www.ILOVEYOUGOD.com
by Steven Merten
Copyright 1990
Note: Jesus' words are in red
" . . . but the world must know that I love the Father and do as the Father has commanded me."
Happy are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart,
And do no wrong, but walk in his ways.
You have commanded that your precepts be diligently kept.
Yet there too you shall seek the Lord, your God; and you shall indeed find him when you search after him with your whole heart and your whole soul. In your distress, when all these things shall have come upon you, you shall finally return to the Lord, your God, and heed his voice. Since the Lord, your God, is a merciful God, he will not abandon and destroy you, nor forget the covenant which under oath he made with your fathers.
Whatever you do, be on your guard, for in this way you will keep the commandments. He who keeps the law preserves himself; . . . .
"You will live in my love if you keep my commandments, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and live in his love."
Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when perfected, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, . . .
"My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act upon it."
"This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you."
We can be sure that we love God's children when we love God and do what he has commanded.
"You are my friends if you do what I command you."
. . . let us love one another. This love involves our walking according to the commandments, and as you have heard from the beginning, the commandment is the way in which you should walk.
| BAR 4:1 | 1CO 6:9 | AMO 5:14 |
We must have love for God in our hearts to go to heaven. God tells us what love is and love is the commandments. If you wish to enter into life through Christ's blood, keep God's commandments of love. Though many false teachers might mock you for your belief, it is the truth, so stand by it. When Jesus is asked how to inherit eternal life, Jesus instructs them to love God with all their heart through the commandments for they are love. Obeying the commands is faithfulness to Jesus and the Father. It is through this loving-of-all-your-strength obedience that Christ will judge mankind. It is through this loving-with-all-your-heart obedience that men choose salvation through Jesus Christ over damnation.
Satan tries to induce free-willed Jesus into disobeying the Father by commanding stones to turn to bread. If Christ had made the stones turn to bread and eaten, he would have given his flesh nourishing life. However, had Christ disobeyed the Father and turned the stones into bread he would have lost his eternal life. At the time of Satan's temptation of the Son of God, Jesus quotes about the commandments from Moses DEU 8:1. Christ says, "'Not on bread alone is man to live but on every utterance that comes from the mouth of God.'" Christ is referring to obedience to the commands of God through which he lives eternally. Jesus tells us it is through the words, statutes, and precepts from the mouth of God that we will be guided to living eternally. Men of Moses' time did not live by nourishment of the flesh, but by obedience to God's word. Christians do not live by nourishment of the flesh, but by obedience to God's word. Jesus of the free-willed flesh does not live by nourishment of the flesh, but by obedience to God's word. Not by bread does man live but by obeying God.
"Be careful to observe all the commandments I enjoin on you today, that you may live and increase, and may enter in and possess the land which the LORD promised on oath to your fathers. Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert, so as to test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments. He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD."
Then Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to turn into bread."Jesus replied, "Scripture has it:
'Not on bread alone is man to live but on every utterance that comes from the mouth of God.'"
"You will live in my love if you keep my commandments, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and live in his love."
That your sons whom you loved might learn, O LORD, that it is not the various kinds of fruits that nourish man, but it is your word that preserves those who believe you!
Then I gave them my statutes and made known to them my ordinances, which everyone must keep, to have life through them. I also gave them my sabbaths to be a sign between me and them, to show that it was I, the LORD, who made them holy. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the desert. They did not observe my statutes, and they despised my ordinances that bring life to those who keep them. (EZE 20:21)
She is the book of the precepts of God, the law that endures forever; All who cling to her will live, but those will die who forsake her. Turn, O Jacob, and receive her: walk by her light toward splendor. (PSA 103:17-18)
And the world with its seductions is passing away but the man who does God's will endures forever.
Satan assures us that we will not die for disobeying the command of God.
Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the LORD God had made. The serpent asked the woman, "Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?" The woman answered the serpent: "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, 'You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said to the woman: "You certainly will not die!..."
Christ did not come to change the law. Christ came to fulfill it. Where we have sinned and refused to love through the law, Christ obeys, fulfills and accomplishes love in our place. Jesus never contradicts or changes God's words given through the prophets. The teaching of the prophets and the teaching of Jesus are in harmony.
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished."Through His commandments, precepts and laws God has told us what love for Him is and what love for fellow man is. The commandments were not put on earth so men would know how not to sin. The ten commandments were not put on earth to trip up man and send him to hell. Nor were the commandments created that man could earn his way to heaven. Free will was established on earth to allow men to love God and the commandments were put on earth so men would know how to love. The foundation of God's commandments is love, love for God in the first three and love for God by loving other people in the following seven. To fulfil the requirements of any of the commandments is to love. To break any of the commandments is to not love or to hate. Believing in and being faithful to Christ is believing and being faithful to his message and his message is the commandments of love.
To keep the law is a great oblation, and he who observes the commandments sacrifices a peace offering. In works of charity one offers fine flour, and when he gives alms he presents his sacrifice of praise. To refrain from evil pleases the LORD, and to avoid injustice is an atonement. Appear not before the LORD empty handed, for all that you offer is in fulfillment of the precepts. The just man's offering enriches the altar and rises as a sweet odor before the Most High. The just man's sacrifice is most pleasing, nor will it ever be forgotten. In generous spirit pay homage to the LORD, be not sparing of freewill gifts. With each contribution show a cheerful countenance, and pay your tithes in a spirit of joy. Give to the Most High as he has given to you generously, according to your means. For the LORD is one who always repays, and he will give back to you sevenfold.
A man's goodness God cherishes like a signet ring, a man's virtue, like the apple of his eye.
There is cause for rejoicing here. You may for a time have to suffer the distress of many trials; but this is so that your faith, which is more precious than the passing splendor of fire-tried gold, may by its genuineness lead to praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ appears.At man's death, only those with love for God in accordance to His commands will be gathered into heaven. Upon death, man will have fulfilled all his free will choices of life. Man's choices between good and evil, love and hate, life and death, the blessing and the curses will be fulfilled. If during free will you ended life with a desire in your heart to love God with all your strength, heart, soul and mind, God will gather you back. If you have ended your life struggling with all your strength to heed His voice, He will gather you into His Kingdom. He will collect those who love Him from all the nations and cleanse them in Jesus blood. He will change their lot. The Lord will circumcise all evil out of His loved ones hearts. Freedom to choose evil will no longer exist. The ability not to love and to hate will no longer be a part of existence. Those who love Him will be transformed into pure love for God, through Christ's blood, to live forever. God will finally have His desire. God will finally have the true Israelite family to share the promised land of eternal life. This new race will be His people and He will be their God.
When all these things which I have set before you, the blessing and the curses, are fulfilled in you, and from among whatever nations the LORD, your God, may have dispersed you, you ponder them in your heart: then, provided that you and your children return to the LORD, your God, and heed his voice with all your heart and all your soul, just as I now command you, the LORD, your God, will change your lot; and taking pity on you, he will again gather you from all the nations wherein he has scattered you. Though you may have been driven to the farthest corner of the world, even from there will the LORD, your God, gather you; even from there will he bring you back. The LORD, your God, will then bring you into the land which your fathers once occupied, that you too may occupy it, and he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. The LORD, your God, will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, that you may love the LORD, your God, with all your heart and all your soul, and so may live. But all those curses the LORD, your God, will assign to your enemies and the foes who persecuted you. You, however, must again heed the LORD's voice and carry out all his commandments which I now enjoin on you. Then the LORD, your God, will increase in more than goodly measure the returns from all your labors, the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil; for the LORD, your God, will again take delight in your prosperity, even as he took delight in your father's, if only you heed the voice of the LORD, your God, and keep his commandments and statutes that are written in this book of the law, when you return to the LORD, your God, with all your heart and soul.
In prayer you call upon a Father who judges each one justly on the basis of his actions. Since this is so, conduct yourselves reverently during your sojourn in a strange land.
Beloved, you are strangers and in exile; hence I urge you not to indulge your carnal desires. By their nature they wage war on the soul.Adam was created to love God. Abraham and his descendants were circumcised to love God. We Christians are born of the water to love God. The way that Adam was to love God was faithfulness and obedience to God's law. The way Abraham and his descendants were to love God was through obedience and faithfulness to God's laws of love. The way that Jesus loved the Father was through obedience and faithfulness to the Father's commands on how to love. The way that we Christians are to love God is through obedience and faithfulness to Jesus and the Father's commands on how to love. He who is baptized and is faithful to Christ's precepts and laws, with all their heart, will never die. Christ's laws and precepts and the Father's laws and precepts are one in the same.
Here are Jesus Christ's and the Father's commands to the Christians of the world today. Here are the commands men are to choose to follow. To choose to follow these wills of Christ is to love the Father, Jesus and fellow man. To choose to follow these commands is love and with man's love comes Jesus' salvation. Hear O' Christian Israel! Here is how you are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. Also this is how you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The commandments of God.
The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them:
Be holy, for I, The LORD, your God, am holy. Revere your mother and father, and keep my sabbaths. I, the LORD, am your God.
"Do not turn aside to idols, nor make molten gods for yourselves. I, the LORD, am your God.
"When you sacrifice your peace offering to the LORD, if you wish it to be acceptable, it must be eaten on the very day of your sacrifice or on the following day. Whatever is left over until the third day shall be burned up in the fire. If any of it is eaten on the third day, the sacrifice will be unacceptable as refuse; whoever eats of it then shall pay the penalty for having profaned what is sacred to the LORD. Such a one shall be cut off from his people.
"When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not be so thorough that you reap the field to its very edge, nor shall you glean the stray ears of grain. Likewise, you shall not pick your vineyard bare, not gather up the grapes that have fallen. These things you shall leave for the poor and the alien. I, the LORD, am your God.
"You shall not steal. You shall not lie or speak falsely to one another. You shall not swear falsely by my name thus profaning the name of your God. I am the LORD.
"You shall not defraud or rob your neighbor. You shall not withhold overnight the wages of your day laborer. You shall not curse the deaf, or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but you shall fear your God. I am the LORD.
"You shall not act dishonestly in rendering judgment. Show neither partiality to the weak nor deference to the mighty, but judge your fellow men justly. You shall not go about spreading slander among your kinsmen; nor shall you stand by idly when your neighbor's life is at stake. I am the LORD.
"You shall not bear hatred for your brother in your heart. Though you may have to reprove your fellow man, do not incur sin because of him. Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countrymen. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD."
'I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me. You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishments for their fathers' wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation but bestowing mercy, down to the thousandth generation, on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments. 'You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain. For the LORD will not leave unpunished him who takes his name in vain. 'Take care to keep holy the sabbath day as the LORD, your God, commanded you. Six days you may labor and do all your work; but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD, your God. No work may be done then, whether by you, or your son or daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or ass or any of your beasts, or the alien who lives with you. Your male and female slave should rest as you do. For remember that you too were once slaves in Egypt, and the LORD, your God, brought you from there with his strong hand and outstretched arm. That is why the LORD, your God, has commanded you to observe the sabbath day. 'Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD, your God, has commanded you, that you may have a long life and prosperity in the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you. 'You shall not kill. 'You shall not commit adultery. 'You shall not steal. 'You shall not bear dishonest witness against your neighbor. 'You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. 'You shall not desire your neighbor's house or field, nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass, nor anything that belongs to him.' "These words, and nothing more, the LORD spoke with a loud voice to your entire assembly on the mountain from the midst of the fire and the dense cloud. He wrote them upon two tablets of stone and gave them to me(DEU 5:23)....//....(DEU 6:1)"These then are the commandments, the statutes and decrees which the LORD, your God, has ordered that you be taught to observe in the land into which you are crossing for conquest, so that you and your son and your grandson may fear the LORD, your God, and keep, throughout the days of your lives, all his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you, and thus have long life. Hear then, Israel, and be careful to observe them, that you may grow and prosper the more, in keeping with the promise of the LORD, the God of your fathers, to give you a land flowing with milk and honey. "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest. Bind them at your wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. Of this much I assure you: until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter of the law, not the smallest part of a letter, shall be done away with until it all comes true. That is why whoever breaks the least significant of these commands and teaches others to do so shall be called least in the kingdom of God. Whoever fulfils and teaches these commands shall be great in the kingdom of God. I tell you, unless your holiness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees you shall not enter the kingdom of God."
Against Anger.
"You have heard the commandment imposed on your forefathers, 'You shall not commit murder; every murderer shall be liable to judgment.' What I say to you is: everyone who grows angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; any man who uses abusive language toward his brother shall be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and if he holds him in contempt he risks the fires of Gehenna. If you bring your gift to the altar and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift at the altar, go first to be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Lose no time; settle with your opponent while on your way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent may hand you over to the judge, who will hand you over to the guard, who will throw you into prison. I warn you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny. "You have heard the commandment, 'You shall not commit adultery.' What I say to you is: anyone who looks lustfully at a woman has already committed adultery with her in his thoughts."
"You have heard the commandment imposed on your forefathers, 'Do not take a false oath; rather, make good to the Lord all your pledges.' What I tell you is: do not swear at all. Do not swear by heaven (it is God's throne) nor by earth (it is his footstool), nor by Jerusalem (it is the city of the great King); do not swear by your head (you cannot make a single hair white or black) Say, 'Yes' when you mean 'Yes' and 'No' when you mean 'No.' Anything beyond that is from the evil one."
He said to them, "Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) and marries another commits adultery."
Christians! plant these laws in your hearts and desire to fulfill them with all the strength of your body. Christ says that you must love God with all your heart, mind, strength and soul in order to inherit salvation through Jesus. To fulfill the law with all your strength is how one loves God with all his heart.
If you strive to obey God with all your strength but fail, Christ's blood is there to die for your sin. It is through Jesus' blood that sins are destroyed and the Father is able to retrieve those who have loved Him with all their Heart.
When I was a child working with tractor and plow in the fields for my father, I had much time to think of God. One particular day I was contemplating our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross in his agony and pain. I spoke out to God, "If only I could have lived in the time of Jesus to stand and fight against his persecutors." Perhaps this statement was a bit much for a "soldier" of not more than twelve. Later in life I learned that, in fact, my offer to God was incredibly accurate. God allows us to choose to fight to protect Jesus or turn and persecute him ourselves. My deeds today span the gap of time and are seen by the Man upon the cross at the time of his crucifixion. Any support and aid given today is felt by Jesus two thousand years ago and any persecution given today is felt by Jesus two thousand years ago.
It is through the blood of Jesus Christ that we sinners vividly see the pain our sin and hatred causes God. Though many feel that God can simply forget our hatred for Him this is no more than God can simply forget our love for Him. It is only with the greatest of difficulty that the Father allowed His son to die a horrible death in order to erase man's hatred for Him. Are you willing to stand opposed to man's hatred in sin as much as Jesus and the Father? It is those who hate hatred and love love with all their hearts whom God will harvest into His Kingdom.
God will put in heaven those who with all their strength, heart, mind and soul love Jesus. The Father will look for men who, with all their strength, avoided using God's name in idle conversation. They recognize the use of God's name in vain as the nails driven into Jesus' hands. God will be looking for those who humbly sacrificed their own desires, while making a marriage work. They realize the sin of divorcing one's God-bonded marriage partner for a new man-bonded partner, as the crown of thorns for Christ to wear. God will be looking for those who fought the desire of fornication knowing that it is the spear in Jesus' side. God will be looking for those who protect the unborn. They realize abortion to be one and the same as killing innocent Jesus. God will seek those who, out of love for God, do not steal. They realize that stealing today affects Christ in 0033 AD. Today's sin of stealing is carried by Christ as the whip beaten across his back. It is out of love for God that men not covet. Our coveting today is inflicted on Jesus by the Pharisees who envied and coveted Jesus glory. Christ carried the affliction of our sins of today on his cross of yesterday. Today it is out of love for God that we strive with all our strength not to persecute Jesus on the cross of our sins.
"It was our infirmities he bore, our sufferings he endured."
Who would believe what we have heard? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up like a sapling before him, like a shoot from the parched earth; There was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him, nor appearance that would attract us to him. He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, One of those from whom men hide their faces, spurned, and we held him in no esteem.Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, While we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; But the LORD laid upon him the guilt of us all.
"Yet it was for the sake of sinners that I was handed over to death, that they might return to the truth and sin no more, and inherit the spiritual and immortal glory of justification in heaven."Israelite Isaiah said, "It is for we Israelites' (and Christians') sins that Jesus was pierced and crushed. It is Jesus who heals we Israelites and makes us whole." To say Moses needed to obey the law but a Christian has grace is wrong. Abraham and Moses had the grace of Christ's blood yet they also needed love through obedience to God's wills. To say, "Yes, a Savior was resurrected in the year 0033 A.D." and have no love in obedience within your heart will only bring you to damnation. David believed that a Savior, the right hand of God, was begotten of God also, yet he still needed repentance and love.
Man's purpose in life is to love God. God sacrificed his Son Jesus to retrieve, not humankind in general, but humans bearing the fruit of love for God. Since Abraham, sin and disobedience to the law does not abandon a man to damnation. It is man's lack of choices to love that will abandon his soul to eternal damnation. Freely choosing the commandments of God is how Adam, Abraham, Noah, Moses, David, Jesus, Peter and all men love God. If a man is fruitful with love for God, God will bring the sinning man through the mercy of Christ's blood into eternal life. It is through the law that one loves God and it is through Jesus Christ's suffering that those who love God receive eternal life. Through God's commandments of love, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind.
