by Michaela Langstone

Created on: February 23, 2010   Last Updated: March 01, 2010

8 NUGGETS OF WISDOM WE CAN LEARN FROM GOD’S COMMANDS

Did you know that if we take a close look at each of God’s commands, we would find nothing but infinite love and good intentions towards us and all humanity?  Unfortunately, over the course of history, fallen human nature and satanic influence misused the very commands God gave to His people for good purposes.  As King David observed in Psalm 119:96, “I have seen the consummation of all perfection, But Your commandment is exceedingly broad.”  So why do we break God’s commandments in the first place?  Solomon answered this in Ecclesiastes 8:11, “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”  Moreover, the person that sins against the Lord “wrongs his own soul” (Proverbs 8:36).  Thus, from the moment we are born into this world, we are inclined and tempted to sin, sometimes through our own ignorance, other times knowingly, as we give in to our carnal nature.

Before the time of Christ, there were over 200 laws and statutes in the Old Testament that the Jews were meant to keep in order to be considered ‘ritually pure’ and right before God.  However, this meant that if you stumbled at one point of the law, you have stumbled at all of them.  Since it is next to impossible to be justified by keeping the law before God, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world, born of a virgin and the Holy Spirit so that we can receive forgiveness for all our sins.  We can see Jesus’ teachings in Matthew 5 about the right attitude towards God and His Kingdom as well as the way people are meant to treat one another.  Jesus also makes at least five clarifications about God’s commandments and enhances their meaning, implying that if we are to follow this teaching, we would live a much better life.  To begin, let us look at each of them in more detail.  We can then begin to infer other revelations from some of the other commands found in God’s Word.

1. Christ Fulfils the Law (Matthew 5: 17-20)

In John 5:39, we see that Jesus criticises the Pharisees of His day saying that they search the scriptures as though there is eternal life in them when they are the very writings that testify of Him.  We read in Matthew 5 that Christ came to fulfil the law, so that whoever believes on Him will not perish,

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next Page >>