God’s commands are His promises. Each
command carries a promise of expectation including respect for God and others. David
found joy…delight…in God’s commandments.
Ten Commandments
- I am the Lord, your God. You shall have no other gods.
- Thou shall bring no false idols before me.
- Do not take the name of the Lord in vain.
- Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
- Honor thy father and thy mother.
- Thou shall not kill (murder/or harm another’s character).
- Thou shall not commit adultery.
- Thou shall not steal.
- Thou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
- Thou shall not covet your
neighbor's wife, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
The Commandments can
simply be summed up in Jesus response to the question, "What is the greatest
commandment?"
Jesus replied, "'You must love the LORD your God with
all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and
greatest commandment. A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as
yourself.' The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on
these two commandments." Matthew
22:37-40
Live up to those two
commandments and God will be honored. Only thing is that Jesus also taught that
as a person is as he thinks in his heart. Someone commits adultery if he just
thinks about it. (See Matthew 5:27-30.) I think the same can apply to any of the
commandments.
For as he thinks within himself, so he is. …. Proverbs 23:7a NASB
I’ve found once again
that I need to carefully guard my tongue…and since my words start in my mind—I need
to be careful about what I think as well as speak. God probably won’t condemn
us to hell just for speaking without thinking…but words can hurt and I need to
be careful what I think and say. I don’t intentionally want to hurt others—but it
happens so easily and words can’t be taken back. An apology is just that…an
apology. The memory of the hurtful words can’t be erased. Forgiveness can be
attained, but the situation won’t be forgotten. I’m trying to speak carefully.
With God all things are possible—so there is hope that I won’t always be such a
fool with a wicked tongue.
The heart of the godly thinks carefully before speaking; the
mouth of the wicked overflows with evil words. Proverbs 15:28
Such wisdom…tells me
to keep my mouth shut. How about you? Are you able to think before speaking? I’d
rather have joy from following God’s directives than regrets at destroying
someone else’s character or my own when I stick my foot in my mouth.
Prayer
~ Lord God, I want to please You. Help me to bring You glory by thinking before
I speak.
Daily
Bible Reading: Amos 6-9
©
2017 Text and photos by Mickey M.
Hunacek. All rights reserved.
All
scripture quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT) unless otherwise noted.
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