Posted on by Abe Austin

Commandments and Personal Revelation- John 14:15; Hebrews 12:6; Matthew 22:37-39

If ye love me, keep my commandments.
…
For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.
…
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.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

COMMENTARY

If ye love me, keep my commandments.
For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.
These scriptures illustrate a beautiful symmetry in the commandments. Why does God give us commandments? Because He loves us. Why do we keep the commandments? Because we love God.
And yet this seems far removed from the way commandments are typically viewed. The world teaches us that commandments are given by a mean and angry God, and that they are followed by us only because we are afraid of His punishments. It is suggested that commandments are restricting, that they prevent the full expression of the self.
Laws of physics are celebrated, mathematical principles are praised, but laws to govern human behavior are always considered suspect. I guess it’s not too surprising, though, we humans have had a very bad track record when it comes to enforcing “correct” behavior. Most attempts to do so quickly turn into cruelty, intimidation, and fear-mongering.
And so the idea of being led by love instead of being driven by a stick might seem unnatural, and I guess given the ways of the world it is unnatural. But I can affirm it is also the truth. Anyone that has felt “chastened” by God knows it is an overwhelmingly loving experience. How did Jesus correct the woman caught in adultery? He saved her life, then told her “neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
The symmetry of love as being the motivation for God giving us commandments and our following them is expanded still further when we realize that the commandments themselves are merely injunctions to love. Love God, love yourself, love others. God does not command us to hate, to steal, or to hurt. He does not command us to condemn or judge. If we respond to those that break the commandments in a way that is other than loving, then we have then broken the commandments also. The beam remains in our eye.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Commandments and Personal Revelation- Exodus 20:3-4, 7-8, 12-17; Matthew 22:37, 39-40

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image…
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain…
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honour thy father and thy mother…
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Thou shalt not covet…any thing that is thy neighbour’s.
…
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

COMMENTARY

Moses’s ten commandments are far more verbose than Jesus’s two. Even after reducing the record in Exodus 20 to its most succinct form, as I have done here, it weighs in at 76 words, while the full text of Jesus’s guidance is a mere 28.
And yet Jesus states that his two commandments encapsulate the entirety of the others. And not only of these ten…

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Notice that Jesus says his two commandments are the points upon which all of the law hangs and upon which all of the teachings of the prophets depend. The ten commandments is not the entirety of the law and prophets, they are only the briefest summary of a much, much larger body!

If you read out the entirety of the five books of Moses, the Torah that forms the foundation of Jewish Law, you will find that it is overflowing with commandments. Depending on where exactly you draw the lines between where one law ends and another begins the total comes to about 613 commandments in all!

And that’s just five books of scripture. Other commandments get added all throughout the rest. And on top of those there are additional thousands of pieces of wisdom and advice, things that may not be explicitly declared as commandments but which counsel us on how to live.

Is it any wonder that Jesus felt a need to simplify such a monument of instruction? And make no mistake, it is not that he is abbreviating all of the other commandments, it is that he is explaining the reason behind all of them. Simply put, God has not given us any instruction that falls outside of the umbrella of either:

  1. Loving Him with all your heart, soul, and mind
  2. Loving your neighbor as yourself

And between those two commandments there is a single common trait, the reason behind the reasons. It is a word that we frankly tend to forget as soon as we start talking about commandments. Love.

Let’s take a look at that more with tomorrow’s post.

Posted on by Abe Austin

How Do We Pray for Others- John 17:4, 6, 8

I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

COMMENTARY

I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
It really struck me that this was the prayer before the end. Jesus is praying for these disciples because he is about to leave them, and he knows it. I can only imagine how deeply his emotions would be running for them at this moment.

They have kept thy word…I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them…they have believed that thou didst send me.
And Jesus really does know these followers intimately. He knows what they have kept, what they have received, and what they believe. He knows them clear through to their hearts. These are his friends, and I think you can feel the pride he has for them as he appraises their growth.
My takeaway for this is that I believe it is possible and worthy to pray for those you don’t know (soldiers and missionaries abroad, the poor, the world in general), but I also believe that your prayers gain greater power the more connected you are with those you are petitioning for. The more you are able to know and love your fellowman, the more perfect your prayers for them will be.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Cup

He climbs, he crawls
He slips, he falls
The filth slides in his mouth
She yearns, she begs
Amidst life’s dregs
The bile to spit out

God save us, they plead
How we hurt, we bleed
The night on us descends
Take away this cup
And bind our wounds up
Or else our lives here end

And Christ fell on his face
As he felt their disgrace
And he call’d to Father above
Wilt Thou let this cup pass?
Yet I’ll do as thou asked
Then he drank to show us his love

God’s children beg, for mercy pray
While Jesus seeks another way
To give us mercy, forgiveness show,
God first must tell His own Son “no”
From each of us he takes the cup
Then asks his Son to drink it up

We shudder when we have our sip
But we’re not meant to taste all it
So come, dear one, and let us be free
For all was paid in Gethsemane