God has directions for disciples as to how we are to interact with others. This daily devotional looks at how we are to be just people.
Nuggets
- Disciples are called to be just as God is.
Devotions in the Where Are You At with the Requirements? series
God requires disciples to be just. He wants us to be like Him.
Cox argued that it is difficult for disciples to be just and merciful. He feels that it is impossible to do because of the complex and conflicting nature of human life.
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Let’s see if we can get some pointers as to what God is calling us to do.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Doing Justice
“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Mic. 6: 8 ESV)
Disciples are called to be just as God is.
The just are those men and women who have been regenerated and who live lives showing evidence they are following God’s laws and commandments and fulfilling every moral obligation.
Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it? Cox argued that we forget a little thing called sin.
Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
Glossary
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Let’s go back to the last part of the definition where it talks about following God’s laws and commandments and fulfilling every moral obligation. We know that the laws show us God’s character. They give us our morals or spiritual graces.
We must act with honest and integrity toward each other. Gisborne identified that commitment as always speaking the truth, submitting to God, loving our neighbors, and respecting the property of others.
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Submitting to God is actions by humans that obey God and keep His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, follow His purpose for us, and do not follow Satan’s promptings.
We as disciples are called to love one another. That is the second commandment. “The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ …” (Mk. 12: 31 ESV).
Glossary
We have to watch how love is interpreted, though. No where in the Scriptures does it say that Christianity is to ensure that everyone has a job and that job pays a living wage.
Jesus did not come as a social savior. He came as our spiritual Savior.
Light explained the true meaning of do justly. He wrote, “The Lord requires, first, that we ‘do justly’; in other words, that all our conduct be upright and faithful, that we ‘defraud not any,’ and that we always ‘do unto others as we would they should do unto us.’”
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Doing justice and being a just person is all tied up in righteousness. Righteousness is the indwelling goodness that is the result of a solid relationship with God built by a sincere life of conscientious obedience to God’s laws and commandments and from which all virtues flow.
Making the Connections
Chapin reminded us that God’s priority for us is salvation. It is as plain and simple as that.
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Why do people make it so hard? They don’t want to submit to God. Or they want to be the ones to determine what are laws and commandments — and what aren’t.
Not going to fly, people. God said the only way to salvation is through belief in His Son Jesus and confession that He is Sovereign God.
We have to approach salvation God’s way. We have to play it out His way.
How Do We Apply This?
• ABCD
• Accept that faith in God is the only way to become perfected in this life and the next.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
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Father God. You have an attribute of being just. You create order through showing no favorites. Instead, You love all of us, especially Your children. Help us to have Your character that seeps down into our being. Amen?”
What do you think?
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