Command 5 : Honor God's Law | Day 33

Experience a Burning Heart!

I have often wondered if I would ever experience the intensity of longing to which David referred when he wrote, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God" (Psalm 42:1). About three years ago, I discovered a key to making this happen, which is based on the following passage:

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God ... rightly dividing the word of truth” (II Timothy 2:15).

Like so many others, I was taught to "divide" the Scriptures at the cross. Anything before the cross was assigned to the Law, and anything after the cross was grace. The tragedy of this interpretation is that it puts most of Christ's teachings under the Law.

In fact, those who taught this division did not know what to do with Christ's teachings, so they assigned them to some future kingdom age. This takes the heart out of the Gospel of Christ and removes its power for kingdom living.

When I finally understood that the central message of Scripture was the commands of Christ, the Law and the prophets are their foundations, and the epistles reflect applications of these commands, I experienced a whole new excitement in the Word of God and in my walk with Him.

For example, Jesus commanded, "Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (Luke 12:1). So we go to the Law and the prophets to find the foundation of this command. There we read about the Feast of Unleavened Bread: for seven days they were to have no leaven in the house and anyone who ate leaven was "cut off from Israel.” (See Exodus 12:15.) Then we go to the epistles to find an application of this command. Paul tells the Corinthian church to cut off fellowship with the immoral man, because "a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump ... . Therefore, let us keep the feast ... with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (I Corinthians 5:1-8).

When I saw this connection, I had the same kind of joy that the two disciples on the road to Emmaus must have had when Jesus began with Moses and all the prophets and explained how they related to Himself. They later said, "Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?" (Luke 24:32) These disciples knew the Law, and they had heard Jesus teach for three years, but they had never put the two together.

Finding these treasures requires searching, just like we would search for a vein of silver or buried treasure. When we find this threefold confirmation of truth, our hearts "burn" with joy. Let's do a diligent search for each command, so that we can "rightly divide the word of truth."

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