{"id":30070,"date":"2015-09-25T00:01:59","date_gmt":"2015-09-25T08:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/?p=30070"},"modified":"2015-09-20T10:11:44","modified_gmt":"2015-09-20T18:11:44","slug":"the-first-four-commandments-loving-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/doctrine\/the-first-four-commandments-loving-god\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Four Commandments: Loving God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"\/tencommandments.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"151\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/cogwriter.htm\">COGwriter <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Some Protestant leaders consider that the Ten Commandments are a burden. Others, at least state that they should be observed. The fact is that the Ten Commandments show love.<\/p>\n<p>And the first four show love towards God (and so do the last six, but in other ways).<\/p>\n<p>Jesus clearly taught that the Ten Commandments showed love:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-family: Georgia,Times New Roman,Times,serif;\">&#8220;Jesus said to him, <\/span><span style=\"color: red; font-family: Georgia,Times New Roman,Times,serif;\">&#8216;You shall <strong>love<\/strong> the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it. You shall <strong>love<\/strong> your neighbor as yourself.&#8217; On these two commandments hang all the Law and Prophets<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Georgia,Times New Roman,Times,serif;\">&#8221; (Matthew 22:37-40); in other words the law of God is involved in showing love to God and your neighbor! <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Georgia,Times New Roman,Times,serif;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">Perhaps that is why Jesus said,<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: red; font-family: Georgia,Times New Roman,Times,serif;\"> &#8220;If you <strong>love<\/strong> Me, keep My commandments<span style=\"color: black;\">&#8221; (John 14:15) and &#8220;<\/span><span style=\"color: red; font-family: Georgia,Times New Roman,Times,serif;\">He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him&#8230;<\/span><span style=\"color: black;\">&#8221; (John 14:21) and &#8220;<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">He who does not love Me does not keep My words <\/span><span style=\"color: red; font-family: Georgia,Times New Roman,Times,serif;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"> (John 14:24) as well as &#8220;<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My <strong>love<\/strong>, just as I have kept My Father&#8217;s commandments and abide in His <strong>love<\/strong><\/span>&#8221; (John 15:10). <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Georgia,Times New Roman,Times,serif;\">For further proof, Jesus said of the future, &#8220;<span style=\"color: red;\">And because lawlessness will abound, the <strong>love<\/strong> of many will grow cold<span style=\"color: black;\">&#8221; (Matthew 24:12). Breaking the law (lawlessness) is linked to lack of love. Jesus magnified the law by explaining its direct link to love or evil! The fact He was to exalt the law was even prophesied! &#8220;He will exalt the law and make it honorable&#8221; (Is 42:21).<\/span><\/span> Since<span style=\"color: red;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"> Jesus was to &#8220;exalt the law and make it honorable&#8221;, should His followers violate it?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Jesus also taught:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-family: Georgia,Times New Roman,Times,serif;\"><strong>Commandment 1<\/strong> &#8220;<span style=\"color: red;\">You shall <strong>love<\/strong> the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment<\/span>&#8221; (Matthew 22:37). &#8220;<span style=\"color: red;\">And you shall <strong>love<\/strong> the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment<\/span>&#8221; (Mark 12:30). <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Georgia,Times New Roman,Times,serif;\"><strong>Commandment 2<\/strong> &#8220;<span style=\"color: red;\">God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth<\/span>&#8221; (John 4:24). &#8220;<span style=\"color: red;\">Nevertheless, I have a few things against you, because you allow&#8230;My servants to&#8230;eat things sacrificed to idols..Now to you I say&#8230;who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden<\/span>&#8221; (Revelation 2:20,24). <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Georgia,Times New Roman,Times,serif;\"><strong>Commandment 3 <\/strong>&#8220;<span style=\"color: red;\">For out of the heart proceed <strong>evil<\/strong> thoughts&#8230;blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man<\/span>&#8221; (Matthew 15:19-20). &#8220;&#8230;<span style=\"color: red;\">blasphemy&#8230;All these <strong>evil<\/strong> things come from within and defile a man<\/span>&#8221; (Mark 7:22-23).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Georgia,Times New Roman,Times,serif;\"><strong>Commandment 4<\/strong> &#8220;<span style=\"color: red;\">Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath<\/span>&#8221; (Matthew 12:11-12). &#8220;<span style=\"color: red;\">The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath&#8230;Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do <strong>evil<\/strong>, to save life or to destroy?<span style=\"color: black;\">&#8220;<\/span> <\/span>(Luke 6:5,9). &#8220;<span style=\"color: red;\">&#8216;Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?&#8217;<\/span>&#8230;And they could not answer Him regarding these things&#8221; (Luke 14:3,6). &#8220;<span style=\"color: red;\">are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath?<\/span>&#8221; (John 7:23).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>For a more indepth discussion of each of these commandments, please see the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/continuingcog\">ContinuingCOG<\/a> YouTube sermon video titled: <a title=\"The Ten Commandments: Loving God\" href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hmvJwNM_Nrw\" data-sessionlink=\"feature=plcp&amp;ei=GfCfUfr2C-CThgGl6IBY\">The Ten Commandments: Loving God.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Some articles to assist in your studies may include:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/love.htm\">The Ten Commandments Reflect Love, Breaking them is Evil<\/a> Some feel that the ten commandments are a burden. Is that what Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, and John taught?<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/johnl.htm\">Was the Commandment to Love the Only Command?<\/a> Some have stated that John&#8217;s writings teach this, but is that what the Bible really says?<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/2tencom.htm\">The Ten Commandments and the Early Church<\/a> Did Jesus and the Early Church keep the ten commandments? What order were they in? Here are quotes from the Bible and early writings.<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/becominggod.htm\">What is Your Destiny?<\/a> or watch the video, also titled <a title=\"What is Your Destiny?\" href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EYpYN_yGAkY\" data-sessionlink=\"feature=plcp&amp;ei=bwmIUcDKOc6FhgGP2IHQDA\">What is Your Destiny?<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/meaningoflife.htm\">What is the Meaning of Life?<\/a> Who does God say is happy? What is your ultimate destiny? Do you really know? Does God actually have a plan for YOU personally? There is also a video titled <a title=\"What is the meaning of your life?\" href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Fm-ylrJJoKg\" data-sessionlink=\"ei=0XRsUe-yLc2LhgG0x4GICw&amp;feature=plcp\">What is the meaning of your life?<\/a><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>COGwriter Some Protestant leaders consider that the Ten Commandments are a burden. Others, at least state that they should be observed. The fact is that the Ten Commandments show love. And the first four show love towards God (and so do the last six, but in other ways). Jesus clearly taught that the Ten Commandments [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctrine"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30070"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32886,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30070\/revisions\/32886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}