Year 4, Day 157: Deuteronomy 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from Father.

Deuteronomy 6 is one of the prime “obedience” chapters in the Bible.  It begins with an iconic verse in Deuteronomy 6:4.  Then it launches into five or so verses about making sure that we pass the faith along to the next generation.  That right there is the plan.  We think discipleship started with Jesus … but it was actually alive and well by the time Moses got onto the scene!

After we move past Deuteronomy 6:9, we actually get into a passage of warning.  Moses tells the people to be careful.  If they are not careful, they are going to get into the Promised Land, live in relative luxury, become consumed by their lifestyle, and forget all about God.  If they aren’t careful they will test God with their disobedience.  If they aren’t careful, they will find themselves dwelling among a generation of people who care less and less about God.

That should really hit home.  Churches are dwindling and dying all over the place.  I’ve heard reports that when the people who are currently 18 and under all get to be 25 and older, only about 4% of them will be regularly attending Christian worship.  How could such a thing occur in our world?  We lack obedience.  We do not raise up parents who can teach the faith to their sons and daughters.  We do not tell the great stories of faith.  Many of us don’t even tell one another the stories of how God is at work in our own lives!  If we aren’t talking about what God is doing for us and what He has done in the past, how can we expect people to want to know the greatest being in the universe?

We need to be obedient.  We need to raise up spiritual parents who can raise up spiritual children.  We need spiritual parents who can truly disciple and make spiritual children out of the world around them.  We need to be obedient to God’s plan rather than think faith transmission is just a natural consequence of being alive and living in a nation where freedom of religion is allowed.  Faith transmission requires obedient commitment to God, not just living in the right place, time, or land.

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