Abraham knew God and trusted him. He was willing to do everything that God required of him. He knew that God loved him and would not harm him or his son Issac.

Abraham didn’t know God’s plan. The Bible says he thought that God would raise his son, Issac, from the dead. He was walking by faith when he told his servants, “I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.” (Genesis 22:5)

When Issac asked him about the lamb for the offering, he said, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb . . .” (Genesis 22:8)  You have to appreciate the beauty of God’s word here because of the double meaning of these prophetic words.

God provided a ram for the sacrifice that day. And then he provided his Son Jesus as a sacrifice for all of us, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

Our God is so amazingly generous. He is still providing the sacrifice that he requires. And he gives us the kind of love we need to keep the Love Commandment.

The love that God provides is far superior to natural human love. It’s much deeper and stronger. Natural human love runs out, but God’s love never runs out. It keeps going and going.

The love of God is available to everyone who knows the Lord Jesus Christ. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” (Romans 5:5)

And look at what this says. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control . . .” (Galatians 5:22 NIV)  These is the same description of God’s love we see in 1 Corinthians 13 (the Love Chapter). This is what God is like, and how he wants us to be. The good news is that God’s Holy Spirit supplies us with this kind of love.

Tags: Bible, Bible Study, Christian, Christianity, God, Gospel, Jesus, Love, Religion, Spirituality

The first Bible verse that I ever learned was “God is love.” The first song I ever learned to sing was “Jesus Loves Me.” These ideas came from the Bible, and they are simple, yet profound. They help us to understand some important truths that everyone needs to know–that Jesus loves us, and that Love and God are the same Spirit.

Jesus is God’s definition of love, and he is everything that God wants us to be. First Corinthians 13:4-8 is a excellent description of what Jesus (Love) is like. It is God’s will for every one of his children to be like him:

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices  with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. . . .”

Tags: Bible, Bible Study, Christian, Christianity, Commandments, God, Gospel, Jesus, Love, Religion, Spirituality

The penalty for breaking God’s law is death. Everyone breaks it and is dead in their sins. The Good News is that Jesus paid the death penalty for everyone who puts their faith in him, and he has raised us from the dead to walk in newness of life. We are new creations in Christ.

I have to marvel at the genius of God. He established a covenant in which He promised to bless those who obey him, and gave us the Ten Commandments to teach us what He wants us to do. Jesus didn’t eliminate the Ten Commandments. He showed us how to keep them. He said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” (Matthew 5:17)

He fulfilled God’s Law with the supreme act of love in laying down his life for us.

“Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” (Romans 13:8-10)

And he became the mediator of a new and better Covenant.

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” (Hebrews 8:10)

Tags: Bible, Bible Study, Christian, Christianity, Commandments, God's Law, Gospel, Jesus, Love, Religion, Spirituality, the Ten Commandments

Let’s look at the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses on Mr. Sinai.

“And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.” (Exodus 34:27-28)

God’s law hasn’t changed. But we have a better understanding of it because of Jesus. He explained that man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24)

God wants you to worship him in your mind and in your heart. If the Word of God is alive in you, God’s law is written on the fleshy tablets of your heart. And you have the desire to please God and obey him.

Jesus’ commandment  to “love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind” covers the first three of the Ten Commandments–to serve the true God, to honor his name, and to remember the Sabbath day and keep it separate.

His commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” summarizes the rest of the Commandments–honor your father and mother, don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t bear false witness, don’t covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his possessions.

So far, Jesus has consolidated Ten Commandments into two, and they don’t seem impossible to keep. But this next part shows the genius of God and his great generosity toward us. These two commandments can be combined into one, Jesus’ new commandment to “love one another as I have loved you.”

The Bible tells us that the definition of loving God is keeping his commandments. “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous. (1 John 5:3)

So what is God’s commandment? To love your neighbor as yourself. Therefore, when you are loving your neighbor as yourself, you are loving God. You are multi-tasking, or killing two birds with one stone. Jesus made it possible for you to fulfill God’s Law. But it is impossible without him.

Loving God=Loving Your Neighbor

QED

Tags: Bible, Bible Study, Christian, Christianity, Commandments, God, God's Law, Jesus, Love, Religion, Spirituality, the Ten Commandments