Over the last six weeks, here at the Daily Manna, I have been posting a thorough study of the commandments of God in an attempt to better understand our obligations to God in obedience to those commandments and therefore understand sin so that we might repent from sin and gain all the blessings God has promised to the faithful.
We have completed the first 5 commandments of the Ten Commandments. The study of these first five have been enlightening as it has become clear that contained within these commandments, and their related and attending principles, are all the central tenets of faith in God and acting upon that faith in order to follow His gospel plan.
In the first two commandments we learned the principles of faith in God, love for Him, and trust in him for our progression both temporally and spiritually. In the second commandment we progressed from belief and love for God, to witnessing our belief and love in the actions of faith that bring us nearer to God. First, through baptism and entering into the way, and second, by continuing in His way in faithfulness throughout our lives; having our natures changed in witness of our having been born again. In the third we learned the binding power of God’s covenants and holding fast to those covenants as we observe and remember them in the weekly sabbath worship the Lord calls a sign of His covenant. And finally, in the fifth commandment which reveals the order of heaven to us in the ordained family at the center of Gods plan; a foundational institution that brings to us our greatest potential of development and flourishing in this life and the next. When such a family is founded upon the prerequisite commandments it brings promises of ordered liberty, peace, and prosperity in the land.
What we will discover as we move forward to the last half of the Ten Commandments, is that without a sincere adherence and reverence for these first five commandments and the principles attendant to them, there will be rampant sin and wickedness in actions related to the final five “thou shalt nots.” Without wholehearted worship and adherence to the first five commandments, the sacred order of the family, the church, and the society is cut off from the solid foundation and individuals, families, communities, and nations rapidly sink into wide spread iniquity as the ever shifting sands of sin and error darken the light of Christ within us.
As we move forward and examine the “thou shalt nots” of the final five commandments, ponder how these sins have gripped our world in times when the greater part of society did not honor God and his order and plan, and examine the ways commission of these sins cut us off from God and the power of his covenants, endangers our personal spiritual progression, the integrity of our families, and the peace of our societies.
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