialism, consumerism, cultural Marxism, liberalism, modernism, even Satanism.
People today think that the secular way of the world is the way to life. But the way of the world is what leads to damnation. “What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?” (Lk 9:25). If we are to be blessed, then we must realize that “blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked” (Ps 1:1a). We must know that “the way of the wicked leads to ruin.” (Ps 1:6b).
We must know that if we are to walk in the ways of the Lord, that way leads to the cross. Jesus himself suffered greatly and was rejected (Lk 9:22). Then he tells us that the same path is the way to discipleship. “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Lk 9:23).
Such is the paradox of God’s bountiful blessings.
- To receive God’s blessings is first of all to deny self.
- To receive the good things of God is premised on embrace of the cross.
- To be blessed beyond bounds is to look not to self but to offer oneself as Jesus’ instrument of blessing to others.
And so the choice is before us. “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.” (Dt 30:19b). If we want to be blessed beyond bounds, then the choice should be clear. “Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live” (Dt 30:19c). How? “By loving the Lord, your God, obeying his voice, and holding fast to him.” (Dt 30:20a).
We must love and obey God and hold fast to His ways. Only in this way are we blessed beyond bounds. So the one who chooses life will pray without ceasing, as “on his law he meditates day and night.” (Ps 1:2b). So he will rejoice always, as “the law of the Lord is his joy” (Ps 1:2a). So he will give thanks in all circumstances, as “he is like a tree planted near streams of water, that yields its fruit in season; its leaves never wither; whatever he does prospers.” (Ps 1:3).
