The Ten Commandments
George Stiekes
By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. I John 2:3
Using the perfect tense, John is saying, in this way, we know that we really know Him. John is revealing that everyone who truly knows Christ keeps His commandments. There are many who claim to know Him but do not keep His commandments. The only explanation for their disobedience is that they are liars.
There is tremendous confidence that comes to those who keep the Lord’s commandments and who understand them to be very precious. This kind of obedience stems from love as I John 2:5 indicates – But whoso keepeth His Word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him. Our obedience gives us confidence that we are truly born again.
Jesus gave a summation statement of the whole law when asked what the most important commandment was. Mark 12:30-31 reads: Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself.
The Ten Commandments are divided into two sections:
A. The first four commandments reveal God’s expectations of our relationship with Him.
B. The last six commandments reveal God’s expectations of our relationship with other people on this earth.
God knew that we would struggle to love Him with all our hearts and that we would not find it any easier to truly love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves. As we struggle with these two, we discover that it is not all that easy to let God be God in our lives.
A good example of this struggle is the experience of the children of Israel just after they had miraculously passed through the Red Sea. When Moses went up into the mountain for a long period of time, the people made a Golden Calf to represent their god and indulged themselves in an orgy around it. If they had claimed to love God, they certainly had a strange way of demonstrating it! Paul, writing to Titus concerning Jewish legalists and their extremes, said, They profess that they know God; but in works they deny Him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. Profession and performance should not contradict one another.
Are you in the habit of obeying God’s commands? Do you do so out of gratitude and love, considering all that He has done for you?
We will be looking at the Ten Commandments [in coming weeks]. It would be helpful if you would memorize John 14:21. 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 Myself to him.
George Stiekes held successful pastorates in churches in Michigan and Washington among other places. He currently resides in North Carolina and blogs at Reverent Reflections. We recommend his ministry and republish his material by permission.