Why Does God Give Us Commandments?

If we are God's Children, then we are heirs to God's power and God's Kingdom. We are princes and princesses waiting to rule. Though we are princes, princes do not sit around doing nothing, but they spend their time waiting to rule, learning how to rule. A prince who spends his time abusing his power, drinking and causing mischief will be a despot when he is given his throne--he will not know how to rule, and see the responsibilities of rule as burdens; he will respect neither tradition, nor law, and assert his will as the only authority.

As princes and princesses in the Kingdom of God, we are expected to learn how to rule, practice our rule, and instruct others in how to rule. God expects us to rule, and to rule well--as God would. And this is why God has given us Commandments. The Commandments are not arbitrary rules, or designed to keep us from having a good time, but they are expressions of how God rules--and how God rules is who God is. If we want to know God, then we will find him in the Commandments; if we want to know God more fully, as God is, then we find him in Christ's commandments. If we love God and Christ, then we will want to follow their commandments--because we want to conform ourselves to the one we love.

God doesn't give us the commandments to keep us down, or to keep us subservient, but to teach us how to one day rule like God, along with God, sharing God's power as Children of God. This is why God's people are instructed to meditate on the commandments day and night, not so we can see where we fail, but to see what we can become.

Most people think that the commandments are a set of rules that must be kept, and when we don't keep them, we are bad people who are going to hell. And even those of us who believe in the atoning death of Christ usually express commandments as a set of rules designed to send us to hell for not obeying them.

I think rather the commandments are not designed to show how bad I am by my failure, but to show me where I am still holding onto my will and opposing God's will. If, the commandments are who God is, then they are an expression of God's will; and if they are an expression of God's will, they are an expression of who God is. Jesus Christ is also the clearest picture for us to see who God is and to know God's will. So if I am breaking the commandments, then I am disobeying God's will, which means I am asserting my own will above God, or at the very least, unwilling to let go of my will in that area.

Maybe I'll always be weak in that area. Maybe when I am given my throne in the Kingdom, ruling with God, perhaps I will still have that area of weakness, and knowing it, God and I, and everyone else will know to let someone handle an issue that deals with those areas of weakness. Who knows?

But as for now, my point is that the commandments are given to us as a gift, and as a promise--a gift of knowing the will of God and a promise of who we can become if we learn how to abandon ourselves to God's will.

It would be nice if there were no work involved in our growth--no discipline in our discipleship--but we are princess and princesses of the Kingdom of God, and even though we do not yet have our throne, we have responsibilities--and there are privileges that come to us because of our position. We follow the commandments because we want to govern well when the time comes, because we love our Father and want to be like him and the commandments are an expression of who God is, because we love our Lord Jesus Christ and we want to become like him and learn how to abandon ourselves to God's will, and because we want to receive the promise of having God's law written onto our hearts, and the only way for that to happen is for us to practice at them over and over until they become who we are as well--and when they become who we are, then we become like God.

Reviews

[Emily B]

thank you