The Commandments
Matthew 22:36-40 reads from the Amplified Bible:
36Teacher, which kind of commandment is great and important (the principal kind) in the Law? [Some commandments are light--which are heavy?]
37And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect).
38This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment.
39And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself.
40These two commandments sum up and upon them depend all the Law and the Prophets.
It is quite interesting that people still put so much emphasis on the 10 commandments. It has become a way to measure up against others by saying “I don’t commit adultery, I do not murder, I do not steal, etc. Also, it is being used as a way to display knowledge or significance that we can recite the commandments. Jesus never did away with the commandments, He merely simplified them to two basic commandments so we would not have the same issues before He came, while He was here, and sadly enough after He physically left.
He said the GREATEST commandment is to love God with your all, and the second is like the first which is to love your neighbor as yourself. We wouldn’t lie, kill, steal etc. from ourselves because we love ourselves too much; in the same sense we should not do it to our neighbors. With these two commandments being the greatest, it in turn overwrites, but also raises the standards of the ten original commandments given by Moses. Once filled with the Holy Spirit, it naturally fills you with those two commandments and we will automatically keep the original commandments. If someone asks do you know the 10 commandments, simply respond to love God with my ALL and to love YOU as I love myself.
God bless you all!
December 28th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Well said…