Do this and God will reveal himself to You.
How many people sitting around pondering about God and what his will is for their life never find it. They miss out on God's revealing because they never do this one thing.
What is this one thing?
"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest(reveal) myself to him." John 14:21
What commandments is Jesus talking about here. The commandments that He wrote on the tablets of stone. As we call them today the ten commandments.
The ten commandments deal with how we see God and treat our fellow man. Is he the Lord of our life? Do we talk to Him as our Father or some distant relative? Do we keep His holy day? Do we do unto others as we would have them do unto us? Are we happy with our blessings from God or desire what others have? These are some of the questions we need to answer and the answer is in the commandments of God.
What I am finding as I read God's word and get closer to him we are being tested in our faith. If you have read any of my previous post you know our faith is not enough but we need God's faith. This brings me to my point as we get closer to God the more we learn we need more and more of him to keep His word. We need to give up in our efforts and rest in his completed work and rely on His faith and testimony to carry us through the rest of our days.
These ten commandments have been kept by one man and He was God. So for him to reveal himself to us we must press towards the mark of perfection. That is to say we are perfected in his ability to perform the commandments to perfection. We give up on our efforts and rely solely on Him to master the commands in our life through His ability to keep His commands. This is why we must die daily to our fleshly desires and walk in the spirit of God that produces the fruit of the Spirit by Him.
We must become totally dependent upon God.
While I like the sentiment, I think there's something lost in reading the Bible with chapter headings. This post is a good example, because if you just pick up the Gospel of John in chapter 14 and read from there it is logical to assume Jesus is talking about the Ten Commandments.
However, to do that would to be to disregard Jesus' giving of His New Commandments in John 13:34-35 where Jesus says:
The Ten Commandments were given to the ancient nation of Israel under the Sinai Covenant. The people all agreed to them as a condition of being God's chosen people. They were never laws for Gentiles, and the bible doesn't tell Gentiles to obey them anywhere.
The Ten are not God's ideal. Jesus told us God's ideal, and that is to love one another and to love God. That is a much higher law because you must be active to love like Jesus did. It doesn't help anyone to just not murder, or steal, or commit adultery.
OK, so it is now acceptable behavior to steal, kill and lie. That is what you foster when you make the assumption the ten commandments have no merit.
First of all, I never assumed anything and I never said the Ten Commandments have no merit. You imported that idea into my statement. I also never said it is acceptable to steal, kill, and lie. I do not believe those are acceptable actions.
I don't think you understood what I was saying at all. I'm not sure if I can be clearer than I was, though. Maybe a question for you: Is it loving like Jesus to steal from someone, lie to them, or kill them?
Before responding emotionally, maybe actually take some time to read the post and respond to what I actually did say, and not what you imagine I mean.
So, the ten commandments have merit or do the commandments that you like have merit. I need to know. You said the commandments "are not God's ideal" way. I think that is what you were saying.
As for emotional. I find it interesting that those that are the most emotional tell others to not get emotional.
Just explain what laws you like out of the Bible. Do you think all ten should be followed or just the ones you like.
I explained in clear English which laws should be followed. They are the laws Jesus gave us found in John 13:34-35, 15:12, 15:17, Gal 5:14, 1 Thes 4:9. Love each other and love God. These are the laws of the New Covenant, which we are a part of. We are not a part of the Old Covenant if we are in Christ.
To say something has merit is not the same as saying I think that think is a good model for life. I think there is merit to the Ten Commandments because the Bible says all scripture is God breathed. However, just because it is in the Bible doesn't mean it is a law for your life.
That being said, I believe Jesus is God, so one could expect similarities in morality when reading the law and Jesus' exposition on the law, which is the Sermon on the Mound/plains. Jesus explains the heart of the laws to the Jews, because they were obviously missing the point. However, under the New Covenant God writes His law on our hearts.
Any action that is harmful to another person is unloving, and thus against the Law of Christ. That puts to rest the question of whether or not a Christian should steal, rape, lie, cheat, etc. Basically, if you couldn't imagine Jesus doing it, then you shouldn't either.
Here's another question for you, where is the separation between the ten commandments and the rest of the mosaic law? I mean, read Exodus 20 and find the passage where the "Ten Commandments" are differentiated in any way from the rest of the laws that follow. I can't find it. The Ten Commandments are some of the laws of the Old Covenant. They aren't the most important ones, at least not according to the Bible. If I'm wrong about that I'd love to be shown where in the bible they are described as more important than the rest of the laws.
For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." - Gal 3:10