More About Jesus – His Commands Part One
These lessons have been taking a look at Jesus. Who He really is. The Almighty who always existed and who left glory and became what is termed the God Man. He humbled Himself and was obedient to the Father and went to the cross to pay for our sin. I love the old saying, it was not the nails that held Him there; it was love. Jesus has a double right to be obeyed. He has the right as creator, and He has the right to be obeyed because of what He did for us on the cross.
Jesus is the head of the Church, and that this was setup by God so that Jesus might have preeminence in all things. The Word of God says might have, because He still gives us a choice after we are saved to give Him preeminence in all things or not. We still have a free will. Just like we had a free will to accept Jesus as savior or not, we now have the ability to choose how close we will walk with Him. How obedient we will be. How much we will love Him.
It might be counter to the way the world thinks, but obedience and love are tied together. Jesus makes a connection between love and obeying in John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
It has been well said that Love is the greatest motivator. A child can be made to take out the garbage. He can be forced to, but he can do it with a bad attitude. With grumbling in his heart or on his lips. Or the child can take out the garbage with a good attitude because he is doing it to please the parents he loves. If you think about it, there is something wrong with obedience that has a bad attitude. That is not what Jesus is after. Yes, He wants us to obey, but He wants it to be done out of love and faith.
Jesus has a right to be obeyed, and He wants obedience done with the right heart. So that brings the obvious question, what does Jesus command us to do. In Matthew a man asks Jesus about the commandments. He wanted to know which is the greatest. He was asking for the wrong reason, but we do learn something important from the answer.
Mat 22:36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Jesus said that every commandment from God to man can be put into two categories. Love God and Love man. Today we are going to look at the first category and then next week we will look at the second category.
I Commands to love God
a. The first command is to get saved.
1Jn 3:22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
1Jn 3:23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
The context of these verses is a promise to answer our prayers and gives some reasons why He answers. And in the middle of this we find the statement. And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ.
This is where you must start. The first thing is you need to obey the command to get saved. Act_17:30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
Jesus said: Luk_13:3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Remember love and true obedience are tied together. So to really obey we need to love Him. And we cannot really love Jesus unless we first accept His love for us. We must get saved. 1 John 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us.
b. After we are saved we are to abide in Jesus.
Joh 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
Joh 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Joh 15:6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
Joh 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Joh 15:8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
Joh 15:9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
Joh 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
Joh 15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
Abide means to dwell, continue, stand firm. When you get saved, you change families. You now have a relationship with God. And Jesus tells us to adide in Him. He wants this relationship to be close, and He wants it to be continual.
He says in verse 9, continue ye in my love. He does not want us to get saved and then wonder off and put our heart back on the world. He truly loves us with a love so strong and so great that its depth is beyond our understanding. And he wants us close to Him at all times. Thus the command to abide in Him. Going to church on Sunday and then living like the devil the rest of the week is not abiding.
Since Jesus commands us to abide in Him, the question then becomes how do we do that? We do not need to doubt. He tells us in verse 10.
Joh 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love;
Again we have the connection between obedience and love. And we see that it is a condition of having a close abiding relationship with Jesus.
Obedience is not about duty. It is about love. It is about pleasing our Lord. It is about walking close to Him. Doing things out of some since of duty is a hard thing. Duty brings no joy. But look at verse 11. In verse 11 Jesus plainly tells us why He has said these things.
Joh 15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
The truth is that the results of obeying Jesus is an abiding relationship with Him, and the results of that is Joy. The fact is that the commands of Jesus are not grievous. They are for our benefit. They are given for our good out of Love. We should respond accordingly.
c. Another command that deals with loving God is be Holy
1Pe 1:14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:
1Pe 1:15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
1Pe 1:16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
If something is holy, it is consecrated or set apart to a sacred use, or to the service or worship of God.
Holy is properly, whole, entire or prefect in a moral sense. When applied to God is signifies perfectly pure, immaculate and complete in moral character. We call a man holy when his heart is conformed in some degree to the image of God and his life is regulated by the divine precepts. – Webster 1828 dictionary.
The command to be ye holy applies to every area of our lives. The verse say be ye holy in all manner of conversation. Everything we do communicates. From work to home. From our entertainment to our service for God.
And remember we are talking about the commands that involve loving God. About our relationship with Him. And when we are not holy, we do damage to that fellowship. O’ don’t get me wrong. We are still saved, but we hurt our fellowship with Jesus. This can cause us to lose our Joy, or our confidence. And can even bring chastisement.
It is so much better if we obey His command in regards to how we live our life. This principal even applies to the associations that we make with others. Before we read it, look at the end of verse 17. And I will receive you. So what we are about to read does affect our relationship with Him.
2Co 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
2Co 6:15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
2Co 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
2Co 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
There are many things mentioned here, but the major topic is false religions and idol worship. If you remember in the Old Testament the children of Israel would go after other gods, and that is like adultery. Our love is to go to Him. When we yoke ourselves together with unbelievers, you are putting yourself in a position to have your love for Jesus fade.
You are setting yourself up for situation where you have to choose Jesus or them. And sooner or later you will make the wrong choice. There are many examples. For one just look at Solomon. His unbelieving wives stole his heart from God.
d. Put God First
Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
We are command to put God first. With all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. That leaves nothing left out. That is everything. You do that and there will be conflict with the world.
Act_5:29 Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
And when it comes down to obeying God or man. We are to obey God every time. Remember there is a connection between obedience and love.
e. Praise Him
Heb_13:15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
At first glance some might say how can praise be a sacrifice? How about when you are hurting. When the doctor says its cancer. In the trials and tribulations of life. When things are not going your way.
f. Spend Time with Him
We are talking about some of the command that have to do with Loving God. We are talking about our relationship with Him. And this might sound really simple, but it is true. You cannot have a relationship without putting time into it. Here is another simple truth. You cannot have a relationship without communicating.
To have communication you must have two way communication. Both must talk and both must listen. This is at the heart of any relationship.
1.In His Word – Him speaking to us.
I have seen many people make the following mistake. They will read a lot of books about the Bible. But they don’t read the Bible. If you want to have a closer relationship with Jesus, then let Him talk to you directly. Just reading other books would be like having my wife’s friend tell me what my wife is saying. That would not make for a close relationship.
2. In Prayer – we speak to Him.
We need to talk to Him not only every day, but several times a day. Try speaking to your wife once a week and see how close that relationship gets. And actually talk to Him. Some people have the erroneous idea that praying is only about asking.
If we truly love someone, then we will want to strengthen your relationship. And that takes effort. You have to make time for them, you have to do things that please them.
There is no relationship more important that your relationship with God. That is why the first and great commandment is to love the Lord thy God.
Mat 22:36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.