Lesson 7 | Pursue Means & Manner
*How* Then Shall We Live?
Growing up, one of my regular chores was to mow our (quite large) yard. One Saturday, my dad asked me to mow but I had other ideas—namely, skipping out to go play. My dad stopped me in my tracks and made sure I mowed the lawn first. I decided that I would mow the lawn but do it so poorly that dad would never ask me to mow again. (Clearly, my logical thinking skills were woefully lacking.) I purposely missed streaks and patches. I left a tree branch that had fallen right where it lay and mowed around it. When I was “finished,” I left the lawn mower in the middle of the yard. You can likely guess what happened next. Dad wasn’t buying my scheme and made me do it all over again, this time properly. I “obeyed” and completed the job, but grumbled vociferously the entire time.
As every parent knows, how we obey is at least as important as the obedience itself, if not more so. In fact, if the heart is not right, it really isn’t obedience.
This lesson rounds out our exploration of the commands of Scripture. In Lesson 5, we learned to identify the commands; then, in Lesson 6, we searched out all the anchors and aims—the motivations to obey. Now, we explore all that the text offers concerning how we are to obey. By what means? In what manner?
Lesson Objectives
- To own the vital importance of how we are to obey
- To learn to recognize and distinguish the means and manners surrounding a command
- To complete the final steps for using the Markup module’s Commands+ lens