Ponder the Path

This week my posts have focused on the first and great commandment to LOVE GOD. Love is often described as a feeling, an idea, but without the active component of love it does not endure. This is true in God’s love for us, our love of God, and our love for others. How would we know of God’s love for us, except that we experience it in the acts of sacrifice and care he bestows upon us. We know his love because of his constant reaching out to us, his endless long-suffering love toward us, and his daily striving with us. Absent evidence of love, is there love at all? This is how we should examine our love for God. When God commands us to love him, is he asking for us to have soft warm feelings of love and gratitude toward him, but without any of the tangible evidence of love in our actions? If we didn’t have the tangible evidence of God’s love for us, would we know he loves us? No! So too, we must act upon our love for God. Love is more a verb than a noun. Without its active component it ...

Now that we’ve established in previous posts a firm understanding of what sin is, why obedience is necessary, and what our obligation to obey the law of the Lord is, let’s learn what the Lord has commanded us to do or not do. I will be organizing the rest of my posts in this study into categories of command. Starting in the order given in scripture. Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment in the law, and Jesus answered: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” — Matthew 22:36-40 So let’s begin at the beginning and examine the commandment to LOVE GOD “with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” To do this we will need to examine the true nature of love and its connection to obedience to the law. Many people view commandment...

Why does God command us to be perfect? And is it possible? The simplest answer to the question is that God has commanded all things that are requisite to his plan to bring about the immortality and eternal life of man. The commandments set both the conditions as well as the road map to our eventual perfection and exaltation; they show us the path to becoming what we are meant to become. What are we meant to be? “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” — Romans 8:16-17 We are children of God and joint heirs with Christ in the courts of heaven if we will meet the conditions and live the laws that govern that kingdom. If this sounds to you like a doctrine of works, don’t be deceived, there are many commandments and among the most important are ones related to faith in Christ and repentance through Chr...

What expectations does God have related to our obedience and what is the purpose for obedience? LOVE GOD…. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.” — Mark 12:30 OBEY GOD….. “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” — John 14:15 ABIDE IN GOD’S LOVE…. “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” — John 15:10 GROW IN KNOWLEDGE, JUDGEMENT, & THE FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS….. “This I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ…” — Philippians 1:9-11 REMAIN FREE TO CHOOSE…. “Abide ye in the liberty wherewith ye are made free; entangle not yourselves in sin, but let your hands...

When Paul says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23) does he mean we are all sinful and will remain so while in this world? This statement by Paul may leave some to wonder whether the daily striving to follow is futile if despite our efforts we remain sinners still. If we all come short regardless of our best efforts then why is effort required? The answer should be an encouraging one. God himself, perfect and all powerful, has made declarations that certain faithful followers were “just and perfect.” Of Noah God said, “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” (Genesis 6:9) With that description of Noah’s walk with God, did Noah come short of the glory of God? Assuredly yes! No human being in this fallen state is equal to the glory of God, yet a man who is a devoted disciple, walking with God in a covenant relationship, relying fully upon the merits of Christ, can be just and perfect in his generation (in their t...

Can we simply say we believe in Christ, go on sinning, and expect that we are saved? Consider that question when you read these passages: “For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them.” — Ephesians 5:5-7 “Shall he save his people in their sins? …he shall not, for it is impossible for him to deny his word… and he hath said that no unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of heaven.” — Alma 11:34-37 “Therefore God gave unto them commandments, after having made known unto them the plan of redemption, that they should not do evil, the penalty thereof being a second death, which was an everlasting death as to things pertaining unto righteousness; for on such the plan of redemption could have no power, for the works of jus...

Weakness is a condition of the fall. In our fallen state our natures are subject to the weakness of this state. We are all weak because of the flesh, but unlike animals who are beholden to the dictates of the flesh, human beings are created higher than the beasts and endowed by their Father in Heaven with divine capacities to use their free will to choose holier ways. If we respond to our fallen weakness in pride and choose not to yield to God and his laws, then our weakness will become sinfulness. Weakness makes us susceptible to temptation, but only when we yield to temptation and give the natural man power over our spirits (our divine nature) do we sin. Thus weakness is not the same as sin. Notice in the following passage that the natural man is an enemy to God, but also notice that it is not the human soul (not our spiritual element) that is fallen. “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the en...