Why does God love His people so much? When we look at the divisions within the Church today, and our complacency in the face of so much evil around us, it’s easy to ask that question. In fact, when we individual Christians look in the mirror, we might wonder the same thing – why should God be so devoted to us when we give Him so little of our time and attention, and when we tolerate so much personal sin that pulls us away from God in so many ways?

Well, the good news is that God doesn’t love us because of what we have to offer Him. After all, the Israelites in Moses’ day weren’t winners in any sense of the word – instead, they were a nation of slaves. No, if God was looking for wealthy and powerful followers, if God was looking for what He could get out of His worshippers, He would have embraced their masters, for the Egyptians were the mightiest nation in the world at that time.

But today’s passage makes clear that God doesn’t love us because of what we can do for Him. Indeed, God doesn’t love us because we choose to set our love upon Him. No, God loves His people because He keeps His promises. It is thus God’s faithfulness that forms the foundation of His love.

Verse 8 reminds us of the promise God made to the ancestors of the Israelites, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Hundreds of years before the time of Moses, God had told Abraham that his descendants would be enslaved and oppressed. But God also promised that He would bring them out of slavery and bring them into the land in which Abraham was living (Genesis 15:13-14). And in the days of Moses, God kept that promise. God blessed His people because He is faithful to His word.

In the same way, God is “faithful and just” to forgive those who trust in Christ (I John 1:9) – “faithful” to keep Christ’s promise to welcome those who come to Him in faith (John 6:37), and “just” to accept the death penalty Jesus paid for all who trust in Him. Yes, the good news is that God doesn’t love us because we are lovely – He loves us because He keeps His promises to those who trust in Christ.

And because God loves us, He has made us a holy people for His own possession (verse 6; see also I Peter 2:9). So that’s why we should seek to live holy lives, lives that are pleasing to God – not in order to earn God’s favor, but as a response to God’s unconditional, faithful love. The amazing truth is that, in His sovereign grace, God has credited the holiness of Christ to the account of all who trust in Him – so shouldn’t we seek to live into that holiness, devoting all we are and all we have to the God Who has loved us so much?

Deuteronomy 7:6-11 (NASB)

6 “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
7 “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples,
8 but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9 “Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments;
10 but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.
11 “Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.