by God's Little Boy
© MakeshiftDarkroom.com 2026
Posted 7/01/26

“Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life” (1 Kings 15:5)

There are different ideas that men have concerning what it means to not turn aside, and then there is what it actually means. This piece is about the root meaning that goes down deep into the heart of the matter.

If a particular persuasion, with its own particular goals and purposes wants to have its adherents doing certain things, then it will teach them that doing those things in a certain way is what it means to not turn aside. Often times men can bring into Christianity things that even God does not require in all people. Obedience does not necessarily mean conformity. The beauty and necessity of outward obedience is an evidence of not turning aside, but it is not the basis for it.

The Puritans, for example, had a shining vision and great experiment that they were persuaded was the truth, and God’s way, and they built their life upon it. Every man among them was measured and either approved or disapproved by their degree of conformity to that vision. Their vision was devised by the well intentioned Puritan mind of man. They guarded this vision and purpose of creating a model state-church society believing that this was what would not only reform the Church of England (by example) but also usher in a postmillennial eschatology. Alas, none of this came to be. History records their great and noble experiment as a failed enterprise based upon short sighted presuppositions that failed to make room for the sovereign will of God, and the God who keeps his own counsel regarding the times and epochs. As persuaded as the Puritans were, and as determined as they were to not turn aside from their mission, they were wrong about the will of God for the church and for the future of America. Nevertheless, their great undertaking was used by God and essential for a different purpose and end which God had kept hidden from his godly servants. They were right about one thing, namely their fervent relationship with God and his Christ by faith, and their unmatched exaltation of the word of God – which turned out to be the end in itself though they had seen it to be a means to another end.

The important thing is the basis behind what it means to not turn aside. Not turning aside really means not turning aside from a vital relationship with God. This one line is a good enough explanation on its own. David who sinned and deviated in conduct concerning Achish, Nabal, mishandling the Ark, multiplying wives and concubines, numbering the people, Bathsheba and Uriah, and Amnon and Absolom was evaluated differently by the God who looks on the heart and sees not as man sees (1 Samuel 16:7).

When God chose David to be His King, to replace Saul, he did not seek out a worthy man whom he might find and choose, he called the man whom he had prepared and put in place through a predetermined plan. David was what he was because God had given it to him - he had made him to be what he was, and had ordained him for that purpose.

There was a reason that David turned not aside from God throughout his lifetime. David possessed and was possessed by what could be referred to as a heart of “spiritual intent” Spiritual intent was inherent to his nature by grace and through faith. David was inherently intent and predisposed to a love relationship with God and a willingness to live a life that was pleasing to God. His inner life was manifest outwardly in obedience to God’s desire. The Spirit of God put this in him. This means that David was (in his being) everything he was supposed to be before he obeyed anything that the Lord had called him to do. In this intent of heart he was always determined to not turn aside from God. Living out this intent was merely an outward expression of the substance of who and what he was. God’s evaluation of David’s life (Acts 13:22) was based upon this truth. Human weakness or failure could not alter or deny the reality of this God-given virtue.

"I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, which shall fulfill all my will." (Acts 13:22b)

This is what it means to not turn aside. Not turning aside is a life of continual engagement with God. It is a living spiritual connectedness to God through relationship. It is like a perpetual holy tension maintained by the influence of the Holy Spirit. It is like holding your hands up against gravity when the natural thing would be to let your hands down, but you can’t do it because God has put it in you to live with hands lifted high. It means to think with his mind as you follow Christ as a disciple through his word, not because you have to, but because you are quickened and constrained to from within, and it is now who you are. It is walking it the light as he is in the light, it is abiding in the vine, and in the secret place of the most high. It is setting the Lord continually before you and keeping him at your right hand to the end that failure cannot move you or remove you from God’s own estimation. (Psalm 16:8). This kind of a relationship with God is not merely a means to an end, but an end in itself.

"I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." (Psalm 16:8)

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