Putting Your Sin To Death --The Short List (Col. 3: 5b)

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In the first 5 verses of Colossians 3 we have learned these 5 principles:

1.  We have been raised with Christ and must now begin to seek what is above. (Col. 3:1)

2.  That means we must stop living for earthly pleasures.  (Col. 3: 2)

3.  All believers are now considered dead to themselves.  (Col. 3: 3)

4.  Christ now has the right to live His life through us.  (Col. 3: 4)

5.  All that is "earthly" in us must be put to death.   (Col. 3: 5a)

My guess is that you believe all of these statements to be true.  God has said it, so it must be true, right?  But we must take it beyond what we know to be true in theory, to the place where it is true in our response to God.  Our actions must align with the truth.  That is why He gave us the second part of Colossians 3: 5.  God gets very specific now with us.  We are to put to death what is earthly in us.  Then He gives us a specific list by which we are to examine our own lives.  Theory should become highly personal in this part of the verse as you read through this short list of sins.

"Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry."

Ouch!!!

I have to say, though, at first blush, it is so easy to read each one slowly and tell yourself that "That is not me."  But if you wait just a moment, the Holy Spirit will likely begin to convict you in one of these areas, if not all of them.  That is where my "ouch" came from. 

You see, you don't have to be sleeping around to be sexually immoral.  A inappropriate sexual thought is all it take to make you guilty of the sin.  And if you have had one of those kinds of thoughts, you are now guilty of impurity as well.

Then if you consider what things you are passionate about, you might discover with the Spirit's help that you are imbalanced in your passion, so it has become sin in your life.  If you have let that passion develop a deep root in you, then you are likely have to crossed a line without even knowing it into desire that is no longer pure, but evil.

Now, maybe you still can't relate, and the Spirit is convicting you of nothing so far.  Praise God for that!  You may be the rare one that is not guilty of the first four.  But don't break your arm patting yourself on the back just yet, for the fifth sin will convict us all.

We don't often think of coveting something as being idolatry.  We tend to think it is only wanting what someone else has, stemming from our own jealousy.  But biblically speaking, covetousness is far more than desiring someone else's stuff.  Covetousness has a much deeper root than that.  It is the act of wanting something instead of what you have.  In this case of sin, it is wanting something more than you want God.  That is why is is referred to as idolatry.  It is the sin of having something that is more important to you than God.  And if you think about it, all of the 5 sins listed could be considered idolatry.

In the course of any ordinary day there are idols in my life that choose above God.  In this, I break the first commandment of God which states I should have no other gods other than God.  I can think of several idols that are currently active in my life.   Maybe you struggle with the same thing.

No matter which of these 5 sins you commit, (and of course this is not the complete list!), Paul is telling you in Colossians 3: 5 that they are earthly, and they are to have no part of you. They are to be put to death.  They are to be mortified.  Your life and mine is hidden in the holiness of Christ, so we must put to death anything that will tarnish His holiness.  It is a command:  "Put to death what is earthly in you."

 

The Danger of Blending In

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I Samuel 8--Israel wanted a king.  Since coming into the Promised Land, they had fought many battles to gain possession of their inheritance.  They had won many, but they had lost some too.  The battles that they had lost could be attributed to one thing:  in some way they had not fully followed the commands of God.  When they were obedient, God's favor was upon them and God routed many of the people from the land without Israel fighting a battle.  But when they were disobedient, God's favor was removed and they fought alone.  Ultimately, they lost these battles  because they tried to fight without God.

Now they wanted a king.  Their perspective of what a king would mean to their nation was in direct opposition to what God's perspective and plan was.  Israel wanted 3 things as seen in verses 5b and 20:

1. They wanted to be just like all the nations around them
2. They wanted a man to judge them, not the Holy God
3. They wanted to just live their lives, without having to fight for their land 

God wanted just one thing from His chosen people.  Verse 8 reveals the heart of God.  He desired the trust and loyalty of Israel.  But His heart sounds like it is breaking again when He recalls their past, saying, "According to all the deeds that they have done, even to this day, forsaking Me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you."

By desiring a human king, Israel was forsaking their God who had made them a people when they were not one, who brought them out of bondage in Egypt, who walked with them in the wilderness, who brought them in to their new land, and who had helped them dispossess the wicked people who lived their.  Having done all of that, they now had grown independent of their  God, and wanted a king in who they would completely rely on, a king who might not judge them so harshly, and who would take his armies to battle. But most importantly, they just wanted to be like everyone else.  They no longer wanted to stand out; they wanted to blend in.

Anything that we use to dethrone and replace our Lord will have a negative effect on us, just like it did Israel.  God tells Samuel to warn the people about asking for a king.  Samuel tells Israel all that a king will take from them.  But his critical last sentence to them in verse 18, regarding replacing God with an earthly king, was a stern warning, a warning we would be wise to pay close attention to:

"And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day."

I cannot read these Old Testament stories of God's people without thinking about my own life as a Christian.  How often do I turn to a 'king' in my life, depending on that particular idol so that I can blend in and be more like the world, so that I won't stand out so much? How often do I turn to the 'kings' in my life who will not judge my sin as harshly as a Holy God?  But it is the last category that hits home the hardest for me.  What 'kings' do I allow in my life for the sheer comfort of being an idle Christian?  You know the ones I speak of, don't you?  They are  the 'kings of laziness and sloth' that I sit under so that I don't have to do the hard work of evangelism, ministry, engaging with people, acts of love, crucifixion of my flesh.  

These sinful 'kings' lead me down the path of unrighteousness, and they weaken my faith.  They are replacements for the one true living God, and they are, moment by moment, causing me to blend in instead of stand out.  Today my heart must answer the question:  Will I be a regular paper clip or will I be the only bright colored one in the bunch?  How will you answer that question?

Discovering The Sin Within Your Heart

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 12)

"Theory must always give way to practical application, otherwise all of our 'head knowledge' becomes wasted and worthless grey matter.  Can we turn our focus for just a moment to the Inner Court of our heart transformation?  I would like us to magnify that court right now so that we are not looking at the beginning or end of our spiritual journey, but just at the present, the here and now.

It is in the Inner Court where God allows us to see just how dark and sinful our hearts really are, and can be.  This court is a place of illumination.  Once in the Inner Court, once we have taken a good 'look around' at what is really hidden there, we often find that the sins, the gods, and the idols we find inside of us are so many that they are overwhelming to us.  We know that we are to be busy building our hearts into a proper and pure home for the Lord by sweeping out all that He would not enjoy.  Just like the Israelites of Haggai's day (that we looked at in Chapter 6 of Spiritual Healing), we know that we are to 'rebuilt' our sin-scarred hearts, which is the temple, the Tabernacle of the Holy Spirit. But again, just like the Israelites, we typically respond just as they did, don't we?  We put satisfying the desires of our own flesh ahead of the priority of cleaning out those very flesh-sins found in our hearts.

We follow after our own priorities, and we leave our sin-filled hearts in disrepair, desolate, and open to destruction while we continue living flesh-ruled lives.  Our breaches, fractures, and sins remain.  Our walk with the Lord and our very lives do not even remotely resemble the life of Christ!  We continually go our merry way, prioritizing everything else in life except our walk with Jesus and a desire to achieve a holy and pure lifestyle.  Following in the footsteps of the Israelites, our wrong priorities lead us straight to the obvious consequences, and some of them will be severe.  Our ministry for the Lord becomes fruitless, barren, and even non-existent.  In the end, when we do not concentrate on obediently living the commandments and repenting of our sins and idols, our lives reveal that our hearts have not been transformed.  Such transformation only takes place when we have been walking intimately with the Savior."

Tomorrow I will be continuing in this vain, by sharing a quote from Joanna Weaver's Having A Mary Heart In A Martha World.  Her personal testimony might help you more clearly see what you are doing that is keeping you from that very intimacy.

The Heart United

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, from Chapter 12, "Unite My Heart to Fear Your Name")

"Have you heard the old adage, 'You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink'?  Well, here is the real truth of that statement.  You can't even lead a horse to water if he refuses to go!  All you can do for some horses is say, 'There's the water over there.  If you want to drink, you will have to walk yourself there.  I will come along for the journey, if you'd like, but I'm not going to drag you there!' You have nearly completed this book.  It has been full of information about your heart and how it can be, and should be, transformed.  As you read this last chapter, my prayer is that you will look forward, see the 'water', and go take a thirst-quenching drink, over and over.

Throughout this book, you have been given three visual aids to help you grow in your understanding of what your heart truly looks like.  We have examined the Tabernacle of the Old Testament in light of how it represents the journey of our hearts, our very life-path, from the moment that we step into Christ to the moment that we are face to face with Him in eternity.  We have looked at a simple representation of our heart with all of its breaches and cracks, gaining a unique look at the sins, the gods, and the idols that have accumulated there since our birth.  Finally, in the chapters on surrender, we were able to visualize how those layers of sin can trap the Holy Spirit inside of us, unless we break through the sin with our surrender and repentance.  I believe that these visuals will help us all see that the matter of our heart is serious business to God, and the journey through it will be difficult, but necessary, for us to make.  He desires that our hearts be a proper home for Him, one in which He is comfortable.  But for Him to have that proper home, we will go through processes that will make us uncomfortable.

Without an understanding that we are to enter into a relationship with Jesus so that we can begin to be conformed to His image, we will helplessly wander in the wilderness of salvation without sanctification.  From our salvation all the way to standing in the presence of the Living God, we are to be engaged in a progressive process that is designed to unite, bind up, and restore our broken, damaged, and yes, sin-filled hearts.  This sanctification, our perfecting in Christ, is accomplished when we begin to surrender piece by painful piece to the only One who can transform our hearts into hearts that are united and that fear the name of Jesus."

The Oil That Allows the Armor To Work Together

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(Excerpted from Cheryl Gnagey's book, Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 8)

"Last, but certainly not least, are our prayers and petitions at all times--times of success, failure, ease, and attack.  By praying ahead of time, we are more alert to the attacks the enemy will bring against us.   By praying, we are able to put all the rest of the armor to work for our victory over the sin in our lives.  Do you see how interconnected the armor and constant prayer are?  Prayers and petitions to God are the oil in the oil can that the rusted Tin Man so desperately needed to move effectively in his 'body armor.'  Without the oil, he was destined to be immoveable forever!

With no desire to drive out the gods in our lives, we stand no chance of overcoming them.  When we have no desire to drive out the evil in us, we tend to walk in evil, leaving the sin in our hearts for the enemy to use against us over and over.  If we want to win spiritual victories, we must make the conscious decision to apply (put on) and implement (use) the every piece of the  armor of which Paul speaks.  It's not a gift that we receive that works all by itself!  The full armor of God becomes a useless protection and weapon to us when we allow our gods to keep us from fully following after God and all of His ways.  Laziness in our spiritual walk, including our prayer life,  not only renders the armor useless, but it also renders the armor-bearing soldier useless as well."

Unarmed And Surrounded By The Enemy

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We all have gods and sins in our lives that we are commanded to overcome.  It is a spiritual battle to do so.  Is your armor uncomfortable because you do not know how to put to proper use?  Do you carry your "sword of truth" but have no idea how to wield it against your enemy, Satan?  Read on friends!

"POINT #2:  We must be fully armed when we cross into that place in our journey called the Promised Land, into the Holy of Holies where our gods will be dispossessed.  We must be prepared for this battle, and we must know what God's battle plan is.

Had Israel crossed the Jordan without any weapons, they would have most assuredly been annihilated.  The people who had been living in Canaan would certainly have banded together against an unarmed foe, and the defeat would have been a crushing blow to God's chosen people.  Without a battle plan, there would have been no organization, and therefore, no victory for God's people.   The same is going to be true for us if we attempt to just 'go in' and destroy every god, idol, attitude, or sin in our hearts that is contrary to God and His purposes.  Without weapons and a battle plan, we will surely fall to an enemy who does not want his territory encroached upon!

God has given us the perfect plan of attack when it comes to our spiritual battles, and the armor and weapons that He has chosen for us are perfect as well.  As our Commander-In-Chief, He has set us up to be victorious, if we will but utilize what He has already given us.  The problem is that we seldom choose to enter into this kind of battle, and when we do, our armor seems cumbersome to us because we have not been trained for this kind of war.  We are usually unarmed and unprepared because we have not even attended spiritual 'boot camp,' so we are ill-equipped for the battle with the forces of darkness."

(Quoted from Chapter 8, "Fully Following God's Commands" found in Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory)

The Deep Root System of Willful Disobedience

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"As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we should desire to make Him the only God in our lives, yet we struggle with just how to get that done.  Our hearts are filled with many sins and gods... and we know that we are commanded to take full vengeance on them.  When we look at the work ahead of us, we see that we are merely at the beginning of what could be a very long process of clearing out what keeps us from the intimacy with God that we long for and know is available to us.  In Matthew 26:41, Jesus said, 'The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.'   If we are truly honest with ourselves, we likely want to opt out of taking full vengeance on the gods in our hearts.  The result of such a choice will be that our sin will produce thick roots that will be much more difficult to cut out later.  Why do we so often make this poor choice?  At the heart of the matter is the fact that we really do not want to obey God's call to dispossess them from our hearts."

The longer a root of disobedience is allowed to go deeper and grow thicker, the harder it will be to cut it out of your life.  The more your disobedient roots grow, the more you will find great stability in your disobedient lifestyle.  Today is the day to begin to chop away at the roots that keep you distant from God's plans and purposes for your life!  What are your roots?

(Quoted from Chapter 8, "Fully Following God's Commands" in Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, available for purchase at www.cherylgnagey.com)

Taking a Closer Look

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It is always a good idea to take in information, but an even better idea to apply what you have learned to your life.  But often that will require that you slow down and take a good, close look at your life.  Below are a few questions that will help you both process and apply what you have learned about taking full vengeance on your sins and idols that are a part of your life.  This is your time to introspect.  Take a moment to look within.

1. When we don't take full vengeance on our gods and sin, we actually create an environment in which they will be allowed to grow up in us.  Are you nourishing your weeds, or are you pulling them up and destroying them?
2. What influence do your gods and sin have on your spiritual growth?
3. God wanted the Israelites to eradicate all foreign gods from their lives by taking FULL vengeance on them.  What does God want you to do with your identified gods and sin?
4. There were severe consequences for Israel when the disobeyed God and kept the foreign gods alive by sparing (giving life to) the woman who were so idolatrous.  Are you willing to find out what God's consequences will be for you if you choose to let your gods and sins live, instead of destroying them?  Do you think that you are' bullet-proof'?
5. Why does God discipline us when we disobey?  How do your gods and sin affect your holiness?

It is time to pull up the weeds in your life that are choking out Holy Spirit within you and holiness and purity He longs to bring into your life .  Weeds that are left alone will eventually take over an entire beautiful garden of flowers!

The Drink Offering I Require

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Jacob disobeyed My command.  He went his own way, and there was a tremendous price to pay.  You see, I called him to return to Bethel, the place where he first met Me.  But after he was reunited to his brother Esau, instead of coming "home,"  he chose to go to Shechem.  It was a disastrous decision that left his daughter's life in ruin, and two of his sons became murderers.  But most of all, he had separated himself from Me. He had listened to his own voice, instead of Mine.  So I spoke to him again, commanding him to return to Bethel, our special meeting place.

Jacob's heart was receptive.  But he didn't just pack up his family and belongs and make the move.  This time, before doing anything else, he set things right in his heart.  And he asked his family to do the same.  His instructions to them were clear and precise.  He said, "Put away your gods from you, purify yourselves, and change your attire." (35:2)

Jacob understood what it would mean to follow My ways, now.  It would require him to put away everything in his life that was set before Me.  Then he would have to remove the "residue" of the impact of those gods by allowing Me to change the filthy garments of his character.  By letting Me in to his life in this manner, he was building an altar of worship to Me. (35:3)

When Jacob, whom I now called Israel, arrived in Bethel, he wasted no time returning that point where I first met with him as he was fleeing from his brother Esau, whom desired to kill him.  Twenty years later, My Jacob, came back to Me, with more than a simple belief in Me.  He returned with a holy desire to be pleasing to Me, to sacrifice all  for Me on his altar of worship.  It was there that he poured out a drink offering to me, a hin  (gallon) of wine, over the pillar of stone he built to honor Me.  Little did he know that the wine he poured out to me was less important to Me than the sacrifice of his whole life to Me.  Jacob, My Israel, poured out his life when he put away his gods, purified his life life, and "put on" new spiritual clothing by "changing" his character.  That is the drink offering I require.  It was the drink offering Paul, thousands of years later, referred to when he said, ". . . I am being poured out as a drink offering. . ." in Phil. 2:17.

My precious one, I will require the same thing from you, but you must return to that place where we first met.  Come to Me, lay down your life to Me by putting away your gods, allow the Spirit to purify your heart (motives, will,  emotions), and change your robes.  I have set aside for you glorious robes of RIGHTEOUSNESS!

My child, the glass of your life that you wish to pour out to Me is filled with your spiritual life blood.  Tip it over; pour it out; empty it completely.  And I will fill you with Myself.  THIS is the drink offering I require.

Feelings Vs. Commitment

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Active Commitment

Naomi had lost nearly everything.  In moving to Moab in the middle of a drought and famine in Bethlehem, she and her husband and two sons had walked away from both their God, Jehovah-Jireh (Provider), and their beloved homeland. During her ten years in Moab, her husband and sons died, leaving her only two daughters-in-law who were not of her faith.  Naomi's bruised heart and battered faith beckoned her to move home!  Home. . . the place where family and friends might surround her with love and protection.  Home. . . returning to her God and her trust in Him.   How she surely longed for everything that "home" meant.

The three were not far down the road, close enough to still return to Moab, when Naomi tried  to strongly suggest they let her go to Bethlehem alone.  Though both "daughters" desired to go with her, Naomi found every reason to insist that they stay in their own homeland.  But she was unsuccessful in convincing them.  It is in her "daughters" responses that we gain our wisdom today.  It is in their individual actions that we can see the stark difference between "what we feel" and "what we are wholly committed to do."

Surely both young ladies had  deep feelings for Naomi, or they never would have left with her.  Both of them loved their mother-in-law, and likely had concerns for her welfare.  However, though both had the same feeling for Naomi, they did not choose the same route.

Orpah gave Naomi a loving kiss and then departed from them and returned to Moab.  No one could blame her.  That is where her family was.  That was her homeland.  That was the place where she was comfortable.  That is where her gods were.  Moab was her life.  Her feelings ran deep for her mother-in-law and sister-in-law, but Moab was home to her.  So she turned around and went home.

But Ruth could not leave Naomi.  Her loving feelings spilled over into a bold and courageous action.  Ruth clung to Naomi, like a child who does not want to be left behind.  Her love for Naomi would be shown by her lifelong commitment to her mother-in-law.  Her actions overpowered her feelings.  As a result, her friendship had grown into loyalty, and her loyalty revealed her great love.  Orpah felt strongly; Ruth acted strongly.

Here are Ruth's words spoken to Naomi:  "Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge.  Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.  Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried."  (Ruth 1: 16-17a)  Ruth's feelings are not what are important in what she is saying.  It is her commitment to Naomi that shouts to us today!

In your relationship with God are you a believer who has really strong feelings about God, your ministry, study, fellowship, and worship, but your life reveals that you are more comfortable with your gods?  Does your old and familiar lifestyle draw you, or are you drawn by the unknown and uncomfortable way of the journey that the Holy Spirit wants to take you on?  Do you hold the reins or are you surrendered to going where God wants you to go?  Do you turn from God or do you cling to Him?  Do you see the danger in living in your feelings?  Do you see security in leaving where you are to go to the place God desires you to be? 

I couldn't help but think of the lyrics of one of Chris Tomlin's newest songs.  I am pretty sure that he had Ruth's words in mind!

I Will Follow

Where You go, I'll go; where You stay, I'll stay;

When You move, I'll move; I will follow You

Who You love, I'll love; how You serve, I'll serve

In this life I lose, I will follow You, I will follow You!

All Your ways are good, all Your ways are sure, I will trust in You alone.

Higher than my side, high above my life, I will trust in You alone. 

Light unto the world, light unto my life, I will live for You alone.

You're the One I seek, knowing I will find, all I need is You alone, is You alone.

In You there's life everlasting, in You there's freedom for my soul.

In You there is joy, unending joy, and I will follow!

Do you have strong feelings about the words of that song?  Or do you live and do them?  Will you live in Moab, feeling strongly about God and the things of God, or are you packing for the journey to Bethlehem?  Which is your home?

Garbage Removal

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Several huge battles had been won. Israel was conquering their new homeland. But the time had come for the land to be divided between the 12 tribes. Each parcel of land still had small cities and towns that would have to be destroyed. The individual tribes would be on their own now to fully possess their property. Have all of your gods been destroyed? Does our God fully own your heart? What are you holding back?

Every working day all over the United States, streets are lined with garbage cans filled with our trash.  Junk yards are filled with cars that have been disposed of.  Sinks are built with garbage disposals.  They all serve one purpose:  to rid our lives of the stench and clutter that garbage brings to our lives.  Leaving this trash just laying around our homes is unthinkable.  We seem to have no problem with the routine of removing junk in our lives, and if we miss putting our trash cans out to the street on the right day, we might be caught accomplishing the task in our pajamas the very moment we hear the garbage truck in our neighborhood! I know, because it has happened to me.  Trash is not something we want to live in or with.  We want it removed; it makes life much more pleasant.

Let's relate that now to the story of the Israelites who were entering in to conquer the long-Promised Land.  Many kings in Canaan had been killed and the cities and peoples destroyed as God had commanded them.  But there was still a lot of work to do.  God had a plan for that as well.  As the Promised Land was "sub-divided" each tribe was charged to go into their piece of the land and remove every person.  (These people were worshipers of false gods, and would have had a negative effect on Israel's purity and separation unto their God.)  When they removed the people, they were removing the false gods, idols, and pagan practices which God abhors.  Some of the tribes were obedient to remove all that offended God; but others were lazy.  They did not remove the people and the gods, and there would be a great price to pay, down the road a bit, for their disobedience to God's command.  

You can leave this information in your mind now, thinking on it as a great history lesson.  That is what most would be prone to do.  However, there is great truth to be gleaned from the lives of God's chosen.  We must always introspect after we have learned a principle from the Word.  So, here are just a few questions to ask yourself.  I will be asking myself as well.

What gods (idols, sins, attitudes) have you already destroyed in your life?

What gods still remain, alive and well, operating in you as "your flesh"?

What prevents you from destroying them?

With the stench of sin and the clutter of your "garbage" in your life, what kind of an example of Christ to the lost world are you?

What do you think God thinks of your "junk"?

Are you willing to continue in your disobedience, allowing your "trash" to accumulate in your life?

Looking down the road, what are a few logical consequences if you continue walking in your flesh?

What is your spiritual application today as you consider your "garbage"?

How much more uncluttered would your life be if you surrendered your "trash" to God, and removed it from your life?

No Other "gods"

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When Israel demanded a golden calf when they thought Moses would not return, he came down the mountain and burned and crushed their man-made idol. He put the dust of it in their water and made them drink it. When we create "gods" in our lives, THE God will not only crush it to pieces, but we often have to drink of its bitter consequences. "You shall have NO other gods before Me. I am your all in all!"

I was surprised to learn as I studied this review of the 10 Commandments that "before Me" literally means "in God's sight" or "to His face."  It does not mean that you as long as you have God in 1st place in your life you can have your little gods, too.  

When we create a god in our lives, whether it is a particular sin that we default to or a pervasive sinful attitude, we have actually put our god right in God's face!  This is not permissible.  We cannot claim that God is our 1st love while having other "loves" on the side!  If God is truly our first love and priority, the One we default to, then there is no room for other gods.  With God as our only God, and if we truly love Him, then we are living our lives "to keep the commandments of God".  If gods are present in your heart, you cannot fully follow Him.

What is inside your heart?  What is it that you constantly try to keep hidden from others? What is it that you have written off to "your personality" or "inherited behaviors?"  God wants your heart to be circumcised, with the flesh cut away from it, leaving only the Spirit who dwells there within you.  What does this then require of you?  Check out Deuteronomy 10: 12, 13, and 16.  God clearly states what He expects of us:

Fear Him (reverence and honor Him as the only God.)

Walk in His ways (as Christ walked, where He tells you to walk)


Love Him by intentionally setting your affections on Him

Serve Him with every bit of your heart and soul (no room for other gods)

Keep (DO!) God's commandments, all that His word tells us.




This is how you circumcise your heart; this is how you stop "stiffening your neck".  God wants your whole heart, all of you, not just the parts you choose to give Him.