Deuteronomy 26:16
This day the LORD thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. This day the LORD thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.
This day the Lord commands His people to keep and to do His statutes and judgments with all the heart and with all the soul. The keeping is to be inward and whole, carried out in action and not held back in part.
The voice giving this command is Christ's voice, speaking from the cloud and from the pillar of cloud. These directions express the principles of His kingdom and make His claims and requirements clear. Their instruction is practical, leaving the people without excuse and without uncertainty about duty.
The statutes define and reveal duty both toward God and toward one another. Obedience expressed in duty and gratitude keeps His commandments and laws and thereby reveals His character. The command belongs to His covenant and calls for full commitment without withholding and without dispute. That commitment requires offering service and means without withholding them, and yielding heart and mind and soul to His will rather than disputing His right to command. When obeyed wholeheartedly, that covenant becomes a pleasure.
Obedience is joined to the people's pledge to take the Lord as their God and to walk in His ways, to keep His commandments and judgments, and to heed His voice. The verse belongs to the instructions in Deuteronomy 26-28 that set out the blessings of obedience and the curses of disobedience. Obedience is therefore for present and future good and brings prosperity, while disobedience brings a curse.
Wholehearted loyalty and obedience, not obeying at convenience and disregarding at will, mark God's people as His peculiar treasure and honor Him before the world. Through such obedience He is enabled to fulfill His promises to them and to make them a holy people and a praise in the earth. Obedience to His statutes and laws is the life and prosperity of His people and the condition of future and eternal happiness.
His claims remain just as binding and important now as when they were given, even as His gifts of life and health and temporal and spiritual advantages remain fresh and continual. Those He has blessed must therefore publicly acknowledge Him, glorify His name, and testify that His word is true. That acknowledgment includes faithful giving as recognition of His gifts and claims.