Deuteronomy 8:6 (HCSB)
“So keep the commands of the Lord your God by walking in His ways and fearing Him.”

The Old Covenant Member

Under the Old Covenant, the Old Covenant member was required to “keep the commands of the Lord your God.”

How were they to do this?

“…by walking in His ways and fearing Him.”

The New Covenant Member

In the New Covenant, we see something very similar regarding the requirement for its members…

2 John 1:4-6 (HCSB)
“I was very glad to find some of your children walking in the truth, in keeping with a command we have received from the Father. So now I urge you, dear lady — not as if I were writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning — that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk according to His commands. This is the command as you have heard it from the beginning: you must walk in love.”

His Ways

Just as the Old Covenant member was to walk in “His ways,” the New Covenant member is to do the same… to “walk according to His commands.” John clarified it further by encouraging that they “must walk in love.”

How do we know that “love” is “His ways”?

Because, God is love, therefore it’s His way…

1 John 4:7-16 (HCSB)
“Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is perfected in us. This is how we know that we remain in Him and He in us: He has given assurance to us from His Spirit. And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent His Son as the world’s Savior. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God — God remains in him and he in God. And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.”

Fulfilling His Commands

When one walks in “His ways” or walks “in love,” one then keeps His commands. Love is of vital importance in this regard for the New Covenant member. It is the authenticating factor; the litmus test for the Christian. As we just saw from John…

“Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God…”

Love is the New Covenant member’s primary duty, because it is the fulfillment of the law…

Romans 13:8-10 (HCSB)
“Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments:
Do not commit adultery;
do not murder;
do not steal;
do not covet;
and whatever other commandment — all are summed up by this: Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law.”

The Fruit of the Spirit

When New Covenant members “walk in love,” they are then exemplifying the “fruit of the Spirit.”

Why is this important; especially in light of the principles in Deuteronomy 8:6?

Because, against such things there is no law…

Galatians 5:22-23 (HCSB)
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

May we (Christians), just as Old Covenant members were called to, walk in His ways and fear Him. Thereby, in us doing so, His commands are then kept…

Godspeed, to the brethren!

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