What Is Required?
Such a question implies that an individual wants to know what they need to do. Perhaps it is a job interview and the person wants to know what the company expects out of him. It could be a person in a troubled marriage and is asking the mate what does he need to do to make things right. A student beginning a college course may ask the instructor, what is required for me to pass this course. There is nothing more important in all the world than our souls (Matthew 16:26). A man came to Jesus and during the course of their conversation asked, "...what lack I yet ?" (Matthew 19:20). Given the conduct of his life and the nature of his question to Jesus, this man was wanting to know what else God wanted him to do.
The great blessing of answered prayer is laid on the foundation of a person keeping the commands of God and doing those things that please Him (I John 3:22). If we imply a person is concerned with what pleases God then we imply this individual is concerned with what is required. The Christian wants to know what does God expect of me in the living of my Christian life. Paul describes it as a "...seeking of those things which are above" (Colossians 3:1). In the long ago the prophet Micah said that God had showed to the righteous man, what is good (Micah 6:8). He then follows that by asking the righteous man, "...what doth the LORD require of thee."
Micah asks and answers in the same expression. The Lord requires of thee to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with thy God. Surely there was more to it than that in the days of Micah? What about animal sacrifices, yearly trips to Jerusalem and the giving of tithes? None of those things are mentioned in verse 8. Yet they are. Not specifically by name but implied by doing justly. There are times when the requirements by God are stated in a few words which imply that other things are involved. What it then requires of us is a search of all the Scriptures related to the subject at hand.
A case in point is at the close of Acts 13. Persecution against Paul and others has arisen among certain Jews. The Gentiles accepted the will of God and the Word of the Lord began to be published through out all the region. The chapter closes by saying that the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Ghost (Acts 13:52). What about love, peace, longsuffering and so forth? Paul explains to the brethren in Galatia what the Spirit of God produces in a man's life through the teachings of Jesus Christ (Galatians 5:22,23). Of that list, joy is only one. Would I, therefore, assume from verse 52 that these brethren did not have love or peace? We understand what God requires of us, that is Galatians 5:22,23. When it states the brethren had joy, it is implied that all of those other elements were present in the lives of those who wanted to do what God required.
Let us go back to the earlier part of chapter 13. Sergius Paulus, a deputy of the country wanted to hear the word of God that Paul was preaching (verse 7). A sorcerer named Barjesus sought to turn the deputy away from the things which Paul and Barnabas was teaching about Jesus. Question, how could he do this? He tried to turn the deputy from the faith (verse 8). If what Paul and Barnabas was teaching was the Word of the Lord, the sorcerer was trying to discredit that Word. The Bible does not give us the arguments raised against the things taught by Paul. We just know that the effort was being made to say that Paul and Barnabas were not teaching true things.
Paul, by the power of God, struck the sorcerer blind for a season (verse 11). The Scriptures then show that the deputy believed being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord. Is belief then all that is required? Paul leaves this city and comes to Antioch in Pisidia (verse 14). He is given an opportunity to preach Christ. Paul said you men that fear God, listen to me (verse 16). No such idea of fear was expressed to Sergius Paulus. Am I to believe that fear or awe of God is not required? Belief alone is never all that is required. Consider such passages as John 8:24; Acts 17:30; Romans 10:10 and Acts 2:38.