My interest in the commands began when a group of students wanted to understand the meaning of discipleship and how to do it with other believers. These men were disciples looking for an accountability basis that would keep them in the Scriptures and maturing in their commitment to Christ.
One day I was meditating on the Great Commission in Matt 28:19-20. I thought to my self, “We are fair at Going, and continually learning about what it means to make disciples. Over the past few decades the church has begun to catch on to meaning of “among all nations” as referring to ethnic people groups. We are pretty good about baptizing new converts through church ministries. Then Jesus said the content of the church gathering is to “teach them to obey all things that I have commanded you,” and I thought, ‘What are these commands?'”
I could only think of a few commands. I had never heard a sermon series on the commands of Jesus and the Holy Spirit to the church. I’ve never heard of a course taught in seminaries on the commands. I searched through book lists and could not find a single book on the commands that the Holy Spirit gave in the NT. I was shocked that the last message of Jesus would be ignored almost completely.
When people are encouraged to read the Bible, most have the goal of reading 2-3 chapters a day to read through the entire Bible in one year. A worthy goal. However, most read over imperative verbs and do not recognize them as commands to obey. We feel good about ourselves for doing a spiritual duty of reading the Bible, but we miss the primary purpose of the reading: learning what to obey in our lives that Jesus told the church to practice.
Meditation is the process of understanding what God said to His people when He inspired the biblical text, comparing it within the context to get the proper meaning, then contemplate the personal application of the original command for one’s daily life situation. At that point a decision is made in the heart as to how to think, what is important, how to respond to others, and what should my attitude always be that would best reflect my Savior’s words to the church. These decisions freely made from the heart desiring to walk with Christ inwardly are the steps toward spiritual maturity.
Christians tend to spend all their time arguing over theology, often violating numerous commands in Scripture in doing so, only to create division and ill-will towards others. Yet there has seldom been a serious effort to “obey all things that [Jesus has] commanded you.”
In my study I found about 365 commands, sufficient for a daily devotional. On this web site an English version (“Truths to Live By“) and a Spanish version (“Obedezca“) are provided. One new command appears every morning at 6:00 AM throughout the year. They are written with the prayer that the reader will be challenged to live out the power of being a new creature in Christ through His commands. The entire collection of a daily Bible study of the commands is available in the English book section of this web site. May we learn to love the commands as David did in Psalms 119:47NET, “I find delight in your commands, which I love.”