I hear a lot of pastors today say, “We must obey God’s commandments.” This statement is true. The followers of Jesus only have two commandments to follow as all the commandments fall under these two commandments. They are, love the Lord your God, with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The second is like the first: to love your neighbor as yourself. So looking at the first commandment, there is nothing we are to hold back from loving God. Our entire being is to love Him. This is what the scriptures teach, but that’s not something that comes across from what pastors teach. I am not against pastors, but I am to beware of what they teach. There’s one thing that keeps me from listening to a lot of these pastors. It’s if you are to love God with all that you are, how does someone born again to love God in sin? If you sin, you are sinning against the very one you say you love. That blows my mind.
Mark 12:28 Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?”29 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
1 Timothy 6:3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, 4 he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, 5 useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.
Once you discover these two commandments, you begin to live from a pure heart, good conscience, and a sincere faith. Jesus told us that those who are pure hearts will see God. A good conscience is something that most struggles with. Even though Paul was persecuting the church and consenting to Stephen’s death, he makes a bold statement. He tells the high priest that he lives with a good conscience until this day. How many Christians do you know can make such a bold statement? The enemy seers your conscience by making you believe you’re a sinner avoiding you from having a good conscience. Paul understood that once you have asked for forgiveness, it’s never to be remembered again. Asking for forgiveness for something and still dwelling on what you did means you haven’t received God’s forgiveness. In God’s eyes, He doesn’t see that anymore. If you begin to talk to Him about it, He doesn’t even remember it, but there is someone who wants you to remember. He is the enemy we are at war against. Also, if you have sincere faith, you will live by that faith.
1 Timothy 1:5 Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from]sincere faith,
Acts 23:1 Then Paul, looking earnestly at the council, said, “Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.”
Being in love means you are at peace. If you don’t have peace with God, then you aren’t in love with Him. Jesus is our peace. Through Jesus, we love God as He first loved us by sending His Son. Be blessed, my friends.
Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Colossians 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
1 John 4:19 We love Him because He first loved us.