Hear and Live

The living God…Jeremiah 10:10

In Chapter 10, the prophet Jeremiah reminds the people of Israel of who the LORD is. But the LORD is the true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth will tremble, and the nations will not be able to endure His indignation, Jeremiah 10:10. This bold statement of our God concludes part 1 of Jeremiah’s condemnation of Israel return to the worship of idols made of silver or gold even when adorned with royal colors, verses 1 thru 8.

Many of the prophets refer to our God as the living God including Isaiah, Daniel, Hosea, and Moses. Which may be what prompted Peter to exclaim to Jesus, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, Matthew 16:16. 

So, when Paul refers to the church of the living God, we do not have to guess his intent. As the church, we are the temple of the living God, 2 Corinthians 6:16. We are an epistle of Christ written now with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, 2 Corinthians 3:3.

Even so, perhaps the most dramatic statement regarding the church in Paul’s letters is recorded in 1 Timothy 3:15. Read and consider carefully the implications of Paul’s words to Timothy. These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly; but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth.

Consider these words: you, as a member of the church, the church of the living God, the one true God, the everlasting King, whose wrath is to be feared, are the pillar and ground of truth! You are the foundation of truth because you are in Christ! As you consider these words consider the testimony of Moses: For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? Deut. 5:26. Who indeed?

They who heard God stood afar off. They who heard feared God sending Moses to face God. But not you. You heard…your believed…and now you live.