on Commandments and Love

[The Battlefront]

Lord Jesus Christ summed the 10 Commandments up into Two.
1) Love God with all you got.
2) Love your neighbor as yourself.

So how do we Love God?

John 14:15-31 KJV​

15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
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.
How are we meant to treat our neighbor?

John 13:12-17 and 34​

12 So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?
13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.
14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet.
15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.
16 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.
17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
and
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Serve others.
God gave us a higher calling:

Matthew 5:13-16 (KJV)​

13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
I leave you with this:

1. Love God more than anything or anyone and keep his commandments
2. Invest in the lives of the people around you by trying to make them better.

Give back to the world. Genuinely care about the people near you especially if you don't like them. Lord Jesus even washed the feet of the man who betrayed him. You never know if your selfless kindness will bear fruit in their life. Be the change you want to see in the world. You may inspire others to do the same. Even if they don't appreciate your efforts God does and it will help to keep you humble in your service. Volunteer for charity organizations or food banks, Help the old lady cross the street. Hold the door and when you see someone is feeling low try to lift them up. If you have the time give it freely as Time is our greatest gift to others. Time is an investment into someone else's future. Stop exclusively living for selfish desires.

God bless you and thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed this check me out on Youtube! The Link is on my Page!

 

[Who Me]

We love because God loves us.
1john4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us

Because God loves us we are able to love the unlovely, thanks to his love, his spirit and strength in us.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Give back to the world. Genuinely care about the people near you especially if you don't like them. Lord Jesus even washed the feet of the man who betrayed him. You never know if your selfless kindness will bear fruit in their life. Be the change you want to see in the world. You may inspire others to do the same. Even if they don't appreciate your efforts God does and it will help to keep you humble in your service.

Wonderful closing!

 

[Prycejosh1987]

I do not believe giving back to the world shows we love God. I believe showing love for God is consuming His intent and nature for the world. A good person gives to the world but doesnt like God. But a great person gives to the world freely displaying intentions of goodness towards God.

 

[Bruce.Leiter]

"Love" as defined in the Bible at its core is a decision of our will, not primarily a feeling, to do good for everyone regardless of their "worthiness" and their reactions to our actions that we do for them. It involves unconditional loving actions exactly the way Jesus loves us. It takes a lot of prayer for Jesus' victory to become evident in our lives.

 

[Tim Broom]

Volunteer for charity organizations or food banks, Help the old lady cross the street. Hold the door and when you see someone is feeling low try to lift them up. If you have the time

Why would people not have the time?

 

[Who Me]

Lord Jesus Christ summed the 10 Commandments up into Two.

He was quoting the Old Testament.

 

[WIP]

Lord Jesus Christ summed the 10 Commandments up into Two.
1) Love God with all you got.
2) Love your neighbor as yourself.

So how do we Love God?

John 14:15-31 KJV​

15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
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.
How are we meant to treat our neighbor?

John 13:12-17 and 34​

12 So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?
13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.
14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet.
15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.
16 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.
17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
and
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Serve others.
God gave us a higher calling:

Matthew 5:13-16 (KJV)​

13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
I leave you with this:

1. Love God more than anything or anyone and keep his commandments
2. Invest in the lives of the people around you by trying to make them better.

Give back to the world. Genuinely care about the people near you especially if you don't like them. Lord Jesus even washed the feet of the man who betrayed him. You never know if your selfless kindness will bear fruit in their life. Be the change you want to see in the world. You may inspire others to do the same. Even if they don't appreciate your efforts God does and it will help to keep you humble in your service. Volunteer for charity organizations or food banks, Help the old lady cross the street. Hold the door and when you see someone is feeling low try to lift them up. If you have the time give it freely as Time is our greatest gift to others. Time is an investment into someone else's future. Stop exclusively living for selfish desires.

God bless you and thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed this check me out on Youtube! The Link is on my Page!

Not trying to be nit-picky, but Jesus summed all the commandments with the two.

But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22:34-40 NKJV

 

[Roberto Cisneros]

Isn't the "second" part of Jesus' distillation of these "two commands" in fact the actionability of the first part?

I have always enjoyed imagining Jesus answering the man's question with the typical, expected answer (...love God) and then offering a proof in the pudding illustration with "love your neighbor." For me these are not necessarily mutually exclusive. They seem interdependent in some way, at least for me.

 

[Who Me]

Mark 12:28-34 verse 32.Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.

A wonderful comment from a teacher of the law.
Equal interesting is Jesus reply, which silenced all the questioning of Jesus.

 

[Tenchi]

Lord Jesus Christ summed the 10 Commandments up into Two.
1) Love God with all you got.
2) Love your neighbor as yourself.

Amen! Love for God is at the very core of Christian living. It is the Prime Motive for all we do as children of God - or ought to be.

So how do we Love God?

John 14:15-31 KJV​

15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
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.

Um, I'm afraid this has the cart before the horse. There are two great commandments, but the First one is not achieved by obedience to the Second one. Instead, achievement of the Second commandment arises out of obedience to the First and Great commandment. In other words, the "horse" is the First and Great commandment that "pulls" the "cart" of the second great commandment.

Why do I point this out? Well, because it is entirely possible for Christians to obey God's commands from hearts that are actually far from him. This was the case with the Pharisees of Christ's time who were hyper-obedient to the Mosaic Law, even making up a bunch of their own religious rules, but who were condemned by Jesus as "sons of hell," and "hypocrites," and the "brood of vipers" (See Matthew 23).

I know non-Christians who are lovely people, generous, kind, patient and moral, being as they are for reasons that have nothing to do with loving God. I've encountered many Christians, too, about whom the same could be said. They are obedient to God and call it "loving God," but their motive(s) for obedience actually disobey the First and Great commandment. They "love their neighbor," they obey God's commands, because they're afraid of God, and/or because they feel guilty, or an obligation or duty, to obey Him, and/or because they don't want others to think less of them, and/or because it's just how they've been raised and they're in the habit of "being Christian" (going to church on Sunday, reading the Bible, praying, etc.). Their obedience to God's commands has nothing do, really, with a love for God at all.

Paul the apostle explained that this sort of "obedience," this "right living," is actually entirely spiritually useless (though, it may be moral and materially helpful). Anything we say, or know, or do that doesn't arise from a love for God first of all, Paul wrote, is without spiritual value:

1 Corinthians 13:1-3
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

See? We can go so far as to be martyred for the faith and yet "gain nothing" spiritually by being martyred. Why? Because our being martyred is not arising from a love for God. But isn't the act of being martyred itself how we love God? No, it isn't. Among other things, what Paul is saying in the passage above is that our actions manifest our love for God (or they ought to), but they don't constitute that love. We can say, and know, and do all sorts of "righteous" things from motives that have nothing to do with actually obeying the First and Great commandment.

Look at it this way: If I see a big diesel truck drive past me and a friend while we're out walking together and I say to my friend, "See that smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe? That's the engine!" My friend would likely laugh and correct me, informing me that the exhaust is the result of the engine working. The smoke from the exhaust pipe just shows that the engine is running; the smoke isn't the engine itself.

In the same way, our obedience to God's command to love Him with all of our being is supposed to be the "smoke" of our "love-engine" for God; it is the effect of the "love-engine" running, it isn't the "love-engine" itself.

Why is this important? Because many Christians think that they've proved they love God when they don't "smoke, or chew, or go with folks who do"; when they go to church on Sunday, and read their Bible, and pray; when they refrain from swearing, and telling dirty jokes, and frequenting the local strip bar, and so on. But these same Christians may be doing all these things because, as I already pointed, they're afraid of God, or out of a sense of guilt or duty, or because of self-righteousness or long habit. They call it "love for God" because they've conflated obedience - the effect of love - with love itself, but they don't really love God at all.

As Paul wrote, such "love" for God is actually spiritually useless and disobeys the First and Great commandment which has to do with the state of one's heart, with one's desires, not one's actions. It is out of a deep, positive, over-riding, whole-person desire for God that the second great commandment is to be obeyed. If this is not the case, if one's motive for obeying God is not this whole-person, over-riding desire for Him, all one does - moral and helpful though it may be - is in disobedience to God's First and Great commandment.

This is, I believe, why Jesus told the awful story he did in Matthew 7:21-23. What better case to make for entrance into God's kingdom than that one obeyed His First and Great commandment and desired Him with all of one's being? But is this what those making their case for entrance into God's heavenly kingdom did? Did they claim obedience to His First and Great commandment? No, it isn't. They pointed to good things, moral things, things that conformed to God's will in some way, but they said nothing about a heart's desire for God. And so, to them, Jesus said, "Depart from me. I never knew you."

1. Love God more than anything or anyone and keep his commandments
2. Invest in the lives of the people around you by trying to make them better.

Give back to the world. Genuinely care about the people near you especially if you don't like them. Lord Jesus even washed the feet of the man who betrayed him. You never know if your selfless kindness will bear fruit in their life. Be the change you want to see in the world. You may inspire others to do the same. Even if they don't appreciate your efforts God does and it will help to keep you humble in your service. Volunteer for charity organizations or food banks, Help the old lady cross the street. Hold the door and when you see someone is feeling low try to lift them up. If you have the time give it freely as Time is our greatest gift to others. Time is an investment into someone else's future. Stop exclusively living for selfish desires.

Point one is rightly stated. We love God AND keep His commandments. We don't love God BY keeping His commandments. Instead, our love for others is to be the natural effect of our obeying the First and Great commandment, the inevitable "smoke" of our "love-engine" for God.

How do Christians obtain a godly, agape desire for God? Our own love is human, which is to say, contingent, selfish, sin-corrupted and totally undesirable to God. And so, God gives to us in the Person of the Holy Spirit His own perfect, infinite, self-sacrificial love.

Romans 5:5
5 ...God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Galatians 5:22
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love...

Many are the Christians, though, who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit but who don't manifest his love at all. By what means does God say His love overtakes His children, filling them and flowing from them? Do you know?

 

[Carry_Your_Name]

"Love" as defined in the Bible at its core is a decision of our will, not primarily a feeling, to do good for everyone regardless of their "worthiness" and their reactions to our actions that we do for them. It involves unconditional loving actions exactly the way Jesus loves us. It takes a lot of prayer for Jesus' victory to become evident in our lives.

Yes, "love" is THE most abused word in English language, it's primarily used in a romantic, sexual sense as "amour" in French or Italian. That's not what it is in the bible. I'd say it's akin to familial or brotherly affinity, but it goes beyond your family members to everyone around you. You gotta memorize how GODLY love behaves 1 Cor. 13:4-8 and keep it in mind, lest you be misled by the modern definition and connotation of the word.