Daily Devotional
The Lord Our Inheritance
Israel gathered at Shiloh to receive an inheritance, yet one tribe stood as a sign that the highest portion is not fields or cities, but God Himself. As Irenaeus says, “They shall have no inheritance, for the Lord Himself is their inheritance.” This is the rebuke of Psalm 115 to every false worship. Men make idols with their own hands, then become like the work they trust: mute toward truth, blind to judgment, powerless for holiness. But the living God is in heaven and does what He pleases. Therefore His people must not bow to lifeless things—whether carved images, wealth, reputation, or the desires of the flesh.
Jeremiah shows where stubborn sin ends. The temple vessels are carried away, the city is burned, the king is blinded, and the people are led captive. Sin does not remain a private matter; it lays waste whole houses and peoples. If Judah, having the temple, did not escape while walking in disobedience, neither will anyone escape by boasting in baptism while serving sin.
For baptism is a burial. In Christ, the old man is not excused but sentenced to death. Clement says, “Now we know this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Romans 6:6” To belong to Christ, then, is to refuse the old master. Let the tongue be bridled, the body kept pure, possessions shared, and prayer offered to God alone. If the Lord is our inheritance, we must live as those who have left Egypt, renounced idols, and become servants of righteousness.
““They shall have no inheritance, for the Lord Himself is their inheritance.” And again, “The priests the Levites shall have no part in the whole tribe of Levi, nor substance with Israel;”
— Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book IV
“Now we know this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Romans 6:6”
— Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies)
For Reflection & Discussion
What possession, ambition, or habit have you treated as an inheritance beside the Lord, and what concrete renunciation will you make today to put it away?
Since you were baptized into Christ’s death, what work of the old man must be cut off this week—unclean speech, lust, drunkenness, greed, or resentment—and to whom must you confess your repentance?
How will you give glory not to yourself but to God this day through a set time of prayer, an act of almsgiving, or a deed of mercy toward someone in need?
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