Be Careful to Love God (Joshu 23:11-16) (December 28, 2025)

Be Careful to Love God (Joshu 2311-16) Living LIfe 12282025 Daily Devotional Bible Study

Being Careful in Love

Friends I am a very forgetful person so I will often put in reminders for very very basic things.
I sometimes forget my wife's birthday it sneaks up on me and so I have to remind myself by putting in an alarm a month before hey start thinking about your wife's birthday and a week before make sure that day is clear The day before make sure that you have all the things ready and then the day comes and then because I've taken care to prepare for it and plan for it then I can be relaxed and I can enjoy the moment and I can say whatever I feel like saying and do whatever I feel like doing because I've already taken care to honor her and prepare for her birthday.
Friends in the same way when it comes to loving God we have to take care.
And the reasons we have to take care and what it means to take care are described in today's passage.
So I hope that you will be attentive to knowing what it means to really love God.

A Solemn Warning from Joshua

Joshua Chapter 23 verses eleven to sixteen.

So be very careful to love the Lord your God.
But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you.
Instead they will become snares and traps for you whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes until you perish from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.

Now I am about to go the way of all the Earth.
You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed.
Every promise has been fulfilled not one has failed but just as all the good things the Lord your God has promised you have mamed to you so he will bring on you all the evil things he has threatened until the Lord your God has destroyed you from this good land he has given you.

If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God which he commanded you and go and serve other gods and bow down to them the Lord's anger will burn against you and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you.

Loving God Requires Care and Discipline

In the first verse of today's passage verse 11 it says so be very careful to love the Lord your God.
You might think that if I love somebody I'll just do whatever feels most natural.
I should be able to be spontaneous and creative and free if I really love someone but friends the opposite is also true.
It says in today's passage since you really love God you should take care you should be very careful in the way that you love God.

An Illustration from Jazz Piano

Maybe an illustration that might be helpful is playing Jazz piano.
When you have someone that has studied the theory and has practiced the technique that person can do whatever feels spontaneous they can just do what comes naturally they can be free and it will be beautiful music.
But if I sat down on the piano and I just played whatever notes I felt like playing it would sound terrible because I don't know the theory I haven't practiced the technique

so whatever I press would not be something that's beautiful it will be something sloppy and messy.
In the same way it is through being very careful to train our hearts that we're able to give God a spontaneous love, a joyful creative love.
It is when we discipline ourselves that we're able to really know how to love others.
The reason why discipline and taking care is necessary is because there's a lot of temptations in the world.

The Danger of Flattery

A source of temptation is described in verse 12 it says

if you turn away from God and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them.
So at this point in history the Israelites are strong militarily and economically and these remaining people of the surrounding nations are very weak.
As a result those people who are weaker are probably giving a lot of flattery to the Israelites.
They're being told

how great they are they're being told how much they're respected and as a result many Israelites were tempted to marry the people of these surrounding nations.
When you are feeling flattered sometimes you can mistake that for being loved and instead of remaining true to God you might just be pulled by flattery into a different direction.
And so Joshua is saying to his people his leaders especially take a lot of care to train your heart to avoid flattery

to not give in when people who want something from you are just saying whatever they can to manipulate you train yourself to really be devoted to God so that you're not swayed by the flattery of weaker people.

The Consequences of Giving In

Because if you give into flattery instead of experiencing the strength of God's blessing, you will experience powerlessness.
It says in verse thirteen if you're given to flattery then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you.

The only reason that you are mighty which is why they're flattering you is because God's blessing is on you.
But if you give into that flattery, God's gonna take that blessing away.
They will become snares and traps for you whips on your back and thorns in your eyes until you perish from this good land.
And so this idea of needing to fear the consequences of sin to remember how costly it will be to give into flattery is repeated in verse fifteen.

Just as all the good things the Lord your God has promised have come to you so he will bring on you all the evil things he has threatened until the Lord your God has destroyed you from this good land he has given you.
And so part of the reason that we have to take care when it comes to our relationship with God is because we'll be tempted by flattery.
And if we give into flattery, the results will be catastrophic.

Remembering Promises Fulfilled

Instead of being moved by flattery instead of paying attention to the sweet things people say to us to manipulate us we have to remember to count our blessings and we have to take care to remember the promises fulfilled.
Look at verse fourteen Joshua says Now I am about to go the way of all the Earth.
You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed.
Every promise has been fulfilled not one has failed.

And so Joshua is saying Don't put your ear towards what is flattery towards you instead remember God's promises fulfilled pay attention to that and speak to each other and tell each other about how God's promises are being fulfilled all around you.
Don't be moved by someone saying how great you are because that's flattery.
Instead recognize when someone is declaring how God has fulfilled his word.
When people are giving these testimonies of God's faithful fulfillment of his promises

Loving the Right People

Respect those people pay attention to those people who love those people friends When you take care to love the Lord, your God then you will learn to love the right people.
Instead of giving your affection to people who are giving you flattery and talking how great you are you will learn to give your affection and your loyalty and your love to people who are talking about how great God is

people who are saying how God has fulfilled all the things that he has promised.
May it be that through this simple distinction knowing the difference between flattery and promises fulfilled That you can take care to love the right people who will in turn help you to love God consistently as God deserves

What are some ways you can love God when your emotions are not stirred?

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A Prayer for Careful Love

friends the choices that we make they will make it possible for us to be able to love God spontaneously and freely If we discipline our hearts to surround ourselves with good people who will remind us to live for God With that in mind Would you pray with me?
we want to pray spontaneously passionately we want to sing and worship in freedom with creativity we want to love you just in a way that feels natural and free.

God help us to know that these things will be possible if we first take care if we take care to avoid the flattery that the world gives to us If we take care to recognize when the world is telling us how great we are which is often just empty words Instead teach us to value when others around us are declaring your faithfulness and fulfilling your word as they declare how great you are may we join in and as we learn to love them

may we become better at consistently and carefully loving you and may our hearts become devoted so that what feels natural becomes what is right these things we pray in Christ's name.