3LB24.    Exodus 20:1-17.   These are the Ten Commandments which are also found in a somewhat different form in Deuteronomy 5:6-21.  The initial emphasis here is that you shall respect God as your only God.  You should embrace Him who has embraced you with his goodness toward you.  Worship the Lord by setting aside a day that belongs to him and not your earthly ways.  Deuteronomy 6:4-5 goes a great step further in that we should love God with every ounce of our being.

John 2:13-25.  Jesus was bringing legitimate Temple activity to a standstill to redirect the Temple activity to center on God and not on the human activity that was a rote fulfilling of sacrificial requirements but were being done without any mind of the God for whom they were being done.  Jesus was calling for an end to those Old Testament sacrificial offerings which he would replace with himself when he said: “This is my body;” “This is my blood.”  The sign that he was empowered to replace the Old Testament Law with himself as Savior was his death and resurrection.  For human nature it is natural to be centered on oneself.  Jesus is calling upon us to be servants of God’s will and not our own.

1 Corinthians 1:22-25.  “Brothers and sisters: Jews demands signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified.” Living one’s life by what heaven values and not what this world values is the challenge that faces us when we choose to be followers of Jesus.  “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”