Immoderate Commands, Immoderate Promises

Here are two benedictions which we find at the end of letters in the Bible.

“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you” (2 Thess. 3:16).

“May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen” (Heb. 13:20-21).

Please look at every phrase, for I will not comment on all of them. Notice “at all times and in every way” and “everything good for doing his will.” The God of peace does a thorough work in us.

Recently* I have been conscious of the lack of moderate commands in the Scriptures. During the same period of time, I have noticed many Christians moderating these commands. The commands are so extreme, we think we have to run them through a transformer or a reduction gear to bring them down to our size so we can consider the possibility of obeying them. This is not honest nor necessary. There are also immoderate promises like the ones quoted above. This is the way we can obey the immoderate commands.

*Written June 1999.

This post coordinates with today's reading in the Same Page Summer Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

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