What does the Bible teach about the Ten Commandments? How am I supposed to live? Do I really have to ONLY keep the Ten Words? The Old Testament is full of Commands, what do I do about them? Are “they” truly nailed?
Let’s get started looking into a few of these answers..
In Genesis 26:3-5, Yahweh made a promise to Isaac that He would confirm the oath which He swore to Abraham, and He said it was because Abraham listened to His voice and kept His mandate, His commandments, His statutes, and His instructions.
In Deuteronomy 7:9, Yahweh proclaims Himself as the faithful Mighty One who keeps His gracious covenant loyalty for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments. (Notice how love and commandment keeping go together.)
In Joshua 1:7-8, Joshua says that above everything, Yahweh’s people are to be strong and courageous to carefully observe the whole instruction that Moses, the servant of Yahweh, commanded. Do not turn from it to the right or the left. This book of the law must not depart from your mouth; you are to recite it day and night, so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do.
As King David was about to die, he instructed his son Solomon (in 1 Kings 2:1-3): “Be strong and brave, and keep your obligation to Yahweh, to walk in His ways and to keep His statutes, commandments, judgments, and testimonies. This is written in the law of Moses, so that you will have success in everything you do and wherever you turn.”
In 2 Kings 18:6 we read that King Hezekiah trusted in Yahweh. He did not turn from following Yahweh, but kept the commandments Yahweh had commanded Moses.
Psalm 111 verse 10 tells us that the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom, and a good understanding have all they who do His commandments.
Proverbs 3:1-4 says you should not forget Yahweh’s law, and let your heart keep His commandments. They will bring you many days, a full life, and well-being. You will find favor and high regard in the sight of Yahweh and man.
In Ecclesiastes 12:13, we read: “Listen to the conclusion of the whole matter: fear the Almighty and keep His commandments. This is the whole duty of man.”
In Matthew 5:19 Yeshua says: “Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches people to do so, will be called least in the kingdom. But whoever practices and teaches these commandments will be called great in the kingdom.”
In Matthew 19:17 we read that someone came up to Yeshua and asked him: Teacher, what must I do to have eternal life? Yeshua responded: If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.
In Luke 1:5-6 we read that Zechariah and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptizer, were both righteous in Yahweh’s sight, living without blame according to all the commandments and requirements of Yahweh.
Yeshua said in John 15:9-10, “If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.”
1 John 2:3-4 says that we know that we know Yahweh, by keeping His commandments. If we say we know Him, but don’t keep His commandments, we are liars.
1 John 3:24 says that whatever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.
And 1 John 5:3 says: This is the love of Yahweh, that we keep His commandments, and they are not a burden.
Exhortation to Keep the Commandments
This is just a short sampling of scriptures that emphasize the keeping of the commandments of Yahweh. We should probably have a little card in our wallet, with all these verses on them, when someone asks us: “Why do you think it’s so important that you keep the commandments?”
There is no other way to live. There is no other way to carry on day-to-day life. There is no other way to do business. There is no other way to do anything there is to do. Keeping the commandments of Yahweh is always the right thing to do.
We may come up with all sorts of reasons not to keep the commandments, but they all go back to one reason: man thinks he knows better than Yahweh, and wants to do what he wants to do.
Your flesh; your carnal human nature, doesn’t desire to keep the commandments. We all battle with the desires of the flesh. Sometimes the things your spirit man wants to do, you don’t do. And sometimes the things your flesh man wants to do, you give in to. It is a constant battle that we have, because we think we know better than Yahweh.
But you are to instead trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding.
It is not loving Yahweh to just believe the parts of the Bible that you want to believe. It is not loving Yahweh to pick and choose what you want to obey. It is not loving Yahweh to talk yourself out of keeping commandments, or precepts, or instructions that He has given. That’s not loving Yahweh.
If you are a believer, Yahweh has forgiven you of all your sins. He has removed them as far as the East is from the West. He’s had compassion upon you as man has compassion upon a little child he loves. He has wiped your slate clean. You are saved by His grace and mercy. You aren’t saved because you made the first move. You are saved because of Yahweh, not because of you.
So how do we repay Yahweh? Well, we could never repay Yahweh. We could never earn Yahweh’s love. We could never do enough good things to take away the bad things.
But… He has given us a way to show Him that we love Him. He has given us a way to say, “Thank you Yahweh. Thank you for everything You have done for me. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my family. Thank you for my friends.” He’s given us a way to actively say this to Him, and that way is by keeping His commandments.
You don’t show Yahweh you love Him by telling Him, “I love you.” That’s okay to do, but that doesn’t prove you love Yahweh.
You don’t show Yahweh you love Him by how loud you sing to Him. You don’t show Yahweh you love Him by how many words you use when you pray to Him, or how eloquent you speak. No… none of this proves anything. His love language is keeping His commandments.
When you follow His commandments, summarized in the 10 commandments in both Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, Yahweh looks down and knows that you love Him. He says, “There is my child. I know she loves me. I know he loves me. I know they appreciate what I have done for them. I know they really mean it.”
So many people in the world today will attempt to get you away from the commandments. They will pull on your heart strings in an attempt to say that some things Yahweh commands just don’t go along with how we are supposed to love in 2018. They will pull out all kinds of man-made ideas, and false concepts of love.
And even worse, you have professing Christian pastors that downplay the commandments. They say that we don’t have to keep the commandments. They call the commandments outdated, or bondage.
In light of all the scriptures I began with today, how could someone state such a thing? How could someone who claims to believe in the Bible think that keeping the commandments of Yahweh is not really necessary?
Like I said, the flesh often overrides the spirit. Sometimes Christian men can get de-railed due to pier-pressure, and cave into the popular ideology that goes along with the ways of the carnal world.
I want you to know today that I believe in keeping the commandments. I believe in teaching the commandments. By Yahweh’s grace, I will never teach you to break a commandment that you have the ability to obey.
Now, I am not perfect. I have sinned against Yahweh in ways that I am ashamed of. I battle with my flesh everyday just like everyone else. But a righteous man falls seven times and gets back up. I am not going to give in. I am not going to give up. I am not going to stop running this race. I am not going to roll over and try to fit in with any ideology that teaches keeping the commandments really doesn’t matter.
Today’s lesson is an encouragement lesson to keep Yahweh’s commandments, and it is also an introductory lesson to the next 10 weeks. Beginning next week, I will be teaching 1 lesson on each of the 10 commandments.
The 10 commandments are 10 ways to love. They are 10 ways to live. They are 10 goals to strive for. None of them are outdated. All of them are for us today, and if we are interested in loving Yahweh, we must be interested in knowing, understanding, and obeying the 10 commandments.
I don’t want any of my children, or any child in here growing up and deciding to trash the commandments, because they never heard them taught by the pastor of the church. But if I teach the commandments, and you still walk away from them, I have done my part.
I will talk about how we have broken the commandments, and I will talk about how we can keep the commandments. I will teach both law and grace. I will teach both faith and works. I will teach the whole council of Yahweh. I love you all, and I want you all to love Yahweh. I want to love Yahweh. I want to love Yahweh more and more. The way to do that is by studying His commandments, and learning how to keep His commandments..
