SAPATE MA’ASI 1, 2026
TEUTALONOME 5-7; SAAME 1:1-6
God's commands are wisdom-drenched gifts of divine love. It would be foolish to resist their protecting and directing beauty.
Ko e ngaahi fekau ‘a e ‘Otua, ko e ngaahi me’a’ofa ‘oku anuanu ‘i he poto faka-’Otua. ‘Oku ‘ikai totonu ke tau si’aki ‘a e masani mo e malu’i ‘oku nau ‘omi ki he’etau mo’ui.
God did not give his law as a means of gaining his acceptance; his standard is too lofty, too holy. No, God's law was a gift to those he had already chosen to love, so that they would know how to live and, in following his commands, thrive. That's why the psalmist can exult, "Oh how I love your law!" (Ps. 119:97). The words that follow are my celebration of the gift of God's commands and the grace that empowers us to love and keep them.
God's law is perfect, holy, righteous, good. It is God's gracious, loving, wise, tender welcome to the good life, where sinful impulses are restrained, where we are protected from our wandering hearts, where we learn to live as our Creator designed us to live. God's protective boundaries, the fences of his law, are an expression of his love. These laws have been given not to earn his love, but as a gift of grace to those he has chosen to love. In an ever-changing world-valleys deep, mountains high, woods dark, enemies abounding, temptations whispering - there is security in God's unchanging law.
There simply is nothing to add to his holy and righteous commands. Who would've thought, who could've ever conceived, who had the wisdom to design such a plan, such purpose, such a moral structure for human help, hope, thriving? It's an act of arrogance, confusion, rebellion, foolishness to subtract things from God's holy and loving moral plan for us.
So settle in, believe that God always knows what is best, and pray for grace to surrender your thoughts, desires, choices, words, actions, to him.
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