Joshua 23:11 - Be Careful To Maintain A Love Relationship With God.

Jos.23:11: Be Careful To Maintain A Love Relationship With God.

Joshua 23:11 (KJV) Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, 
that ye love the LORD your God. 

Joshua 23:11 (GWT) Be very careful to love the LORD your God.

Joshua 23:11 (EAV) Be very watchful of yourselves, therefore, to 
love the Lord your God. 

Joshua 23:11 (TLB) So be very careful to keep on loving him.

Everything depended on whether or not Israel would continue to 
be faithful to the covenant. Joshua's words do not conceal his 
apprehension. Seven times he refers to the idolatrous nations still left in 
Canaan. He knew the snare they would be to Israel, and he therefore 
prescribed three safeguards. First, there must be brave adherence to God's 
word (Josh. 23:6). Second, there must be a vigilantly continued 
separation from the Canaanite nations (Josh. 23:7). Finally, there must be 
a cleaving to the Lord with real and fervent love (Josh. 23:8-11) 
(J. Sidlow Baxter, Explore the Book). [EAB footnote] 

Perhaps the danger would be greater now, after the Israelites 
were settled at ease in the land, that their love for God might turn 
to something else. The scriptures in both the OT and NT emphasize 
the pre-eminence of love. Power may be pleasant, wisdom and beauty 
may be delightful, and riches may give a certain prestige and sense 
of security, but life is not in these. Love supersedes all. 
Obedience submits to the voice which cries, "Thou shalt have no other gods 
before me" (Ex. 20:3). But love responds, "O Lord our Lord, how 
excellent is thy name in all the earth" (Ps. 8:1). Obedience declines to 
take the name of the Lord in vain, whereas love exclaims, "The desire 
of our soul is to thy name" (Isa. 26:8). "There is none other name 
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). 
Obedience refuses to break the Sabbath, but love says, "Call the sabbath a 
delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable" (Isa. 58:13). So it ought to 
be with all the divine commands. "Love is the fulfilling of the 
law" (Rom. 13:10). [SDA Commentary] 

The controversy for truth will have little success when sin is 
upon those who advocate it. Men and women may be well versed in Bible 
knowledge, as well acquainted with the Scripture as were the Israelites 
with the ark, and yet if their hearts are not right before God, 
success will not attend their efforts. God will not be with them. They 
do not have a high sense of the obligations of the law of heaven, 
nor do they realize the sacred character of the truth they are 
teaching. The charge is, "Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord."  
It is not enough to argue in defense of the truth. The most telling 
evidence of its worth is seen in a godly life; and without this the most 
conclusive statements will be lacking in weight and prevailing power; for 
our strength lies in being connected with God by His Holy Spirit, 
and transgression severs us from this sacred nearness with the 
Source of our might and wisdom.  {2BC 998} 

Would we cleave to the Lord, we must always stand upon our 
guard, for many a soul is lost through carelessness. Love the Lord your 
God, and you will not leave him..... Let us watch and pray against 
temptation. Let us trust in God's faithfulness, love, and power; let us 
plead his promises, and cleave to his commandments, then we shall be 
happy in life, in death, and for ever. [Matthew Henry Commentary]