review:
god has desires for his people, and he has expressed these (imperative statements in revelation).
those who seek to please god should work to do what he has said he wants his people to do, knowing that
his grace covers their failure and guilt.
the obvious question then becomes one of understanding god's desires/commands.
broad categories:
we could do this several ways, so don't take this as *the* biblical way of thinking about it.
however. for our purposes...
god's rules can be broken into two halves: prohibitions and positive commands.
prohibitions are negative commands - don't do this, don't do that, don't even think this other thing.
positive commands are things to exert towards - do this, do that, think about this other thing.
note: this is an incomplete picture
i'm not trying to say we earn our goodness, that we claw our way out of sin, or anything like that.
just looking at the fact that the bible gives us a bunch of commands, and we should obey them as it says to.
sanctification, the work of the spirit, all that...this isn't a discussion of how change happens.
the precurser: knowledge
kinda obvious, but before we can do anything, we need to know what god's rules are for us.
so...we'll throw a note in here that there are some positive commands to that effect.
deut 11:18-21
18 “You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them
as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.
19 “You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along
the road and when you lie down and when you rise up.
20 “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
21 so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the LORD swore to your
fathers to give them, as long as the heavens remain above the earth.
in the new testament, you'll see that teaching is central to the church - both in person and through the epistles.
on the positive side, acts 2:41,42
41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.
42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the
breaking of bread and to prayer.
on the negative side, 1 cor 4:14-21
14. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.
15. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers,
for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.
16. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.
17. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord,
and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.
18. Now some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.
19. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those
who are arrogant but their power.
20. For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power.
21. What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?
finally, the biggest expression of the desire to seek god by following his revelation anywhere, ps 119 (excerpts).
psalm 119:1-16 (aleph and bet)
1. How blessed are those whose way is blameless,
Who walk in the law of the LORD.
2. How blessed are those who observe His testimonies,
Who seek Him with all their heart.
3. They also do no unrighteousness;
They walk in His ways.
4. You have ordained Your precepts,
That we should keep them diligently.
5. Oh that my ways may be established
To keep Your statutes!
6. Then I shall not be ashamed
When I look upon all Your commandments.
7. I shall give thanks to You with uprightness of heart,
When I learn Your righteous judgments.
8. I shall keep Your statutes;
Do not forsake me utterly!
9. How can a young man keep his way pure?
By keeping it according to Your word.
10. With all my heart I have sought You;
Do not let me wander from Your commandments.
11. Your word I have treasured in my heart,
That I may not sin against You.
12. Blessed are You, O LORD;
Teach me Your statutes.
13. With my lips I have told of
All the ordinances of Your mouth.
14. I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies,
As much as in all riches.
15. I will meditate on Your precepts
And regard Your ways.
16. I shall delight in Your statutes;
I shall not forget Your word.
ps 119:97-112
97. O how I love Your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
98. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies,
For they are ever mine.
99. I have more insight than all my teachers,
For Your testimonies are my meditation.
100. I understand more than the aged,
Because I have observed Your precepts.
101. I have restrained my feet from every evil way,
That I may keep Your word.
102. I have not turned aside from Your ordinances,
For You Yourself have taught me.
103. How sweet are Your words to my taste!
Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104. From Your precepts I get understanding;
Therefore I hate every false way.
105. Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.
106. I have sworn and I will confirm it,
That I will keep Your righteous ordinances.
107. I am exceedingly afflicted;
Revive me, O LORD, according to Your word.
108. O accept the freewill offerings of my mouth, O LORD,
And teach me Your ordinances.
109. My life is continually in my hand,
Yet I do not forget Your law.
110. The wicked have laid a snare for me,
Yet I have not gone astray from Your precepts.
111. I have inherited Your testimonies forever,
For they are the joy of my heart.
112. I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes
Forever, even to the end.
a survey of prohibitions:
exodus 20:13-17
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male
servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
1 cor 6:18-20
18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God,
and that you are not your own?
20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
eph 4:17-19
17. So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk,
in the futility of their mind,
18. being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is
in them, because of the hardness of their heart;
19. and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of
every kind of impurity with greediness.
a survey of positive commands:
continuing our earlier eph reading, eph 4:20-32 (yeah, it has positive and negative. i knows.)
20. But you did not learn Christ in this way,
21. if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus,
22. that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted
in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
23. and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24. and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
25. Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another.
26. BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
27. and do not give the devil an opportunity.
28. He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good,
so that he will have something to share with one who has need.
29. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according
to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.
30. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
32. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
phil 2:3-7
3. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;
4. do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
5. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
6. who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7. but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
ex 20:3-12
3. "You shall have no other gods before Me.
4. "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth
beneath or in the water under the earth.
5. "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the
fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
6. but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
7. "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished
who takes His name in vain.
8. "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9. "Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
10. but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your
daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.
11. "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on
the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
12. "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
attitudes
if we could look at things as negatives and positives, we could also look at things that are action and thins taht are attitude.
most of the attitudes are expressed positively, perhaps as removing a bad attitude requires replacing it with a good one?
galations summarizes this really nicely to me.
16. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
17. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in
opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.
18. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.
19. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20. idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions,
21. envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned
you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23. gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
24. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
the work of the spirit
this is less a focus for us, as it is a promise not a command (we are focusing on our requirements, not what god has done and is doing).
but it feels incomplete to not have the encouragement that god is working within us, to both guide us into truth and to remove our sin
which prevents our obedience.
knowledge:
1. review the passages
2. got a few favorite command verses? if not, get some; not all new testament either.
3. take a stab at giving an overview of positive/negative commands. drop it in an email to me.
we're gonna do this in 7 sentences.
1. loving god is the primary command of scripture.
2. to love god is to desire him and his will.
3. loving god requires that we know and believe the things he has revealed (e.g. scripture), changing
in response to their truthity truth.
4. there are things that god doesn't want us to do, and we shouldn't do them; some things are never allowed (other gods), and some
things are not allowed in certain contexts (sex and killing).
5. there are things that we should do - be like god (see the fruit of the spirit), share in his care for humans and the church, etc.
6. god's grace covers our inevitable failures (but that doesn't mean we shouldn't care).
7. maranatha.
analysis:
1. any ways you can bifurcate the commands other than action/attitude, positive/negative?
absolute/with punishment, man and god/man and man, social/religious,
2. for the christian, what is the role of the old testament in prohibitions/commands?
a few different options... fully continues, partially continues (based on some bifurcation), set aside but a
guide/base to the new, fully set aside
3. jesus speaks of 'fruit' showing believers (matt 7:15-23; john 15:1-11). figure out what this means and how
grace fits into the picture.
faith has fruit. grace fills in the rest.
only god knows the heart, but...evidence of the heart is always present.
reflection:
1. what are the positive commands that are hardest? what are the prohibitions that are hardest?
considering others... remember the existence/presence of god.
self denial
2. which would be harder to acknowledge publically - your failures regarding the positive commands or the prohibitions? why?
prohibitions for me...not sure why, but i'm more ashamed of my evil than my lack of good (though they're essentially the same)
3. in the areas in which you struggle, how much of the time are you aware of (or reminding yourself of) the relevant commands?