Is
everyone born knowing good from evil…right from wrong? Even babies and toddlers
seem to know what is right—but selfishly want things their own way.
The Ten Commandments
Love God
Love Others as Yourself
Obedience is what God wants.
Just
what is God’s Law? Basically, it is the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) and then
some people add the 613 Levitical laws. If a person keeps the basic Ten Commandments,
then they’ve pretty much covered all that God expects and Jesus boils it down
to two: Love God and Love Your Neighbor as Yourself. See Mark 12:30-31.
The
Ten Commandments were originally given to the Jews, not the Gentiles, but if
you look at the laws for many countries, they follow those Ten Laws in some
way. Obedience to God’s Laws is expected. Paul tells us in this passage in
Romans that Jesus will judge everyone someday. Everyone sins—Jews and Gentiles—and
we fall short of God’s expectations. Paul tells us that Gentiles will be
destroyed when they sin. Jews, too. It won’t just be their actions, but their
very thoughts, too. Do you recall that Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount
that if a person is angry with someone or thinks adulterous thought, they have
committed the sin of murder or adultery? See Matthew 5.
No
one really has a secret life. God see everything that everyone does, just as
Job’s friend Elihu reminds us in Job 34. Jesus Himself spoke to the Pharisee about
issues of the heart.
Now the Pharisees, who were lovers
of money, were listening to all these things and were sneering and ridiculing
Him. So He said to them, "You are the ones who declare yourselves just and
upright in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts [your thoughts, your
desires, your secrets]; for that which is highly esteemed among men is
detestable in the sight of God.
Luke 16:14-15 AMP
Does it
bother you to know that your thought aren’t secret, that God knows everything
about you? It certainly should hold you accountable. It does me. I’m quick to
repent if I start going down the wrong thought path. How about you? Do you know
the Ten Commandments? Are you instinctively obeying them and communicating with
God, allowing the Holy Spirit to convict you of any disobedient thoughts, words
or actions? We’ll see just how it goes for us all on Judgment Day.
When the Gentiles sin, they will be destroyed,
even though they never had God's written law. And the Jews, who do have God's
law, will be judged by that law when they fail to obey it. For merely listening
to the law doesn't make us right with God. It is obeying the law that makes us
right in his sight. Even Gentiles, who do not have God's written law, show that
they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard
it. They demonstrate that God's law is written in their hearts, for their own
conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.
And this is the message I proclaim—that the day is coming when God, through
Christ Jesus, will judge everyone's secret life. Romans 2:12-16
Prayer
– Lord God, I love You with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength—and even as
I get older and am losing my strength, I love You more. The more I know You,
the more I love You. One day You will judge me, Jesus, and I pray that You will
find me acceptable and that I have honored You and our Heavenly Father, as well
as the Holy Spirit, obediently in all that I think, say, and do. Forgive me for
those times that I’ve messed up, broken the Commandments with my very thoughts,
and for the times I’ve just had a stinking bad attitude. Thank you, Holy
Spirit, for bringing those to my attention.
Meditate.
Consider God’s laws and obediently honoring Him.
Verse
of Salvation ~ One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by
asking him this question: "Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal
life?" Jesus replied, "What does the law of Moses say? How do you
read it?" The man answered, "'You must love the LORD your God with
all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.' And,
'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" "Right!" Jesus told him.
"Do this and you will live!" Luke 10:25-28
Are
you putting God first today?
© 2025 Text, photos, and illustrations by Mickey M. Hunacek. All
rights reserved.
All scripture quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT) unless
otherwise noted.
New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale
House Foundation.
Used
by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.
All rights reserved.
Scripture
quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMP),
Copyright ©2015 by
The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. lockman.org
Biblical
search from Blue Letter Bible - http://v3.blueletterbible.org/search.cfm.
Books by Mickey M.
Hunacek
Available as e-books or paperbacks at Amazon.com
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