Proverbs 6:20-21. 20My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching. 21Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck.
Do you own any special necklaces or chains that you wear around your neck? Often when something is special to someone or when they don’t want to lose something they will tie it around their neck as a necklace. Or sometimes it’s as simple as wearing a lanyard around your neck to identify who you are or what group you are with.
The proverb tells us that children are to treat the commandment of their father and the teaching of their mother with great value and respect. Like a necklace of great value that hangs over the heart identifying who you are, the instructions of godly parents must never be forsaken.
Maybe you didn’t have godly parents. Possibly you didn’t grow up with biblical instruction either. That’s alright, God himself is parenting you in Christ.
Jesus is God, the Son who kept all of his Father’s commandments and followed all of his Father’s teachings. He never wandered from the truth, never strayed from righteousness and justice. The will and the ways of God were tied around his neck and bound to his heart.
In Christ, we are now the sons of God with him. All that is Christ’s is ours to share, including his perfect record of obedience to our Heavenly Father. But this isn’t only a “forensic righteousness,” as theologians call it. A declared righteousness apart from actual righteousness. In Christ we are both declared to be righteous by our union with the Son of Righteousness, but we are also able to participate actively in Christ’s righteousness too. We are able to bind the law of love to our hearts. Our new, Spirit controlled hearts.
When we trust our new deeper affection for Christ, when we know how loved we are, and that we can love as we are loved, then we are binding the commandment of God to our heart. As we meditate on Christ’s loving sacrifice for us on the cross, we are tying his teaching around our neck.
You: What is bound to your heart? What messaging are you listening to? Is it the Father’s?
You in Christ: Do you trust your new heart? Have you been able to go deeper, past surface temptations, to your desire for Christ?
Christ in you: How can you keep the love of Christ for you on the cross “around your neck” today?
Pray: Father, by your grace keep your law of love bound to my heart. Help me to know I am loved and to love like I am known. Amen.
To Live is Christ 