Studying the
Commands of
Jesus By
Wayne Childress
of Jesus you need to flush the words of Paul from
your mind. Paul was either a purposeful deceiver or
greatly deceived himself (See Note1). Christ said to
be as a child. Try, as best you can, to study His commands without any preconceived notions regarding
the validity of the Law.
Once you have a clear mind, I recommend that you
You are my friends, if you do
whatever I command you.
(John 15:14)
As much as I dread doing so, I
must make a very clear statement right at the start - to
properly study the Commands
next sort through His commands according to who
Jesus is speaking to. People sometimes get confused because they forget to do this important step.
The following gives an easily understood example.
Jesus said in one place that the world cannot hate
you:
The world cannot hate you; but, me it hates be-
cause I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.
(John 7:7)
In another place He said the world hates you:
If you were of the world, the world would love his
own; but, because you are not of the world, but I
have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hates you.
(John 15:19)
Both statements are true because He is
addressing two different groups of people.
The first group is a group of unbelievers:
John 7:5 - For neither did his brothers
believe in him. The second is a group of
believers that Jesus says, within the same
verse, that He has chosen.
In addition to identifying the group being
spoken to, you will need to identify if the
words are directed toward specific believers - if it is meant for that group only or for
all believers. For example:
But as they were going to report to His disciples,
Jesus also met them, saying, Hail! And coming near
they seized His feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus
said to them, do not fear. Go tell your brothers that
they may go into Galilee, and there they will see
Me.
(Matthew 28:9-10)
It is clear that this verse does not apply to us today
- we cannot go to Galilee and expect to see Jesus.
Now that we know to search for those command-
ments meant even for believers today we need to
learn how to recognize what His commandments
are. Some are very obvious. For example:
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
(John 15:12)
Other commands may not be so direct; yet, that
they are commands are obvious. For example:
Take heed to
yourselves. And
if your brother
sins against you,
rebuke him; and, if
he repents, forgive
him. And if seven
times a day he sins
against you and
seven times a day
turns to you saying, I repent, forgive him.
(Luke 17:3-4)
Jesus often prefaced such commands with phrases such as “take heed” or included the term “lest”.
These types of phrases make it clear He is conveying something that we need to pay attention to and
remember to do (He used these phrases over 4
dozen times). Jesus said very clearly what the most
important commandments are:
And Jesus said to him, “You shall love the
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