Title Indivisible Commandments
Contents
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17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in heart, but reprove thy neighbor, and thou shalt bear no sin against him.
18. Do not take revenge, do not grumble against your fellow men, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.
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19. By this we will know that we are of the truth, and we will strengthen our hearts before the Lord.
20. For if our heart should condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things.
21. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we will have confidence before God,
22. Whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what is pleasing in his sight.
23. And these are his commandments, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he commanded us.
24. He who keeps his commandments abides in the Lord, and the Lord abides in him, and we know that he abides in us by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Content
Subject: The Commandment Indivisible
Text: Leviticus 19:17-18, 1 John 3:19-24
The problem that the early church faced at the end of the first century was intellectual confusion spurred by Gnosticism. These are the problems that have arisen, including the confusion of understanding God. The spirit of the times we live in today relativizes all authority. There are concerns, worries, and disappointments that come along with distrust of God. Belief in the “God who knows all things” is the secret. We need ‘training to think about God’ (Ecclesiastes 12:1; Luke 22:19). “Boldness before God” is such a grace. All human troubles are in the inability to spring out of the self. Because there is no way to be freed from the Tower of Babel they built. As the old poet said, looking to God is the way to live (Psalm 121). He guards the feet of those who look to God, and He protects their entrance and exit from tribulation. The life of faith begins and proceeds like this (Hab 3:17-19).
There is an attitude of life that we have while thinking of God. It is an attitude of life that keeps the two commandments. One is ‘Trust!’. The other is ‘Do it!’. God's help is conditional on keeping these two commandments. It is the keeping of these two commandments that pleases God in our gestures (verse 22). “And these are his commandments, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he commanded us” (verse 23). The main plot of faith is ‘confession of faith’. The big plot of love is the ‘new commandment’. Confession of faith is a confession of faith in God's love for us. The new commandment is a response. Taking the breath as an example, the confession of faith is the breathing in. The practice of the new commandment is the exhaled breath. Faith and works are two sides of the same coin (James 2:26). It is an indivisible commandment.