Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him.  Deuteronomy 30:19b-20

Read the passage leading up to this verse.

See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.  (Deuteronomy 30:15-19a)

• The word life occurs twice in the passage preceding this verse. What do the verses say about life? How are people supposed to improve their lives?
• Remember when God created human beings? The Bible says, “the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”  (Genesis 2:6-7) What sort of life did God give with his own breath?
• In the Ten Commandments, God said, “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12) What is the unique gift parents give to their children? Some fathers and mothers do very bad things that most people believe justify separation from the parents. Nevertheless, God’s call to honor parents is not conditional. What do we honor in parents who have dishonored themselves?
• On Sinai God said, “You shall not murder.” Exodus 20:13 What does this verse tell us about the value of life?  Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10) What does this verse tell us about the value of life?
• Following today’s verse, Moses continued speaking and said, “The Lord is your life.” We speak of life in the time/space context and life in the eternal/infinite context. To which “life” is Moses referring? Which life does he want the people to improve?
• The word life has a rich meaning in the context of a Christian’s relationship to Christ. How would you explain it to a secular thinker?