The Lord’s Command: TO LOVE

“And this is love: that we walk in obedience to His commands. As you have heard from the beginning, His command is that you walk in love.”

-2 John 1:6, NIV

All of the Lord’s commandments, both from the Old and New Testaments stresses out one point, and that is to love. I’ll use the Ten Commandments as an example. If we really understand the meaning of these Commandments given by God, then we know that it teaches us how to love God and other people.

WHAT THE COMMANDMENTS TEACHES ABOUT LOVING GOD:

The first four commandments:

-> The First Commandment tells us to love the ONLY ONE AND LIVING GOD. Just like a man who is loyal to his wife, same thing must be applied in our relationship with God.

(Exodus 20:2-3)

-> The Second Commandment tells us to love the nature of God of being unseen. This is the reason why God does not want to make images of Him.

(Exodus 20:4-6)

-> The Third Commandment tells us to respect the name of God. Well, how can we say that we love God if we blaspheme His name?

(Exodus 20:7)

-> The Fourth Commandment tells us to keep the Sabbath day holy. This is a special day made by God for us to get closer to Him. This day is our weekly date with God.

(Exodus 20:8-12)

WHAT THE COMMANDMENTS TEACHES ABOUT LOVING OTHER PEOPLE:

The last six commandments:

-> The Fifth Commandment tells us to respect our parents. Showing our respect to them, I believe, is the only way we could do in exchange of all the things that they did to us.

(Exodus 20:12)

-> The Sixth Commandment tells us to respect the lives of other people. Hurting other people is not an action done out of love.

(Exodus 20:13)

-> The Seventh Commandment tells us to give respect to the people from the opposite sex. God wants us to be sexually moral, both in our thoughts and in our actions.

(Exodus 20:14)

-> The Eighth Commandment tells us to respect other people’s belongings.

(Exodus 20:15)

-> The Ninth Commandment tells us to respect other people’s personal life. God wants us to live in the truth. He does not want us to destroy other people with slanders.

(Exodus 20:16)

-> The Tenth Commandment tells us to be contented with the things that we have. Being contented with what we have in our lives shows that we love and respect ourselves.

(Exodus 20:17)

With this, I could say that the Lord’s Commandments are not just law like many are thinking, but also are instructions to us on how to love.