11 Love the Lord your God, and do what he wants you to do. Always obey his laws, rules, and commands. ² Remember today the discipline you learned from the Lord your God. (⌞I’m not talking⌟ to your children. They didn’t see or experience any of this.) You saw and experienced his great power—his mighty hand and powerful arm. ³ You saw the miraculous signs and deeds he did in Egypt to Pharaoh (the king of Egypt) and to his whole country. ⁴ You saw what he did to the Egyptian army, its horses and chariots. He drowned them in the Red Sea when they pursued you. So the Lord destroyed them forever. ⁵ You saw what he did for you in the desert until you came here. ⁶ You also saw what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, from the tribe of Reuben. In the middle of all the Israelites the ground opened up and swallowed them, their families, their tents, and every living creature with them. ⁷ You saw with your own eyes all these spectacular things that the Lord did.

⁸ Obey all the commands I’m giving you today. Then you will have the strength to enter and take possession of the land once you’ve crossed ⌞the Jordan River⌟. ⁹ Then you will also live for a long time in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors and their descendants—a land flowing with milk and honey.

God Saved Us because of His Great Love for Us

2 You were once dead because of your failures and sins. ² You followed the ways of this present world and its spiritual ruler. This ruler continues to work in people who refuse to obey God. ³ All of us once lived among these people, and followed the desires of our corrupt nature. We did what our corrupt desires and thoughts wanted us to do. So, because of our nature, we deserved God’s anger just like everyone else.

⁴ But God is rich in mercy because of his great love for us. ⁵ We were dead because of our failures, but he made us alive together with Christ. (It is God’s kindness ^[a] that saved you.) ⁶ God has brought us back to life together with Christ Jesus and has given us a position in heaven with him. ⁷ He did this through Christ Jesus out of his generosity to us in order to show his extremely rich kindness in the world to come. ⁸ God saved you through faith as an act of kindness. You had nothing to do with it. Being saved is a gift from God. ⁹ It’s not the result of anything you’ve done, so no one can brag about it. ¹⁰ God has made us what we are. He has created us in Christ Jesus to live lives filled with good works that he has prepared for us to do.

⁷ If you live in me and what I say lives in you, then ask for anything you want, and it will be yours. ⁸ You give glory to my Father when you produce a lot of fruit and therefore show that you are my disciples.

⁹ “I have loved you the same way the Father has loved me. So live in my love. ¹⁰ If you obey my commandments, you will live in my love. I have obeyed my Father’s commandments, and in that way I live in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that you will be as joyful as I am, and your joy will be complete.