God’s Requirements of His People

There are some passages in the Bible where a concise, overarching description of what it is God’s looking for in his people is laid out. It’s these pithy nuggets that I’m hoping to collect here.

Deuteronomy 6:24-25 And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’

Deuteronomy 10:12-22 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

Joshua 22:5 Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Joshua 23:8 …but you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day.

Job 29:11-17 When the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it approved, because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him. The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know. I broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made him drop his prey from his teeth.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

Isaiah 1:16-20 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Isaiah 33:15-16 He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil, he will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him; his water will be sure.

Isaiah 58:6-12 “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.

Jeremiah 7:5-7 For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

Jeremiah 21:12 O house of David! Thus says the Lord: “‘Execute justice in the morning, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed, lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of your evil deeds.’”

Jeremiah 22:3 Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.

Micah 6:6-8 “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with[a] thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 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?

Mark 12:30-31 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

“Essential to the meaning of the image in Genesis 1 is the dynamic power or agency that God grants humans at creation (signified in the terms rule and subdue). Although it is not explicitly stated in Genesis 1, it is reasonable to think that this power is to be exercised responsibly, with God’s own exercise of power in creation perhaps as the model…. With privilege comes responsibility. There is a call inherent in every gift. The imago Dei is thus inextricably linked to the gift and responsibility (delegated to humanity at creation) of exercising stewardship over the earth.” – J. Richard Middleton, The Liberating Image: The imago Dei in Genesis 1. (p. 204)

“… all human beings, male and female, are created as God’s royal stewards in the world, entrusted with the privileged task of ruling on God’s behalf (1:26-28). … In the Genesis vision, it is ordinary humans (and not some elite class) who are understood to be significant historical actors in the arena of earthly life. It is significant, in this connection, that while humans are granted rule over the earth and the animals, there is no mandate in Genesis 1 for humans to rule each other. The democratization of the image in this text thus suggests an egalitarian conception of the exercise of power. Human beings are called to a fundamental mutuality in a shared task, ‘a cooperative sharing in dominion,’ as H. D. Preuss puts it.” – J. Richard Middleton, The Liberating Image: The imago Dei in Genesis 1. (p. 204-205)

“We need to be people who stand firm. … We need to be people who stay on mission and remain steadfast. And by that I mean that we continue to work at what God has put before us, transforming this world that we’re in into the type of place, into what he intended it to be originally. Like we continue to be the people who work as Christ’s embassadors to bring good into this world. In other words, we don’t just write this world off and stop caring about it. We don’t write it off as if, ‘Well Jesus is coming back some day so why should I care?’ No, no, no, no. We don’t stop, we don’t give up on transforming this world. We continue to love the unlovable. We continue to fight for the rights of the least of these, those who can’t fight for themselves. We continue to strive to rectify injustice in the world that we see all over the place. We stay. on. mission. You see, we image God. So we need to do that wherever we are, in every circumstance and situation that we find ourselves in. Look, you and I are living out the identity we’ve been given as image bearers of God in this broken world that we’re in. But there is a passage in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, that I think encapsulates this idea. It says this, ‘Therefore my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.’ So we are patient, and we stand firm, in the hope that we have that he is coming back.” – Matt Metzger, “God’s Mission Accomplished: Jesus’ Return,” Blackhawk Church. Sermon date: May 28, 2023. (Quote begins around the 31 minute mark in the podcast.)