not under law
Well-Known Member
- Mar 23, 2020
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Being raised in church, I used to look to written commandments and strive to obey them. Whether this was the ten commandments or Jesus teaching. I would focus on them and greatly desire to obey them, but if I am honest, those commands in truth showed me how guilty I was of so often failing to obey them. It made me very miserable much of the time, due to my faliures.You say commandments are not about "to do" them.
Let's see if that theory holds up to what the Bible plainly says.
"If thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them, which I command thee this day, to love the LORD thy God, and to walk ever in his ways; then shalt thou add three cities more for thee, beside these three:" (Deuteronomy 19:9).
"To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them." (Psalms 103:18).
Nope. It doesn't look your thinking here is right.
A few years ago, my mother whom I dearly loved was told by doctors she was dying of cancer. My wife and I went to look after her in her home for a while before the illness got too bad. During that time, I laid aside my own wants and desires, my joy was seeing my mother happy in the time she had left to live. Nothing was too much trouble to do for her. I loved taking her to see her friends, and bringing them to see her, I was so happy to see how much this meant to her. Taking her out to places she loved to go to made me as happy as it made her. If I had to carry anything for her, it would not bother me if I carried it one mile or two. I did not covet what was my mothers, I did not bear false witness against her, I did not want to murder her, steal from her and I honoured her. One evening I was standing outside her home, and it suddenly hit me that I was closer to the biblical ideal of how to live my life than I had ever previously done. I was obeying the moral law of the ten commandments where my mother was concerned, and obeying Christ's commands too. Why was I obeying the law? Did I look to the ten commandments and Christ's teaching and strive to obey them all concerning my mother? No! I never once thought of any of them where she was concerned. So why was I obeying them? Because I loved my mother greatly. Love really does fulfil the law.
Seems to me, that if we have to focus on, and strive to obey the words of the moral law/Christ's teaching, we are not loving as we should, and the more you love others, the less you will concentrate on literal commands as to how you should treat others, there wouldn't be any need
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