Serve Greatly, Be Great – The Law of Liberty (12)

Serve Greatly, Be Great

The Law of Liberty (12)

“…but whoever does [the commandments] and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:19

While many people consider the Law of God to be a kind of bondage, or a yoke and shackle, Jesus explains that the Law of God is the key to going from good to great in the Kingdom of God.

How does that work? How does keeping and teaching the Law of God lead to greatness in the Kingdom? It’s really rather simple. The more we keep and teach the Law of God, the more we grow in love for God and our neighbors (Matt. 22:34-40), inclining us to serve them by whatever means may be at hand. The Law teaches the way of love. Keep the Law and you will learn the priorities, protocols, and practices of love, and, as you love, you will serve as Jesus did. And He promised that he who would be greatest of all must be servant of all (Mark 10:43).

Serve greatly, be great; it’s really rather simple.

The Law of God is thus the ticket from the bleachers to the box seats, from the nosebleed section of the Kingdom to the orchestra row. On the mount of transfiguration, Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here.” But he wasn’t satisfied with “good.” Peter wanted “great.” He wanted to stay there permanently, basking in the glory of God as it radiated through the person of the Law-keeping Christ.

Once you have truly tasted the goodness of God’s Kingdom, you won’t be content with anything other than greatness.

And the Law of God marks the way to greatness through loving service to God and neighbors.

The psalmist says that the righteous person meditates day and night in God’s Law (Ps. 1). Would you like to get started in this discipline? Order a copy of The Ground for Christian Ethics and The Law of God. The first will explain the importance of God’s Law and will guide you in taking up the practice of daily reading and meditation. The second provides all the statutes, precepts, and rules of God’s Law organized under their proper number of the Ten Commandments.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.