God is preparing a community to change the world. That community has certain characteristics, they love Him, which means they are committed to knowing Him and loving Him by keeping His ways as revealed in His Word. They are also those who love Him and His word and show that in worship and service. The other chief characteristic is they love one another as themselves. They do that by keeping the "negative" commandments towards one another, they don't bear false witness against one another, steal from one another or covet what the other has. They also love one another positively by celebrating and serving one another, they rejoice with those who rejoice and they weep with those who weep. The first community, the people gathered for that first Passover, had to come together as families and neighbors and they had to do exactly as God commanded or they would not survive that awful night. The community of obedience was spared and glorified and they were delivered from bondage to God's kingdom. We are called to the same. We are to deal with sin in our midst as Jesus lays out in Matthew. The power of that obedient community to God's word is the community we read about in the book of Acts where God moved among them and performed signs and wonders. Let's be that community that takes God's word seriously and sees those mighty acts of God. Believe it or not, the world needs us to be just that community for it to have hope.
Exodus 12.1-14, Romans 13.8-14, Matthew 18.15-20
