As long as I “mostly” follow the Lord or “nearly always,” that’s good enough, right? Consider the stark contrast in Numbers 32. Joshua and Caleb “wholly followed the Lord” (32:12), and they were the ones permitted to enter the Promised Land. But “the Lord’s anger was aroused” against those who had “not wholly followed” Him (32:10-11). “Not wholly” following the Lord is equated in this text with doing “evil in the sight of the Lord” (32:13), being “sinful” (32:14) and “turning away from following” the Lord” (32:15). The text emphasizes three times how such behavior “aroused” and did “increase still more” the anger of the Lord (32:10, 13, 14). 500 years later, the Lord had not changed His perspective, when “Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord,” which is then equated with the fact that he “did not fully follow the Lord” (1 Kgs. 11:6).
What does God expect of us today? Is “mostly” following Him good enough? He calls us to “walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him…” (Col. 1:10). We must give Him our all (Luke 10:27)!