Bible Study: Moral Development

I don’t know an expression any more accurate, so I’ve chosen to say that the one who listens to Torah, who delights in God’s Word, develops morally. So Psalm 119:101-102, 104b:

I have kept my feet from every evil path
so that I might obey your word.
I have not departed from your laws,
for you yourself have taught me.
… therefore I hate every wrong path.
If we hear God’s Word, if we listen to it and muse on it all day long (v. 97b), it will change our lives. There is a temptation to read the Bible in the morning or in the evening and then be done with it — as if we have done our duty, the way we mow grass or wash the dishes.
There is another way of reading so that the words flood our minds and memories — it takes a little discipline. When the cracks of the day appear, remind ourselves of what we read.
I believe this is what the Shema was all about: say it all the time, Deut 6:4-5 says. Why? Because it will flood your mind with the single-most obligation in life: to love God. And Jesus adds Lev 19:18, as I explain in Jesus Creed, and then we have the two single-most obligations in life: to love God and to love others.
When the commands of God flood our minds throughout the day, we can be formed by them; when we read them and then forget them, we can easily miss formation.