Our Lord’s
Commands
There are many
commands our Lord has given us to obey. The two greatest are as follows:
- Jesus taught us in Matt. 22:37-38, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.” Our love for God must be the greatest and strongest love we have in our lives. We must put our Lord first in every endeavor we attempt, we must submit to our Master’s will in everything we do. We must obey His commands by doing everything He would have us do and abstaining from everything He would not have us do.
- Jesus instructed us in Matt. 22:39, “And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” We try to love others as we would be loved. We are to love even our enemies and do good to those who do evil to us. Jesus also said in John 13:34, “As I have loved you love one another.” We must strive to love those in Christ as much as Jesus loved us.
Jesus told us in
Matt. 22:40, “All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.”
These two commands supersede all others. They are the ones that should be
emphasized to all children, they are the ones that
should be put up on display for all to see, all to obey.
All sins come from
the heart, they are spiritual. They come from the lack of an obedient love for
our God, from the lack of a caring love for all people. It is impossible to
list all the situations in which we sin by ignoring our God, by hurting our
neighbors. Sometimes we are even unaware of the sins we commit. Jesus can
forgive all of our sins except one. When we reject the Holy
Spirit, not allowing Him into our hearts, not allowing Him to introduce us to
our Lord, not allowing Him to keep Jesus in our hearts.
Some of our Lord’s
commands were Old Covenant ceremonial laws to make the people aware of the
Savior to come, and a means of forgiving their sins until He came. Jesus
Christ’s death fulfilled these ceremonial laws, they are needed no more. We are
to obey all of Christ’s commands that He taught us in the Gospels. We are also
to follow the New Testament teachings of the apostles on how our Lord would
have us live in the New Covenant. We should also obey the moral Old Covenant
laws not redefined in the New Covenant. Listed below are other specific
commands of our Lord. They are paraphrased from the Bible:
-
That we should have no other gods, nor worship, bow down, or call upon any
other idols, heavenly beings, statues, or anything else in heaven or earth.
- Do not take the name of
the Lord thy God in vain. Do not curse by calling down the anger of God on
anyone. Do not use His name carelessly or by swearing an oath to prove you are
telling the truth where a simple yes or no will do. Do not swear falsely by His
name.
-
Do not lie. Tell the simple truth. Honor your pledges as God has honored His
-
We should worship our God in fellowship with other Christians gladly hearing
and learning His word. Each can worship any day or time they desire. Where two
or three are gathered together in Christ’s name, He will be there also. We
should support those are called for specific work by the Lord, both with
prayers and sustaining them with their physical needs. We should bring the
knowledge of our Lord to all nations. Congregations should be
led by elders, men seasoned with a strong Christian faith and picked by the
congregation they lead. Their requirements can be found in 1Timothy 3 and Titus
1. We should take our disputes to the elders to be settled quickly, trying to
avoid secular courts.
-
Honor your father and mother that it may be well with you and you will live
long on the earth. Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the
elderly. Take care of the elderly especially caring for those in your own
family.
-
Do not kill. He who hates his brother is a murderer. Do not have rage or anger.
Do not endanger anyone’s life. Do good to those who
offend you.
-
Do not commit adultery. Do not commit fornication. He who lusts after another
has already committed adultery in his heart. Neither the
sexually immoral, adulterers, or homosexuals, will inherit the
-
Do not steal. Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. Do not use dishonest
standards when measuring length, weight or quantity. Theft, deceit, swindling,
and greed are evil. Steal no more but work to give to the needy.
-We
should gladly do to the best of our ability the job our Lord has given us. Give
to him that asks of you and from him that would borrow from you turn not away.
Help others as we would like to be helped.
-
Do not bear false witness against they neighbor. Slander is evil. Do not pervert
justice, do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but
judge your neighbor fairly. Speak not evil of one of another. Do not have
bitterness or malice. If there is a dispute go and discuss the matter between
you and the person alone, then bring in others to rectify the situation. Be
kind and compassionate.
-
Do not desire your neighbor’s wife, nor covet any of his possessions. The world
causes man to envy intensely. Having food and shelter be content with what you
have.
-
Forgive others as Christ forgives us. For if we do not forgive others Christ
will not forgive our sins. Do not seek revenge, for revenge is for the Lord,
not man. Do not bear a grudge against your neighbor.
-
The evils of drunkenness, crude talk, arrogance, pride, and foolishness keep a
man from the
-
Do not practice sorcery, nor turn to mediums or spiritualists for you will be
defiled by them. Do not cut nor tattoo your body.
-
Give to the poor and needy. Do not take advantage of your hired laborer, pay them their wages when they need them to live
on.
-
Obey government laws as long as they don’t conflict with God’s laws
If
we commit any sin we have committed them all. Any sin (disobedience) keeps us
from God, no matter what the sin is. There is only one cure for our sins. We
must believe in Jesus Christ, acknowledge our sins, sincerely repent of them
and trust in our Lord’s grace to forgive them. Puff, they are gone forever.