A Tall Order–the First Commandment
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I thought this was very well said by John Stott in his book Basic Christianity (IVP, 2006):
For us to keep [the] first commandment [you shall have no other gods before Me] would be, as Jesus said, to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind (Mt. 22:37); to see all things from his point of view and do nothing without reference to him; to make his will our guide and his glory our goal; to put him first in thought, word and deed; in business and leisure; in friendships and career; in the use of our money, time and talents; at work and at home.
That’s a pretty tall order. We can never fully live up to it–all fall short–but we can sure try!
Stott goes on to say . . . “No man has ever kept this commandment except Jesus of Nazareth.”
He is our model, our guide, our Savior, our hero.
Posted on November 14, 2011, in Bible Study, Life in General and tagged Basic Christianity, God, John Stott, Ten Commandments. Bookmark the permalink. 3 Comments.
MIKE DELLOSSO 
A very poignant reminder. It seems everywhere I’ve turned over the last few days, I’ve been reminded that, many times, we don’t take following Christ seriously enough.
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This is has been an on time reminder indeed. In our leadership meeting at church we discussed why the 10 Commandments are so important. I believe that adults forget how truly important the 10 Commandants really are. Yes, we teach them to our children and post them in a prominent place in our house or place of business so that others will know we support the idea of them, but do we truly apply them to our lives. If you look closely at the 1st four you will see that they deal with our relationship to and with God. The rest deal with our relationship between us and others. By following the first one first, it sets us up to be able to more fully follow the others. That’s why Jesus said, in refering to the Commandments,that loving God first with our everything will allow us the ability to do everything He’s asked us to do. It’s not a matter of “can” we but “will” we. I have a saying in my house that my Dad gave me: “God does not ask about our ability or our inability, but our availibity”. I look at it everyday as a reminder that I don’t have to know how, I just have to be willing.
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This hits home with my home town,as we have been asked to remove the Ten Commandments from our courthouse steps.
An appeal has been filed for now.
Our county is having a freedom rally on Nov.27 .
Please pray for God`s will !!
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