The Love Relationship

UV 1004/10,000 The Love Relationship And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments Exodus 20 v 6 God gave us only ten commandments but ten thousand promises as a sign of His everlasting love and mercy towards all who believe, trust, obey and love Him and His Word. The commandments give us direction in life while the promises give us the power to follow God. If we love Him, we will also love, cherish and obey His Word. He calls thousands of people out of the millions in every generation in every nation to enter into this love relationship with Him. He brings us out of the house of bondage into the house of freedom and blessedness. He gives us grace not because we are better than the others but owing to His mercy. His mercy has two qualities: one, it is everlasting. Two, it is abundant. Jesus summed up the essence of the ten commandments in just two : to love God with all one’s heart, mind, strength and to love man as one loves himself or herself. The first commandment of Jesus implies that we should love God more than we love ourselves or others. There are parts of us that we ourselves do not like or even hate. Hence, to God with all one’s heart, mind and strength implies to love Him more than we love ourselves. God loves us in this manner as demonstrated in the agape or selfless love of Christ on the cross. He did not withhold Himself from being given entirely for our sakes that we may be entirely forgiven, cleansed and blessed. We are asked to love others only just as much as we love ourselves. There is a basic assumption of self-love implicit in this second command of Jesus. Under the new covenant relationship, the Word or the commandments of God are written on the hearts of believers with the indelible ink of the Spirit. We need to need to have a constant remembrance of the Word. As teachers in primary schools used to say, “ We need to learn it by heart.” Learning by heart is not just memorisation but a constant meditation, a constant burning up and refilling of the Word as the fuel that lights up our hearts with love, joy, peace, praise and thanksgiving. Of the ten commandments, only are three are related to God, one is related to honouring parents, one is related to work and rest and five are related to our relationships with other people. When we love others as much as we love ourselves, we will do unto them only that which we would want them to do to us. We will not steal, kill, bear false witness or covet. One command among the five related to people is about being faithful to one’s spouse and about not committing adultery. As a senior police officer, I can discern that all the laws of the nations of the world in its essence are derived from the Ten Commandments. The Ten commandments is about the minimum that man can do for both God ( serving God) and fellow beings ( not harming others) while the two commandments of Jesus is about the maximum that man can do for God and fellow beings (loving God and fellow beings). The Ten commandments are about what we should not do while the two commands are about what we should do. As a manager, trainer, writer and human being, I can discern that the essence of all leadership, management and wisdom is contained in the two commands of Jesus. When we love God more than we love ourselves or others, we are prepared to pay any price for our faith and our relationship with Him. This is the reason why people through the ages have preferred to die rather than deny their faith. Prateep V Philip