There is only one commandment we are asked to keep.
I'm not kidding!
Jesus boiled all of the commandments down to one! And if you follow his story He only kept one.
He made it up and it was the only rule He lived by...remember how often He was in trouble for breaking other rules.
And it isn't the one that first comes to mind!
You interested... which one it is?
Hint...He said "a new command I give you"
(and it wasn't an add on to another list....It stands alone as the replacement for all of the other thou shalt lists, past, present and future... including thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all of thy heart, soul, mind and strength!)
....not that there is anything particularly wrong with all of the other lists....it's just that by discovering and obeying this one over riding commandment, all of the other lists become obsolete,
... because the end goal of all of the other lists are miraculously and organically fleshed out as we learn to live in the amazing revelation of this one thing....this New commandment!!!
Here it is.....
"LIVE LOVED" short for "Love one another as I have loved you."
This was Jesus secret to success. Because He lived securely in His Father's affection, He was able to TRUST His Father in EVERY circumstance. His one and only focus was to do always the thing that pleased Him. Because He lived loved He was the express image of His Father
Look it up!... John 12-17
The following in the Message is some of what He said to his disciples on that last evening before the cross...
"If any of you wants to serve me, then FOLLOW me. (stick really, really close to me or in other words live loved.) Then you will be where I am, ready to serve at a moment's notice."
"As you have the light, BE-LIEVE in the light. Then the light will be WITHIN you shining through your lives. You'll BE children of light."
...having LOVED his dear companions, he continued to LOVE them right to the end. (Actually one of the disciples, the one who referred to himself as "THE one Jesus loved dearly" well, he was reclining against him, his head on his shoulder during this conversation. He was definitely feeling the love.
"...so if I the Master and Teacher, washed your feet, you must now wash each other's feet...what I've done YOU DO." NOTE- We get to do it with Him as we live loved.
Then He said:
"Let me give you a new command: LOVE one another. In the same way I lOVED YOU, YOU LOVE one another." NOTE- The only way you will become loving is to abide in it yourself.
(to Peter and the others) "I am with you only a short time longer...where I go you are not able to come... You can't now follow me where I am going... You will follow later...the truth is today, before the cock crows you will deny me three times...(this is over your head, beyond your capacity) Don't let this throw you...TRUST IN ME ...I'll come back and get you so you CAN live where I live, do what I do, live in me...(the secret) I am the way, the truth and the life."
You see sin was the problem ...and He was about to fix the problem....the power of sin was about to be destroyed.... so we could be restored to our rightful created value as sons of the Father...we could live where we were born to live, with and in Him, where He is, in His position of advantage...loved.
Then Jesus reveals where He lived.. loved!
"Don't you believe that I am IN the Father and the Father is IN me?... the Father who resides in me crafts each word into a devine act."
"Believe me: I am IN my Father and my Father is IN me. If you can't believe that, believe what you see- these works. The person who TRUSTS me will not only do what I am doing but even greater things, because I am on my way to the Father, I am giving you the same work to do that I have been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I'll do it..."
"You will always have some one with you. This friend is the Spirit of truth...He has been staying with you and will even be in you.....you are going to see me because I am alive and you are about to come alive. At that moment you will KNOW absolutely that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you."
And here it is in plain english...the new home where we are to live...His love.
"Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you....you can't bear fruit unless you are joined in me"...living loved.
"When you are joined with me and I with you, the relationship intimate and organic the harvest is sure to be abundant."
"If you make yourself at home with me and my words are at home in you you can be sure that whatever you ask will listened to and acted upon."
"I've LOVED you the way my Father has LOVED me. MAKE YOURSELVES AT HOME IN MY LOVE. If you keep my commands" (abide in me, lean on me), "you'll remain intimately at home in my love. That's what I've done- kept my Father's commands and made myself at home in His love."
"This is my Command: LOVE ONE ANOTHER THE WAY I LOVED YOU. This is the very best way to love."
"You are my friends...I no longer call you servants...I chose you and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won't spoil...LOVE ONE ANOTHER."
"You are about to make a run for it- saving your own skins and abandoning me. But I am not abandoned. The Father is with me. I've told you all this so that TRUSTING in me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace." (Again, we learn to live loved and to trust how? Usually like the disciples... by not trusting.)
"In this Godless world you will continue to experience difficult circumstances. But be of good cheer! I've conquered the world."
See...told you!
Again...What was Jesus secret to success?
Because He lived securely in His Father's affection, He was able to TRUST His Father in EVERY circumstance. His one and only focus was to do always the thing that pleased His Father.
He lived loved and was the express image of His Father...
As He is so are we in this world.
Abide in father's affection...lean, trust, believe...
ONE THING ONLY! Live loved my friends!
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