Sunday, June 5, 2022

The Greatest Commandments


    “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”                                                 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40, New King James Version)

We all know about the craziness that is going on in this world. I’ve written about those things quite a bit over the last few months, so I’m not going to repeat them.  

Just stop and think about one thing that you’ve read about in the news or that is even happening to you in your personal life. Next study the Bible verses above. Would the situation you are thinking about be different if the people involved lived by the commandments which Jesus taught his disciples? Or if they at least tried to keep the ten commandments that God gave to the Israelites in the Old Testament?

If you know your commandments at all, you realize that those original ten do boil down to the two which Jesus taught. By keeping the first three commandments we show our love towards God, while the remaining ones show our love towards others.

   Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:19, New King James Version)

But maybe I should back up. How well do you know the ten commandments? A better question is how do they apply to our lives today?

Hold on to those questions. I don’t have time to answer them right now, but follow along over the next weeks as I plan on sharing details of each of the commandments. During that time, I hope you think about why these laws from God apply to all of us, even the nonbelievers. I hope you come to realize that you should take these rules to heart, whether you are a Christian or not. And why we shouldn’t be rushing to take them out of our courthouses and other public spaces.

God knew what He was doing when He wrote those decrees in stone.

Hope you come back to this blog next Sunday. In the meantime, have a joy-filled week. Chris 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you Chris. So helpful in this scary world. I look forward to your next
Thank you. 🙏🙏