Commandments

Each day we drive to church we pass a memorial set up in remembrance of three young people who lost their lives early on a Saturday morning. Each time we drive by, I think of:

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. (Exodus 20:12 KJV)

This one commandment is the only one with a promise – that thy days may be long.

If those young people had kept just this one commandment, they would not have died as their speeding truck struck trees. Had they honored just the wishes of their parents, none of them would have been in that truck, at that time. Each of them had broken promises to their parents as to where they would be and what they would be doing.

As adults, even as adult Christians, do not be complacent about breaking commandments. They exist for our protection as much as for God’s glory. We benefit from keeping them, yet how many accomplish the first:

I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:2-3 KJV)

Christ affirmed this along with bringing the commandments into perspective:

Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:36-40 KJV)

Of course, love is necessary. God gave it first: We love him, because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19 KJV) Recognizing, accepting and enjoying that love gives life.

Please follow Christ’s advice. Take some time to Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. (John 5:39-40 KJV)