Jan 7th Greatest Commandment of All!

Campfire Bible Study

Exodus 20:1-17

The Law (What do they really mean/What is their value)- The first 4:

• Must be viewed as a gracious gift from God
• God reveals His will in His laws given to Moses and revealed by Jesus
• God tells us how to please Him through His laws
• God tells us how to properly conduct ourselves in order to get along in our society establishing societal core values
• God’s divine commands are for governing relationships, preventing idol worship, thievery, lying, corruption, murder
• Helps us to honour God and each other, putting God first
• 1400 years the people forgot the law and the worship of God was often abandoned; God would call, some answered and those people were restored, others suffered.

Jeremiah 31:31-33:  God promised a Savior would be sent with a new covenant and the law would be written on their hearts and in our minds.

Parable of the Good Samaritan (The next 6 Commandments):

Read:  Mark 12:28-34

•  Priest/Levite (expert in the law well) passes by/do not help
• Samaritan (lower class) helps/pays for medical treatment
• Note:  The Law did not allow anyone to touch a dead body.  The man may have appeared dead.

What is Jesus saying?

• Show mercy and love rather than obey a ceremonial purity law.
• Live by the Spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law.
• Understand why we obey a commandment; that they are not just written on stone, but are written in our hearts.
• We break a commandment because of what is in our hearts to do so; we obey a commandment because our hearts have been transformed by Christ.

Today:  Speeding laws are in place but we can break the law to save a life—fire, emergency room, etc!

Jesus came to fulfill the law:  Matthew 5:17
Deuteronomy 6:4,5,6; Mark 12:29,30; Matthew 22:36-37:

You shall love the Lord your God:

• With all your emotional heart and faculties/power!
• Above all other beings/things!
• All affections on Him with a love stronger than anything else!
• Willing to give up everything at His command!

With all your soul:

• With all your life:  meaning you will give up your life to God, devote all to His service and be willing to die at His command or for Him!

With all your mind:

• Submitting intellect to God’s will.
• To love God’s law and His Gospel more than we do the decisions of our own mind!
• To be willing to submit all of our faculties to His teaching and guidance!
• To devote to God all our intellectual attainments!
• To credit God with all the results of our intellectual efforts!

With all your strength: (Mark 12:30/Luke 10:27)

• With all the faculties of soul, mind and body!
• To labor and toil for Gods glory, not our own!
• Primary object of all our efforts!

Matthew 22:38

Then, Matthew 22:39

Leviticus 19:18:

• Comprising our whole duty to man. There is no other moral, much less ceremonial commandment, greater than these…no grudges, no revenges
• To love and serve him, with all the united powers of the soul in their utmost vigor;
• Matthew 7:12:  Charitable temper and behavior toward all men, as we, in like circumstances, would wish for from them toward ourselves, is a more necessary and important duty, than the offering the most noble and costly sacrifices
• .NOTE:  We are not to love ourselves supremely, this is virtually a command, in the first place, not to love our neighbor with all our heart and soul and mind and strength.
• It is a condemnation of the idolatry of the creature. Our supreme and uttermost affection is to be reserved for God. But as sincerely as ourselves we are to love all mankind, and with the same readiness to do and suffer for them as we should reasonably desire them to show to us.
• The golden rule (Matthew 7:12) is here as our best interpreter of the nature and extent of this command.

Final Reading:  1John 5:2,3

Created By: Sharon and Max

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