And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 (3-9-11)

When I first read that, I of course thought of Micah 6:8:

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

But since this one doesn’t mention the same things Micah mentions, I just moved on. But then, when Moses starts listing some things that are part of obedience to God’s decrees, he says this:

For the Lord … shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. (Deut 10:17-19)

And there it is, very early on, before they even get to a land to call their own, God tells them that to love Him means to love the orphan, the widow, and the foreigner. It runs from the Pentateuch to the Prophets. Then, when we get to the NT, Jesus adds one more to the list: the sinner.

If I claim to love God, then I have to love these, too.

[Father, help me to do a better job loving the fatherless, the widow, the foreigner and the sinner, not because I’m “supposed to” but because I love You and You love them.]