The Whole Duty of Man

(Article for publication week of 2-1-2012 AD)

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

For well nigh two years now, we have been writing in the Narrow Way on the Attributes of God. We have shown that God is eternal, unchangeable, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, sovereign, thrice holy, just, wrathful, gracious, merciful, longsuffering, and jealous. He is Triune. He is pure Spirit, without body, parts or passions. He is perfect and His ways are past finding out. This is the God Who created you and Who will judge you in the final and great day.

Now we shall consider what is our duty to Jehovah. All men (and that includes you dear reader) are duty bound to fear God and keep His commandments. Such a glorious and good God as we have seen revealed in nature and in the scriptures deserves obedience from His rational creatures. “It is He that hath made us and not we ourselves” (Psalm 100). Dear reader you are the property of Jehovah God by virtue of creation. You owe your existence to Him, and you depend upon Him for your very next heartbeat and your very next breath. You are obligated to obey God perfectly. This is you whole duty.

It is your duty to not only obey God, but it is your duty to fear God. God knows everything you have ever done and thought. He knows every sin you have committed. He has sworn that He will get vengeance on sinners. He has promised that He will pour out His just wrath on evildoers. He has appointed a Day in which He will judge the world. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” we read in the Book of Proverbs.

And all men are obligated to love God. His first Great Command to all His rational creatures is to love Him with all our being (Deuteronomy 6:5). There is no reason why you should not love God. He is absolutely perfect. There is no darkness in Him at all. He has always treated you right, and will treat you right for eternity. Everything He has ever done is right and good. You are duty bound to love such a perfectly good Being as God is.

And all men are obligated to worship God. It is your duty to worship Him because He is your rightful King. He has done all things for His Own eternal glory. He sits on a throne of glory and governs the universe for righteous ends. It is your duty to fall down before this great God and adore Him.

And, it goes without saying (or ought to), that all men are obligated to believe in God. Non but fools would try to deny His existence. The light of nature and the works of creation plainly declare that there is a God. And His word reveals to us all His perfections.

Dear reader, it is you duty to fear, obey, love, worship and believe in God, perfectly, and with your whole being. Now, if you are not doing so, and again I stress, with perfection, you have failed in your duty to God, and stand before Him as a condemned criminal. Now, what do you have to say for yourself?

The Jealousy of God

(Article for publication week of 1-25-2012 AD)

“For I the Lord thy God Am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments” (Exodus 20:5b-6).

Our text is the reason annexed to the Second Commandment wherein Jehovah requires us to worship Him in the way that He has prescribed. The prohibition against worshipping God through the art and device of men includes a prohibition against worshipping God through any man made form. God commands us to worship Him exclusively in the First Commandment, and only as He directs in the Second Commandment. Our worship of God is regulated by the plain commandments in His Word, clear precedents in the scripture, and by necessary consequences of these. God is perfect in all His ways, and has a right to command the worship of Himself. Thus we are told that He is a “jealous” God.

Jealousy in and of itself is not a bad thing. It is right and proper for a man to be jealous of his wife’s affections and for the purity of his children. It is good and needful that free men be jealous of their liberties. There is nothing improper or sinful of jealousy when exercised in these ways. (Although we have to recognise that our best deeds are tainted by indwelling sin, and we must therefore be zealous that we avoid sin even in our righteous behaviour.)

God’s jealousy is perfectly holy and righteous as He Himself is. God has a right to demand that His intelligent creatures worship Him, and Him only, and only in the way He commands and regulates. Thus the Second Commandment gives a sober warning to all those who ignore God’s holy precepts. God is rightfully jealous of anybody or anything that competes with Him for our worship and affections. This makes idolatry in all its subtle ways to be a despicable and hell-deserving thing.

My dear friends, you had better get in dead earnest about the worship of God. If you are not worshipping God only, and only in the way He has commanded, you are in a dangerous situation. Unless you humble down, and start worshipping the only true God, you are bound for hell. You had better repent of your pride and arrogance, and quit questioning God’s right to tell you what to do.

There is a prominent celebrity from Mississippi who (I have read) said she made up her mind she would not worship a jealous God, and has (again, so I have read) started her own religion, so-called. The best I can tell it is a strange mixture of the truncated Christianity she was raised in, and eastern religion. Whatever, she has renounced Biblical Christianity and started her own cult. Now, I am going to tell you plainly that if you refuse to worship the only true God, Who is jealous, you can go on to hell with her, for that is exactly where she is going along with everybody else that refuses to worship God in His way.

God is a jealous God