God speaks to us emphatically through His word, but He never makes us obey; that much is left to us, as it was to Israel. The reason that God arranged things thus is that we are made to be like Him and He has free will; accordingly, so do we. Having a free will means that we must exercise it in every choice we make, every day, until the end of our life.
Although many Christians and churches would claim otherwise, God doesn’t give us rules to follow; it is more subtle than that. Instead, God has manifested His desire for us in the life of the Son, Christ Jesus; in Him, the standard has been made clear and if my faith is as “the faith of the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20) then I will do, without hesitation, whatever He would do in the same situation. If I hesitate, it is because I love something more than I love Him, and that something is always, and inevitably, “self”.
Until this “self” is slain, we will not be able to follow the faith of the Son of God who tells us to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33).
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