Becoming godly hinges on our obeying God’s laws and commandments. This daily devotional reviews at how following His laws and commandments changes our character.
To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.
The nuggets for this side of the triangle are falling a different way. The ones from the last devotion organized into discussing God’s character.
This devotion is going to look at how following God’s laws and commandments develops our character.
Following God’s Laws and Commandments
- True repentance means we are broken because we have sinned against God (How Do We Cleanse and Purify to Submit to God?).
- We only purify our hearts when we get the sin out. We are not going to be fixing to get it out if it brings us warm, fuzzy feelings (How Do We Cleanse and Purify to Submit to God?).
- The law shows us what is a sin and what isn’t. But that is not it’s only purpose. It goes deeper into showing the principles behind the law. Why is a sin a sin — and why isn’t something a sin? It is or isn’t because the law is consistent with God’s character. So, the laws and commandments show us Who God is (Attributes of God: Purity).
- Submission stems from the humility. You don’t start with submission and become humble. You start with the humble, that facilitates the submission (How Do We Cleanse and Purify to Submit to God?).
- God doesn’t ask us to be humble to cut us down. He is asking us to put the correct emphasis on our worship to Him (How Do We Cleanse and Purify to Submit to God?).
- We resist the devil when we obey God’s laws and commandments (How Are We to Submit to God?).
- We have to understand what God is asking us to do by reading His Word and listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Then, we have to make the choice to do what He is telling us (How Are We to Submit to God?).
- After Jesus completed the Plan of Salvation, the civil laws and ceremonial laws were fulfilled. We no longer have to take people out and kill them when they break God’s laws. Neither do we have to kill all the animals. God as Sovereign God can choose to invoke laws and to repeal them. We don’t. We are to obey. But that also means that God has the authority to punish those who break His laws and commandments. We know that a final judgment day is coming (Attributes of God: Sovereignty).
- We put our faith into practice through the law. God wants us to live our lives obeying Him and following His lead (The Morality of Being Lovely; Learning about Love).
- It is our choice to obey God’s laws and commandments. It is arrogant of us to think we can disobey those laws and commandments and not suffer the consequences (Attributes of God: Just).
- As we follow the laws and commandments, our character changes to be like Him. It becomes second nature to us. Walking in the Spirit and obeying God’s laws and commandments changes our character to be like His. In that way we worship Him because we are focusing on the being, not the doing (Godliness: The Parent of Contentment; Attributes of God: A Spirit).
- Obedience to God’s laws and commandments is a huge way that we show we believe in God. Disciples of Christ follow God’s laws and commandments to create order. Obedience alone is not going to get our ticket to Heaven punched. We need to be taught right from wrong. We have to be held accountable for our actions (Growing in Godliness; The Morality of Honesty; What Are the Causes and Effects of Evil? (Part 1)).
- Our choices to follow God’s laws and commandments and His Will produces our actions. Our actions make our moral character (The Morality of Being Just).
- Disciples should not only walk righteously but should also act righteously (The Morality of Honesty).
- We have to make sure we are letting God lead in choosing our affections. We can’t follow our sinful nature or even the worldview (What Are the Causes and Effects of Evil? (Part 2)).
- The greatest commandments show that God is not interested in a checklist of what we do or don’t do. There is only one item on God’s checklist: that we imitate Him. He wants us to build our character so we have the integrity to make the decisions following His Will. Being concerned with keeping our hands clean means we acknowledge that our conduct must be morally clean (Practicing Love; The Morality of Honesty).
- Good lives are defined as being godly. Good, in the biblical sense, is the workings of God within His people (The Morality of Honesty).
- Character is at heart level. It isn’t really measured by the service projects we do. We can be doing the service projects for an ulterior motive that has nothing to do with character. That means it isn’t at the heart level (Why Lying Is a Moralities Issue for Disciples of Christ).
- Being merciful is a choice. We choose whether we are going to show compassion to someone in need or look the other way. We choose whether we give mercy for right reasons or wrong reasons (The Manner in which Disciples of Christ Are Merciful).
- To show mercy to others, we must both be sympathetic and empathetic toward them. We must not only have the feelings of sorrow toward them, but we must also be willing to understand and share those feelings. It is more than just a surface I-am-sorry-you-are-weak-and-unhappy. It is a generous, cheerful hey-do-you-need-an-ear and here-is-some-chicken-soup (The Manner in which Disciples of Christ Are Merciful).
- Showing mercy and righteousness should be between us and God. We aren’t to perform our acts of mercy to get recognition from others. We don’t do things so we can get our names on the 6:00 news. Our mercy is holding hands with our humility (The Manner in which Disciples of Christ Are Merciful).
- Being merciful is the opposite of being selfish. Our mercy is shown through good works (The Manner in which Disciples of Christ Are Merciful).
- It really isn’t compassion if we are giving mercy begrudgingly. We can’t think that God is wanting us to act in a totally opposite way than we want to act. It has to be genuine (The Manner in which Disciples of Christ Are Merciful).
- When we see a situation, we need to immediately act compassionately. Just as we need to guard our hearts, we need to guard our attitudes (The Manner in which Disciples of Christ Are Merciful).
- If our character is like that of God’s, then we love. If we love — even our enemies — through diminished pride, we esteem them higher than ourselves (The Manner in which Disciples of Christ Are Merciful).
- If we don’t love our neighbors, we haven’t met the foundation of entire law and all the demands of the prophets. It is that important (Who Do We Please?).
- God’s laws are not going to change. That means we won’t get up tomorrow and hear Him say, “From here on out, this is a sin” or “Good new, guys! I’ve evolved. That won’t be counted as a sin anymore” (Attributes of God: Unchangeable and Immutable).
- The moral law can only be given by God, Who is not divided in thought. It can only come out of spiritual wholeness or completeness and a solid relationship of conscientious obedience (Attributes of God: Unified and One).
- We aren’t going to keep all of God’s commandments if we don’t love Him (Attributes of God: Faithfulness).
- God rewards our righteousness and punishes our unrighteousness. In a way, righteousness is its own reward. If righteousness is the result of being free from sin and the product of a solid relationship with Him, that means we have to choose to obey His laws and commandments (Attributes of God: Righteousness).
- We would say that the laws and the commandments are right. Since we know that the laws and the commandments show us God’s character, we can say that His character is right (Attributes of God: Righteousness).
- “… Be holy, because I am holy” (I Pet. 1: 16 CSB) is to be our standard (Attributes of God: Holy).
- We see God’s holiness through His laws and worship. If the laws show us holiness and the laws tell how we are expected not to sin, holiness means we are free from the stain of sin. God’s character is, therefore, pure and holy because He does not sin (Attributes of God: Holy).
- God is not unjust because He passes judgment on our actions (Attributes of God: Just).
- We can’t gain righteousness just by keeping God’s laws. We’ve got to have the faith that goes with it (Attributes of God: Righteousness).
- We can’t just do the lip service or just be a good person. Our mind has to be involved. I would add, so does our heart, soul, and strength (Attributes of God: Goodness).
- Scriptures were written so that we could know the laws and commandments, they could change us, and we could receive the joy (What Affections Are We Talking About?).
- These laws and commandments are not going to change — no matter how much the worldview people think they should. God has decreed what is a sin and what is not. That isn’t going to change (What Affections Are We Talking About?).
- We are to attempt to find freedom from sin by following God’s moral laws. Attempt. That means we aren’t there yet. What is imperative is that we have to be moving in the right direction. We are to be moving away from sin and toward God’s moral laws (How Do We Set Our Affections Above?).
- We can’t write our sins off as the product of our environment or just how we were wired. We have to choose to follow God’s laws and commandments or to sin (How Do We Switch Our Affections in Our Redo for Godliness?).
- We can’t delude ourselves into thinking we can do okay on a couple of the laws and commandments but fall way short on the rest — and it will be okay (How Do We Set Our Affections Above?).
- Sometimes we think disciples have to do everything perfectly. We have to be 100% fruit-of-the-Spirit perfect without breaking any laws or commandments. Not going to happen, folks. We will still have our share of failures (Renewing the Inward Person).
- We prepare ourselves for the trials that try to steal our confidence and our relationships with God (Renewing Our Inner Person by Being Sober).
- We see the trial as the disease, not the cure that it is (Consequences of Setting Our Affections Below)
- We renew our inner person by training ourselves for what comes our way. We know Satan is going to try to throw things at us. We know God is even going to test us. We have to be ready. We are not only to maintain our salvation, but we are also to grow it. We have to be prepared (Renewing Our Inner Person by Being Sober).
- God said that He would not put up with people disobeying His laws and commandments. God isn’t in the business of giving fire insurance. He is in the business of bestowing salvation on us when we genuinely ABCD (Benefits of Setting Our Affections on Things Above).
- We have to remember that this is an if…then situation. If we honor God, He Will honor us. We can’t have one without the other (Benefits of Setting Our Affections on Things Above).
- Conformity to others isn’t what God wants. He wants conformity to Him (Benefits of Setting Our Affections on Things Above).
- Sometimes, we want the do’s and don’ts of the laws and commandments to be a checklist. Have we gotten it right, or did we go off the rails somewhere? But God isn’t about checklists. He is about character. Checklists might not serve us in every situation. Character does (Transformed to Unity).
- Satan wants us to think one of God’s laws and commandments cancels out another. That isn’t what God says. God said do all. Not pick and choose. Not place one law above the other. God said to obey all the laws (Transformed to being Servants of God).
- Serving the Lord means that we are completely committed to His laws and commandments. It is our intent that He be glorified (Transformed by Persistence).
- A disciple strong in faith has a good grasp of spiritual knowledge (The Law of Unity).
- We can’t believe what we please. We can’t rewrite God’s laws and commandments. We can’t say something that God says is a sin isn’t. Liberty does not mean we are given a pass to go on sinning (The Law of Liberty).
- If God has not given us a law or commandment on something, we should make decisions based on His character (The Law of Liberty).
- Disciples are not to have an opinion on something someone else does if God hasn’t made a law or commandment about it (Guarding against Offense).
- Something can be unclean to one person that is not unclean to another (Guarding against Offense).
- Things that are not forbidden and have no moral value cease to be indifferent when they became stumbling blocks and start violating the law of love. They now became the exact opposite of what God wants (Guarding against Offense).
- We can’t say, “Oh, we like where murder is a sin, but we don’t like where homosexuality is, too.” We don’t get to pick and choose what is a sin or what isn’t. We don’t get to choose what we will follow or what we won’t (The Focus of the Ministry).
- We have to be very careful we don’t fall for false doctrines. To ensure this, we have to know what God’s Word says. That means reading, hearing, and studying His Word. Yes, seeking God (Watch for A Ministry in Conflict).
- Obedience, wisdom, and purity will help us remain strong (Watch for A Ministry in Conflict).
- When we are growing closer to God, Satan will be trying even harder to try to get us to sin. So, the more obedient we are, the more of God’s grace to which we have access. More obedient. More grace. More temptation. We need the wisdom to discern how to not give into the temptation and stay pure (Watch for A Ministry in Conflict).
- Any place we let Satan get a toehold, he latches on and runs with the opportunity. The best way he can do that is to get us to think we are unworthy (A Team Approach to Ministry).
- We get that steadfastness by holding onto the gospel and onto what Jesus has done for us. It is nothing that we have done or that we can do that keeps us safe from Satan and his grasp. It is only Jesus (How a Minister Says Goodbye).
- We have to follow God’s plan even if it contradicts our plans (Paul’s Travel Plans).
Father God. Thank You for giving us Your laws and commandments. These show us Your character. Only by our gaining Your character can we complete our redo for godliness. Help us to become like You. Amen.
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