Saturday, 3 March 2007

These are the things you shall do

“These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates: And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the LORD.” - Zechariah 8v16-17

When God gives instructions to His nation Israel in a particular time and place in the Old Testament it is obvious that not all of them are for us or applicable to us. However sometimes God does lay down principles for us that reveal something of His character and what He wants to see.

Here God gave Israel a few simple instructions about what He expected out of them.

  • Speak the truth to your neighbour
  • Do what is honest and peaceable
  • Don’t think badly about your neighbour
  • Don’t love dishonesty

Aren’t those practical thoughts in a day and age that generally teaches just the opposite of each of these points? Someone said recently that we should live radically different lives in order to draw men to Christ. Doing these things would certainly be considered radically different! Perhaps men could see the radical difference and be drawn to our Saviour if we took these things to heart and put them into action.

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