Many pastors and church goers talk about the Ten Commandments and say …
“We don’t have to keep God’s Ten Commandments anymore because Jesus has given us a new commandment.”
The verse they use in the Bible is the statement that Jesus made on the night before He was crucified, when He told His disciples in …
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another;”
So we see straight away what this new commandment is all about – it’s about love. On the night before He was crucified, Jesus was imploring His disciples to be more loving. Let’s read the verse again and include the second part of the verse. …
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
Jesus is saying, “You have seen how much I have loved you, now, love one another in this same way”.
Why do you think Jesus said, “I’m giving you a new commandment to love one another.”?
I believe that His followers knew the old Ten Commandments very well but didn’t know too much about putting the love aspect of them into action. If we look at ourselves, we might see some similarities!
James and John were arguing over who would get the top place in the coming kingdom;
Judas betrayed Jesus for the love of money;
Other disciples tried to turn the little children away from Jesus;
Peter got wild and cut off a man’s ear;
Doubting Thomas wouldn’t even believe his best friends when they told him they’d seen Jesus.
There wasn’t too much love in those men. These rough fishermen, tax collector and so on, didn’t love others as Jesus asked them to.
Jesus implored them, “Love one another as I love you.”
What about us?
Do we really love others as Jesus asks us to?
Do we love others to the extent that we’d die for them, like Jesus did for us, if need be? – not just loving the people who are nice to us, but those who aren’t so nice too?
Well, we can love people like that, not in our own strength, but with God’s help.
How can we put this ‘loving each other’ into practice in our own homes and communities and churches?
For how long did Jesus show tolerance towards Judas? For a long time, didn’t He?
If someone stands on our toes – Jesus says ‘love them too’.
Let’s give one another every last chance. Keep on loving people even if they turn against us.
Here’s a tough example. ….
If I do or say something nasty to you and you get upset, whose fault is it that you get upset? Yours!
You choose to get upset. It’s actually your fault. It’s your fault, and according to Jesus, you should still keep loving me!
Jesus says in …
“I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.”
Jesus asks us to ‘follow in His steps’, to follow His example, and do as He has done for us. And we can, because of the wonderful help God gives us and because of the great example of love and tolerance and patience that Jesus has given us.
So it shouldn’t matter what I do to you, or you do to me, with His help we should keep on loving each other.
We have a wonderful promise written by the apostle Paul in …
“… nothing will separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Only the blackness of sin separates us from God, and although God hates our sin, He still loves the sinner. You and I should follow the example of our Lord and hate the sin but love all sinners, even our enemies, and unlovable neighbours. When we do that, we will be happy like we’ve never been before.
Later, you might like to go to the message ‘The Joy of Forgiveness’ in the ‘Life Lessons’ section of the website.
Jesus showed us God’s character of love in the way He walked on this earth. We too, as disciples of Jesus, can also show the same character of love in the way we walk on this earth. You know, even children can teach us simple ways of showing love to others.
In class, a school teacher was asking the children how to spell cat, dog, cow and so on. Little Mary was asked to spell ‘love’. Instead of spelling it, she ran down to the front and threw her arms around the teacher’s neck and kissed her on the cheek. Then she said, “We spell love that way at our house!” The teacher said, “That is the most beautiful way.”
Friends, let’s share more love around – at home, at church, on the street. Let the love of Jesus flow out of us to others. We’re going to dig a little deeper now. We know that Jesus said in ...
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
Let’s digress for just a quick moment and go to the very comprehensive Strong’s Concordance of the Bible and see what it says about this new commandment in John 13:34. Strong’s Concordance of the Bible.
John 13:34 re: new commandment
The Greek Dictionary section of the Concordance states that the word ‘new’ as used here means ‘new as in freshness and not in age’.
So the New Commandment that Jesus gave was not ‘New’ in point of time but it was new in freshness. It was really a very ‘Old Commandment’ from way back in the old testament.
Look at this verse in the Old Testament that God asked Moses to write about in 1490 BC. That’s about 1,500 years before Jesus said it in John 13:34.
“You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
In the new commandment that Jesus quoted, He merely added some words that Moses could not have written back then, because Jesus had not yet come to earth in Moses’ day. Jesus added the words, “even-as-I-have-loved you”.
These words were referring to the perfect example of love that Jesus had set before them. This made for an even stronger statement than the old testament verse, ‘love your neighbour as yourself’.
Jesus’ example raised the bar of what a loving character means, higher than the bar had ever been before. He loved us to the point that He gave His own life for us. And He explained just two chapters later in …
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
So we’ve found that the new commandment Jesus gave to His disciples in ….
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
…. has basically the same meaning as the old commandment spoken by Moses in …
“…. you shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
As we go through this Bible study, we are going to find the same thoughts repeated by different Bible writers in both the Old and the New Testaments. I’d like to look at this with you for a couple of minutes.
We’re going to start where Jesus relates loving Him to keeping His, Jesus’s, commandments. …
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
We are used to hearing about God’s commandments, but here Jesus says, ‘keep My commandments’.
Are they two different sets of commandments?
Now it’s interesting that earlier in this same chapter 14, we are shown the sameness of the Father and His Son, Jesus. Let’s read from the simple Good News Bible …
“Those who do not love Me do not obey My teaching. And the teaching you have heard is not Mine, but comes from the Father who sent Me.”
Now a few verses further on is verse 31 …
“But the world must know that I love the Father; that is why I do everything as He commands Me.”
And in ….
“Jesus answered, ‘What I teach is not My own teaching, but it comes from God, who sent Me.’ ”
Therefore friends, we can clearly see from these Bible texts, that the teachings of Jesus agree with those of the Father from whom they originate. Even in this earthly sphere, if I love my dad and spend a huge amount of time with him, we get to think alike, talk alike, act alike, believe alike. So, if you ask me something, I will give the same answer as my father would. We are one and the same in that sense. With these thoughts in mind, you’ve probably heard some pastors and church goers say ….
“We don’t have to keep God’s Ten Commandments anymore because Jesus has given us a new commandment!”
Well friends, we’ve just seen earlier that… Jesus’s ‘new commandment’ to His disciples comes from the same commandment from God that Moses taught the children of Israel, 1490 years before Christ: ‘love your neighbour as yourself’. And yet John 13:34 is the verse people still use today to try and say that Jesus came and gave us a new commandment to do away with the old commandments – the Ten Commandments.
Well friends, is that what Jesus had in mind? To do away with His Father’s Ten Commandments?
The Old Testament and the New testament go hand in glove. They are both inspired by God and totally trustworthy. …
“God is not a man, that He should lie.”
As we study Bible teachings, we see time and time again that the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament echo parallel teachings in the Old Testament, or are even direct quotes from the Old Testament. All the Bible books were written under inspiration from God as we read in …
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, …”
So we can have confidence that there is a cohesion and sameness of teaching throughout both the Old and the New Testaments of Scripture. Now let’s look at John’s second letter to some Christians who were standing strong, and with God’s help, were remaining faithful to God’s commandments.
In 2 John, verses 4-6, John says to these Christians, …
“I have rejoiced greatly that I found some of your children walking in the truth, as we received commandment from the Father.”
So John was really saying to the Christians back there, just as he would probably say to us today, “I haven’t found all of you walking in the truth, but I have found some of you walking in the truth.”
Friends, I trust and pray that the ‘some’, includes you-and-me.
Now look at the very next verse, verse 5 …
“And now I plead with you …, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another.”
Well friends, what’s going on here? Was it a new commandment, or was it an old commandment?
We are systematically finding that this new commandment was actually very very old. Look at the very next verse in John’s letter to the Christians. And friends, if we are Christians, this verse applies to us too. Verse 6 ….
"This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.”
So what is this commandment that John is talking about, that … we have had from the beginning: that we love one another.’
The new testament writers equate ‘loving one another’ with ‘loving your neighbour’.
The New Testament writer James helps clarify where the ‘new commandment’ is found way back in history at ‘the beginning’. Let’s read …
Friends, what ‘royal law’ and ‘law of liberty’ is James speaking about here? It’s the law that tells us not to commit adultery and not to murder, which of course is God’s-Ten-Commandments law. Now the apostle Paul confirms what James says. We hear from Paul in ….
… love is the fulfilling of the law.”
Now here is Jesus’s own summing up of the Ten Commandments Law. We read it in …
Friends, let’s look at the great Ten Commandments Law in the Old Testament and see how Jesus’s two New Testament commandments compare. What does Jesus mean when He says that all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments?
Here are God’s Ten Commandments, written on two tables, or tablets, of stone. This is an abbreviated version in English, but the main points are listed here. You can read the full text in Exodus 20:3-17.
Jesus said the first and greatest commandment is to ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind’. As we look at commandments 1,2,3 and 4 on the left side table, we notice that they are all about our love relationship with God.
Jesus also said, the second great commandment is to ‘Love your neighbour as yourself ’. And as we look at commandments 5,6,7,8,9 and 10 on the right side table, we notice they are all about our relationship with our neighbours and loving them enough to not do wrong things against them.
So we see that Jesus’s ‘new’ commandments to ‘love God’ and to ‘love your neighbour’ are actually fleshed out, or amplified in the original Ten Commandments. Jesus summed them up perfectly. But He also explained various aspects of the Ten Commandments very clearly in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5 and various other places so we can follow God’s original instructions to help us live a safe, blessed and fulfilling life. To help us understand the ongoing relevance of the Ten Commandments, Jesus said in …
"Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to destroy but to fulfill.”
The word ‘fulfill’ means ‘to carry out’. Jesus gave us a perfect example of how to carry out loving God and our neighbour. We fulfill Jesus’s ‘new commandment’ when we love each other to the same extent that He did – by even being willing to lay down our lives for the sake of others if necessary. That is the kind of love Jesus wants all of His true disciples to practice from our hearts. And I believe that is the point He was making in His ‘new commandment’.
Here’s our key verse once again …
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
Now what’s the very next thing that Jesus said? …
Friends, if we want to enjoy the wonders of heaven and live forever with Jesus and our Father, then showing love to our neighbours right here and now is a must. When Jesus is deciding who will have eternal life, He says to us in …
Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to Me.’ Then Jesus continued in verse 41…
Friends, it is not our ‘head knowledge’ that will save us, but our ‘heart action’ !
Do you remember the little story we read earlier about the school teacher in class asking the children how to spell cat, dog, cow and so on? Remember how the teacher asked little Mary to spell ‘LOVE’? Instead of spelling it, she ran down to the front and threw her arms around the teacher’s neck and kissed her on the cheek. Then she said, “We spell love that way at our house!” The teacher said, “That is the most beautiful way.”
Friends, can I tell you another story?
A lady went to work in a nursing home. She was assigned to an elderly patient who had not spoken a single word for three years. The other workers disliked this patient so much that she was always passed off onto the newest member of the staff. But this new staff person was a Christian, or at least she’d always hoped she was, and she decided that her Christian love was only as good as her love for this particular patient.
The old woman used to sit with her eyes shut in a rocking chair all day long. So the staff lady who was caring for her pulled up another rocking chair and just rocked along beside her and loved her and loved her and loved her.
On the third day, the old woman opened her eyes and said, “You’re so kind.” Those were the first words she had spoken in three years. In two weeks she was out of the home!
Jesus said, …
“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Do our neighbours and friends know, by our love, that we are disciples of Jesus? Friends, if not, let’s start showing them the love of Jesus today, and continue on-until-Jesus-comes!
Friends, if you would like to explore in more detail the practical application of God’s wonderful Ten Commandments, His ‘Law of Love’, then I invite you to go to ‘God’s Special Message’ in the SABBATH section and also in LIFE LESSONS.
Thank you so very much for allowing me to share this message with you today.
Thank You Father for Your wonderful Law of Love that we’ve found in the Ten Commandments. Please bless each person who has heard this message and please help us to put it into practice, to be a blessing to You, ourselves, our family and those in the community. We ask for Your help to do this, in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.
Friends, if you’ve been blessed and challenged by this message then please take time now to send it on to your friends.
Thank you.
Thank You,
Ray Archer
The words of this little book guarantee a reduction in stress and depression, and an increase in happiness and good attitude in life, whether you are an atheist, agnostic, Christian, or someone searching for meaning in life.
Best wishes for ‘A Better Life’ – guaranteed!