What did Jesus mean "If you love me you will keep my commandments?"

lamb7

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Hey I know this has probably been posted a lot but I have really been thinking about this verse. I realize and believe works DO NOT save us, Jesus sacrifice does.

I have been switching my focus from a life of fear to a life of love. I have treated God, and the people I love most as a a result of fear and them leaving me etc. Which is not sound in the mind at all.

I want to love, serve and obey God (and people too!) out of pure love and not out of fear of Hell.

Please pray for me I really feel The Holy Spirit working on me and could use some prayer warriors :prayer:

So what commandments does He Jesus mean? Is it the 10? Thanks for your input and prayers God Bless.
 

Rescued One

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Praise God! I love, love, that verse! I'll gladly pray for you.

Nehemiah 8
10 Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
 
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seeking.IAM

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As an observant Jew, Jesus was a keeper of the Ten Commandments. But He also told us to do other things. Among them:

The Greatest Commandment
(Deuteronomy 6:1-19; Matthew 22:34-40)

28Now one of the scribes had come up and heard their debate. Noticing how well Jesus had answered them, he asked Him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”

29Jesus replied, “This is the most important: ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is One Lord, 30and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. 31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.”
 
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seeking.IAM

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Also:

To partake of the Eucharist: "Do this in remembrance of me."

and

The Great Commission: "Therefore go and make disciples" (although someone will be along shortly to argue that this was a commandment to the disciples, not to us.)
 
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Zatek

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Seems pretty straightforward to me. Commandment is just a fancy word meaning what God said to do.

Obedience to God doesn't save you in the sense that Jesus's sacrifice saves you, because obedience can't make up for disobedience. A murderer can't get out of a murder charge by promising to not murder again. However, that doesn't mean you can be saved without being obedient to God. Christ's sacrifice means we can be saved without perfect obedience ourselves and instead we are saved by faith in God, but faith in God does involved obedience, just not perfect obedience.

Faith is just a fancy word for saying you love and trust God. If you love and trust God then why don't you obey him? God can see your true motives. Everyone is in a different stage in their relationship with God, and it isn't about your performance relative to other people, but are you making an effort to be disciplined and learn to behave more and more in line with God's law? It's like if you're married. Do you really love your spouse and you make a genuine effort to be a contributing part of the relationship, or are you just doing the bare minimum you think you can scrape by with and hoping your spouse won't notice?
 
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dreadnought

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Hey I know this has probably been posted a lot but I have really been thinking about this verse. I realize and believe works DO NOT save us, Jesus sacrifice does.

I have been switching my focus from a life of fear to a life of love. I have treated God, and the people I love most as a a result of fear and them leaving me etc. Which is not sound in the mind at all.

I want to love, serve and obey God (and people too!) out of pure love and not out of fear of Hell.

Please pray for me I really feel The Holy Spirit working on me and could use some prayer warriors :prayer:

So what commandments does He Jesus mean? Is it the 10? Thanks for your input and prayers God Bless.
You know the commandments: `Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.' Luke 18:20 RSV
 
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BobRyan

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Hey I know this has probably been posted a lot but I have really been thinking about this verse. I realize and believe works DO NOT save us, Jesus sacrifice does.

I have been switching my focus from a life of fear to a life of love. I have treated God, and the people I love most as a a result of fear and them leaving me etc. Which is not sound in the mind at all.

I want to love, serve and obey God (and people too!) out of pure love and not out of fear of Hell.

Please pray for me I really feel The Holy Spirit working on me and could use some prayer warriors :prayer:

So what commandments does He Jesus mean? Is it the 10? Thanks for your input and prayers God Bless.

Eph 6:2 "Honor your father and mother for this is the FIRST commandment with a promise" in that still valid - unit of TEN

Matt 19 "Jesus said if you would enter into eternal life KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS" -- then the rich young ruler asked "WHICH ONES?" - And Jesus listed commandments from the TEN Commandments.

Romans 13 - Paul gives that SAME LIST -- unchanged even after the cross.

:)

It just does not get any easier than that!

Exodus 20:6 "LOVE Me and KEEP My Commandments"
John 14:15 "If you Love Me KEEP My Commandments"
 
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quartzy

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I believe real love comes from self sacrifice, I would not steal for instance as it hurts God's heart to go against his teachings I believe. For me, I would like to be the willing child that he expects us to be. If you loved your parents for instance, you would not go against their teachings the same is it with God.
 
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rjs330

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I think it is pretty clear what Jesus meant. If we love him we will keep his commandments. But one may ask, "what if I disobey? Do I not love him?" This is where grace comes in and so does the rest of the Bible. Is our love for Christ perfect? How about our love for our children or our spouse? Have you ever done anything that hurt your kids or your spouse? Does that mean you do not love them? Of course not. If we love Christ we will keep his commands. But we will also recognize when we fail and once again turn to God and confess our sins for he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father that he will forgive me for my failings. I don't love Christ perfectly. I wish I could, I wish I did, but I don't. I don't think that is ever obtainable on this planet in this current flesh. Paul himself said he wrestles with the flesh and sometimes he too fails. But he was the example to us all of never giving up. He fought a good fight. He finished the race and kept the course. We too can do that. We will stumble, we will fail, but if we love Christ we will not live in sin or walk in sin, but will always turn from our sin and repent of it. Jesus love is perfect, ours is not. I am so grateful for his unfailing, unflinching, unending love for me. I don't deserve it.
 
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fhansen

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Hey I know this has probably been posted a lot but I have really been thinking about this verse. I realize and believe works DO NOT save us, Jesus sacrifice does.

I have been switching my focus from a life of fear to a life of love. I have treated God, and the people I love most as a a result of fear and them leaving me etc. Which is not sound in the mind at all.

I want to love, serve and obey God (and people too!) out of pure love and not out of fear of Hell.

Please pray for me I really feel The Holy Spirit working on me and could use some prayer warriors :prayer:

So what commandments does He Jesus mean? Is it the 10? Thanks for your input and prayers God Bless.
There are several that He gave but they can best be summed up perhaps with two that He gave, the Greatest Commandments. The New Covenant is all about change-in us. And that change is a work of God, intended to transform us into beings who love, as He does. Love is the heart of Christianity, the true definition of justice or righteousness for man and it only comes to the extent that we have union with God, with He in us and we remaining in Him. "Apart from Me you can do nothing", John 15:5. And this union, or communion, is entered into via faith, a gift of grace. Love is what faith is meant to lead to, and love, by its nature, produces acts performed for the good of others, for ones neighbor, for "the least of these" (Matt 25:31-46), and "love fulfills the law" (Rom 13:10). And so love is what we'll be judged on in the end.
 
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Shempster

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He meant that if we really know Jesus and love him, we WILL be like him which means our thoughts, words and actions will tend to naturally be in line with his.
It does not mean that if we obey what we perceive to be his commands that it proves we love him. Following rules can be done mostly out of fear. God does not give us a spirit of fear, so if we are obeying out of fear, we are looking at "his commandments" all wrong.
It is a slight twist on words that changes the meaning if understood incorrectly. Of course, most of the bible is set up this way. How interesting that is!
 
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Arsenios

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So what commandments does He Jesus mean?

Mat 28:18-20
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying,
"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and disciple all nations,
baptizing them
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit:
Teaching them to be observing all things whatsoever

that I have commanded you" (to be observing):
and,
"Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

So we are not given a list, but we are told WHERE to find ALL these Commandments from Christ, because THAT commandment was given only to His Apostles, and are found in the Life of the historic and Apostolic Church...

Arsenios
 
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mozo41

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Hey I know this has probably been posted a lot but I have really been thinking about this verse. I realize and believe works DO NOT save us, Jesus sacrifice does.

I have been switching my focus from a life of fear to a life of love. I have treated God, and the people I love most as a a result of fear and them leaving me etc. Which is not sound in the mind at all.

I want to love, serve and obey God (and people too!) out of pure love and not out of fear of Hell.

Please pray for me I really feel The Holy Spirit working on me and could use some prayer warriors :prayer:

So what commandments does He Jesus mean? Is it the 10? Thanks for your input and prayers God Bless.

"thou shall not eat of it"/"take no thought"/"touch not the unclean thing"

no .. the 10 are mans perception of the one ...
 
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BobRyan

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"thou shall not eat of it"/"take no thought"/"touch not the unclean thing"

no .. the 10 are mans perception of the one ...

God spoke the Ten... not man

Matt 19 Jesus said "if you would enter into eternal life - keep the Commandments" and in that chapter he is asked "which ones" -- then because the questioner had the problem with being self-centered Jesus quotes from the TEN Commandments specifically about man's duty to man.

Same list quoted by Paul in Romans 13
 
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BobRyan

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Mat 28:18-20
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying,
"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and disciple all nations,
baptizing them
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit:
Teaching them to be observing all things whatsoever

that I have commanded you" (to be observing):
and,
"Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

So we are not given a list, but we are told WHERE to find ALL these Commandments from Christ, because THAT commandment was given only to His Apostles, and are found in the Life of the historic and Apostolic Church...

Arsenios

IT is not true of course - that only the Apostles baptized.
 
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mozo41

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God spoke the Ten... not man

Matt 19 Jesus said "if you would enter into eternal life - keep the Commandments" and in that chapter he is asked "which ones" -- then because the questioner had the problem with being self-centered Jesus quotes from the TEN Commandments specifically about man's duty to man.

Same list quoted by Paul in Romans 13

"Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?" And He said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and first commandment.And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
 
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Arsenios

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IT is not true of course - that only the Apostles baptized.
Would you agree that only members of the Body of Christ baptize?

Or do you think that anyone can baptize?

Arsenios
 
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"Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?" And He said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and first commandment.And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."


Yes Jesus pointed to Deut 6:5 "Love God with all your heart" and Lev 19:18 "Love your neighbor as yourself" as the two pillars in the Mosaic Law upon which "All the LAW and the Prophets" depend ... even laws like "Do not take God's name in vain" (a commandment never mentioned by Christ) -- affirmed and established by those two foundational Mosaic Commands.

Thus when asked...

Matthew 19
16 And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” 17 And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” 18 Then he *said to Him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said,
You shall not commit murder;
You shall not commit adultery;
You shall not steal;
You shall not bear false witness;
19 Honor your father and mother; and
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
 
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