We read of minimum daily requirements on food containers as the manufacturer is required to list how this particular food fulfils a given percentage of what the government has determined to be a minimum daily requirement. In reality, to live a healthy lifestyle a person needs to be more concerned about more than the minimum but that is where we linger. It’s like asking the college professor what of the homework assignment would be on the final exam. It’s exactly the impetus behind the question asked of Jesus regarding the greatest commandment.
Matthew 22:36–40 (ESV) — 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Isn’t it interesting that the religious leaders were interested in what was the bare minimum to get by? Jesus gave them what essentially is the synopsis of the 10 commandments as He quoted from Deuteronomy 6 in which God stresses His requirement to not only give Him undivided love but also to teach what He requires to children and talk of this constantly in the home.
Deuteronomy 6:4–9 (ESV) — 4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
God’s minimum daily requirement is far from a minimum because He expects us to be “all in” in our love and service. You might say minimum is all the way or it’s not acceptable at all.
Deuteronomy 10:12–13 (ESV) — 12 “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, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?
God’s requirements are not harsh or without joy and fulfillment. As a perfect and loving Father, He tells us what to do, He shows us what to do as well as what not to do in the narratives of Scripture, He helps us do what He commands (which is the only way we can keep His word), He corrects us when we miss the mark, and He rewards us when we, by His grace, keep His word.
Solomon teaches us that when you come to the bottom line it’s this simple:
Ecclesiastes 12:13–14 (ESV) — 13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
Please understand that it is not a mere turning over a new leaf to follow this command, rather it is God who must change the heart because man by nature does not fear God, nor can he keep God’s commandments.
Romans 3:10–18 (ESV) — 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
1 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV) — 14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
However, once God works in the heart, there is a change of heart and a desire to do what pleases God.
Ezekiel 36:25–27 (ESV) — 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
That new heart is what God gives us as we are drawn to Jesus Christ in salvation.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) — 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Colossians 1:12–14 (ESV) — 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
God gives us a willing spirit to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and call upon Him as well to serve Him and do whatever God commands. For Jesus was willing to take on our sins that we might have eternal life through Him.
1 Peter 2:22–24 (ESV) — 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
John 15:5 (ESV) — 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
What’s the minimum daily requirement? All out dependency upon the Lord Jesus Christ as you seek to do the will of God in honoring and keeping His word. Good news – that attitude of dependency paves the way for the power of the Holy Spirit in producing what pleases God.
Godspeed,
Bob Brubaker, Pastor
Christ Community Presbyterian Church
Clearwater, FL
Check out the PowerBreak podcast wherever you download podcasts or on our website: www.bobbrubaker.com
