Lost in Translation?
Welcome to Moments with Maclaren for Tuesday, March 17, 2026
Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. —Joshua 1:7-8
Joshua is about to cross the Jordan. There is a land to take, a people to lead, a mission that will define the rest of his life. And God’s instruction, at this hinge moment, is essentially this: stay in the Word. Day and night. Don’t drift right or left. Let it shape everything.
It is a surprising command before a battle. But God seems less concerned with Joshua’s military strategy than with his interior life — the place where obedience is formed before it ever becomes action.
Alexander Maclaren, the great Victorian preacher, cuts to the heart of it: “Obedience,” he says, “is the mother of insight.” You don’t get understanding first and then decide whether to obey. You obey, and understanding follows. The sequence matters.
And what does that obedience produce? Maclaren names it precisely:
“The [person] that succeeds in obeying and translating God’s will into conduct is the victor, whatever be the outward fruits of [their] life.”
Translating. That word stops me every time.
I took three years of Spanish in high school. Three years of Greek in college. Once upon a time, as an Independent Study elective, I translated Paul’s letter to the Philippians — working through the Greek word by word, sentence by sentence. It is still my favorite among Paul’s epistles.
I no longer translate Greek at that level. The Spanish is largely gone, too. Language is not like riding a bike—that you never forget. What you do not practice, you lose. What you do not tend, day and night, fades.
Maybe the same thing is true about obedience to God’s word?
OK, I’m hedging. I know the answer to that question.
I have this video playing in my head. It’s not the final judgement. It’s God reviewing his daily ‘Chuck and the Word’ report. Each one receives one of two stamps: ‘WELL DONE!’ or ‘FAILURE TO TRANSLATE’.
My friend Matt puts it this way:
“If we make disciples by sitting around and talking, we shouldn’t be surprised when our disciples sit around and talk.” –Dr. Matt Friedeman, in The 5Q Method of Discipleship: Five Questions That Will Change Your Life
Lord, Your word—help me to more than discuss it, teach it, or post it. Stir me out of stagnation into translation—in obedience, turning the truth of Your word into the conduct of my daily life.