“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons 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 up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)
I was sitting on the river one day after work, watching some boaters on the sand bar. One of them had a small flat bottom boat with a small motor on it. When other boats would go by, he would gun it into their wake and try to get airborne. He was having a lot of fun, until he jumped a rather large wake from a barge, and flew off the back of his boat. Apparently his motor did not have a kill switch, so his boat kept going. It drove away from him a bit, then it started to circle. He was in the river, without a life jacket, waving his arms, yelling, his boat driving around in circles by itself. Another boat came to his rescue eventually and pulled him out of the water. They went to the sandbar and observed the circling boat for a while, trying to develop a plan to capture it I imagine.
After about 15-20 minutes, they piled into one of the other boats and went after the circling boat. Their first attempt to capture the loose boat was a failure, and they went back to the island to think some more. After maybe another 15 minutes or so, they came after the boat again. This time they managed to get alongside of it and drive in a circle with the stray boat. The guy jumped into it, crawled back towards the motor, and was able to gain control of his boat again. It was like watching an episode of the Three Stooges, live in my backyard. A life that is lived with disregard for God’s word is much like that story. It is a life that will eventually get away from you, a life that may hurt you, kill you, or leave you stranded in need of assistance. It is a life that could even hurt or kill others. It is a reckless life. It is a life that leaves a trail of destruction typically. It is not the way to live. And God knows this.
What We Do
Binding the word of God on our hand is God’s way of telling us to let the word of God affect our actions, impact the things that we do and the way that we do them. He is telling us to be wise, to live wise lives. It has often been said that actions speak louder than words. Maybe that is why God leads this next section with actions first, thoughts second. James says “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” (James 2:18) James also speaks to the issue of ‘doing’ the word of God in chapter 1 of his book:
But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.
James 1:22-25
In Deuteronomy 6 God lists doing the word of God prior to listing putting the word of God on our minds:
- You shall bind them as a sign on your hand
- They shall be as frontals on your forehead.
It is as though He is telling us that the first priority is to do the word of God, to act on it, to not just be hearers but to be doers of the word first and foremost. God is asking us here to let His word impact and guide our actions. When we consider that Jesus is the “Word” of God, we could also say that God is commanding us to let Jesus, the Word of God, impact all that we do, guide all that we do. Romans 8:9-14 speaks to this as well:
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
Romans 8:9-14
Spirit Led
In Romans 8 Paul goes so far as to say that if we are not being led in our actions by the Spirit of God, then we do not belong to Him, we are not His sons. It is in the doing of God’s word that our faith is seen by others, perfected, solidified, made real, etc. Until we let the word of God change how we live, we are deluded, just as James says. We are playing make believe. In letting Christ, the Word of God, impact our life and change how we live, our faith in Him becomes real. It is no longer a mental exercise. We are now out in the open, exposed. Our faith in Christ is apparent to all. It is not hidden, but in plain sight, for everyone to see, just as the tefillin are obvious to everyone when an orthodox Jew is wearing them.
Real Faith
When we act on our faith, it is now on the outside of our life. Others can see it, it is visible. That is the first aspect of letting the word of God impact our actions – becoming born again – becoming a Christian – professing Christ.
The second aspect, as mentioned above, is that it makes our faith real to ourselves. Our faith goes from being a theoretical ideology to a practical way of living our life. We are not deluded as James points out.
The third aspect of doing the word of God is when we let Jesus, the Word of God, impact our daily actions. It is one thing to live a good life, keeping the rules and regulations, and quite another to live a life dedicated to and led by Jesus Christ, the “Word” of God.
When we live our life based on only the written word, it is possible to justify many wrong things, just as the scribes and Pharisees had done during Jesus’ day. But when Christ enters into our life, the false justifications slough off and we are convicted of the sin we are trying to justify; we must repent, and do the right thing. We become a new creation in Christ, created for good works. Again we see how critical the relationship with Jesus, the Word of God, becomes to successfully living out Deuteronomy chapter 6.
Salt and Light
A fourth aspect of doing the word of God is that this is where we impact others the most. If we are willing to step out in faith and do what is right, Christ is able to use us to shape the world and make it a better place. We truly become the salt and light we are called to be in Matthew. It was a Christian acting on the word of God that ended slavery first in the UK (Disraeli) then in the US (Lincoln). Christians led the way into caring for the sick (what we now call hospitals), caring for the poor, caring for unwanted infants, etc. Christians led the way into reading, science, education in general, etc. Almost every good thing in the world today can be traced back to Christians acting on the word of God.
The counter to doing the word of God is possibly the source and cause of all the evil the world has ever known. Think of some of the terrible moments in history, where great evil occurred, and you will likely see a man not doing God’s word, not letting the Word of God, Jesus Christ, direct his actions or impact his ways.
Legacy
A fifth aspect to doing God’s word is that the overall impact of our life is affected. Each of us leaves a legacy, like a ship leaves a wake in the water. Whether our legacy is good or bad greatly depends on whether we let the word of God impact our actions. When we follow Christ in all that we do, keeping His word, our legacy is a godly legacy, and our life was a blessing to those that knew us and to those we leave behind. But when we do not follow Christ, and do not keep His word, our legacy is often tragic, leaving a path of destruction and disappointment. Our life is more of a curse than a blessing to those that knew us and for those we leave behind.
Eternal Impact
Acting on God’s word sets the general course of our life. Doing the word of God is where the rubber meets the road in the Christian life. Letting the Word of God, Jesus, impact our actions daily is what makes our lives transcendent. It takes our normal day to day lives and elevates them to being of eternal impact for good. Our life becomes a blessing to everyone we impact. We can even become a blessing to generations to come. Being led by God’s Spirit is the highest form of letting the word of God impact our lives.
Bending to His Word
What are some of the ways that you let God’s word impact your actions each day? How have you seen Him working in your life? How have you seen Him working in the lives of others around you? What areas of your life do you need to turn over to His control? Where have you not yielded control of your life and actions to Him? How has the “Word” of God, Christ Jesus, impacted your actions and your life? What type of legacy do you hope to leave behind? What do you need to do to create the type of legacy you hope to leave?
Lord God almighty, we come before you in Jesus name, and ask that you would teach us to let your word affect our actions in all that we do. Show us ways that we can do this, each day. We also pray that the Word of God, Jesus Christ, would impact everything we do each day of our lives. We pray for the leading of your Holy Spirit in our lives, that we might prove to be Your sons. Teach us to be effectual doers of the word, rather than hearers who delude themselves. Help us to live our lives in such a way that we leave a godly legacy behind for our children, their children, and their children’s children. May the love Christ drive our actions and interactions at all times. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.
“Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.
But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him— a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.
So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.
Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”
Colossians 3:5-17
Two Rivers Blog 
2 thoughts on “Deuteronomy 6:4-9 – Our Actions”