Home Can Be Beautiful - Proclaim the Commandments in Love

The fourth piece of advice has an outreach that is limitless: proclaim the commandments in love. “You shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes” (Deuteronomy 6:8, R.S.V.). Some people have taken this instruction literally and affixed parts of the law, written on parchment or cloth, to their wrists and foreheads.

But God had a deeper meaning. He wanted His law where it would be really effective for good—in the mind and heart. Here it would guide the conscience, control the judgment, and keep a man in the narrow way that leads to life eternal. All the work of his hands would then testify to his devotion to God.

This advice is none other than a call to every child of God, by divine grace, to live out the principles of the law in his life and so be an example to the world of the joy of doing right and seeking to please the Lord.

It has the same meaning that Paul had in mind when he urged the Ephesians to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). He wanted them to manifest so much love in their lives that unbelievers would be overwhelmed thereby. They would accept truth because of what they saw rather than because of what they heard. The gentleness, sweetness, thoughtfulness, of a godly life would be the Christian’s most powerful argument.

All this God had in mind when He said, through Moses, “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:9, R.S.V.). Painted signs would not do much good. What God really wanted was completely dedicated homes, known everywhere for their virtue, piety, and goodness. He wanted love to shine from the windows and flow out through the doors and gates so that passers-by would say, “Such wonderful people live there; the nicest folks in the neighborhood. What makes them so different? What makes their home so beautiful?” Such things are still being said about some homes today. Perhaps they are being said about yours. I hope so.

If not, they can be. Your Bible makes the way plain. And God makes it easy. His grace is sufficient. Your home can be beautiful. Beautified by “the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).

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