by Kevin Cauley<\/p>\n
There are those in the religious world today who ridicule the idea of keeping commandments. They claim that keeping God’s commandments has nothing to do with our salvation today. If someone objects and says that we must keep God’s commandments to be saved, the charge of legalism is leveled against him. Is it true that keeping God’s commandments has nothing to do with salvation? Are we legalists because we demand that those who follow Christ keep his commandments? Let’s examine these questions in light of the New Testament scriptures.<\/p>\n
Often, Jesus Himself is cited as one who criticized the Pharisees for being commandment keepers. However, such was not the case. We should note well that Jesus never condemned anyone for keeping God’s commandments. Jesus, however, did condemn the Pharisees for placing their own commandments above God’s! This is an entirely different situation. Matthew 15:1-9 is one such instance. Jesus confronted the Pharisees regarding transgressing God’s command to keep their own tradition (Matthew 15:3). He said that they had made God’s commandment of none effect by their tradition (Matthew 15:6). Then He says that they in fact have taught for doctrine their own commandments, the commandments of men (Matthew 15:9). Keeping such commandments should not be placed into the same category as keeping God’s commandments. To equate the desire to keep God’s commandments with the desire to keep man’s commandments in place of God’s commandments is to pervert the words of Jesus and entirely miss the point. Jesus expected others to keep God’s commandments. It is because these Pharisees had set aside God’s commandments that Jesus’ anger was kindled against them.<\/p>\n
In contrast to ridiculing commandment keeping, Jesus Himself preached it! In Matthew 19:17, Jesus told the person asking about obtaining eternal life to keep God’s commandments to enter into life. The man asked what he lacked, and Jesus added another commandment, namely, to sell all that he had and give it to the poor and follow Jesus (Matthew 19:21). In John 14:15, Jesus said to the apostles, “If you love me, keep my commandments<\/em>.” Loving Jesus is dependent upon keeping His commandments. To say that we love Jesus, yet fail to keep his commandments is hypocrisy at best and outright lying at worst. Jesus reiterates in John 15:10, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love<\/em>.” Note two things about this scripture. First, Jesus equates keeping commandments with abiding in His love. When you note John 14:15 (that you can’t love without keeping the commandments) along with John 15:10 (that you can’t keep the commandments without abiding in love), one gains a very firm conclusion: we can love Jesus if and only if we keep his commandments. But second, what is even more remarkable about John 15:10 is that Jesus himself is a commandment keeper. He abides in the love of the Father through keeping the Father’s commandments. Here is a one-two knockout for those who claim that commandment keeping has nothing to do with salvation.<\/p>\n The apostle John explains further in his first epistle just exactly what the relationship between commandment keeping and salvation is. In I John 2:3- 4 we read, “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him<\/em>.” The simple conclusion is that one cannot come to know God without keeping the commandments. If you don’t know God, you can’t be saved (II Thessalonians 1:8). The apostle John comments further in I John 5:2-3 “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous<\/em>.” We cannot even love God without keeping God’s commandments. In fact, John defines love for God in exactly these terms. He says, “This is the love of God<\/em>.” Lest we forget, love for God is the first and greatest commandment. Loving our neighbor is like this commandment, but ultimately comes second (Matthew 22:37-39). My relationship with God always takes precedence over my relationship with other people. This means that I must be concerned about keeping God’s commandments.<\/p>\n The bottom line is ultimately this. Those who ridicule commandment keeping, ridicule Jesus himself, for He was a commandment keeper (John 15:10). Those who ridicule commandment keepers, ridicule the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit was only promised to those who kept Jesus’ commandments (John 14:15-17). And those who ridicule commandment keepers, ridicule God the Father because we can neither know Him nor love Him without doing so (I John 2:3; 5:2). Such has nothing to do with being a legalist, and has everything to do with our being saved. So let’s keep those commandments and show God that we truly do love Him!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Kevin Cauley There are those in the religious world today who ridicule the idea of keeping commandments. They claim that keeping God’s commandments has nothing to do with our salvation today. If someone objects and says that we must keep God’s commandments to be saved, the charge of legalism is leveled against him. Is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-89505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-obedience"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7065,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/legalism-the-un-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":89505,"position":0},"title":"Legalism: The Un-Sin","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 5, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Steve Klein Since the church began, the devil has concocted any number of diabolical schemes to ensnare God's people. One of his most successful gambits has been the invention of the pseudo-sin commonly called legalism. More people consider legalism to be a sin than consider 7-UP to be a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lavistachurchofchrist.org\/LVarticles\/images\/legalBooks.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2461,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/since-jesus-said-to-keep-the-commandments-shouldnt-we-keep-the-sabbath\/","url_meta":{"origin":89505,"position":1},"title":"Since Jesus said to keep the commandments, shouldn’t we keep the Sabbath?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 5, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Christ was asked in the Bible, \"Lord, what must I do to enter the kingdom of Heaven?\" Christ replied, \"keep the commandments\" and named a few of them. Since keeping the Sabbath was one of them, shouldn't we keep the Sabbath today? 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Will you please check his arguments for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53442,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-joy-of-obedience\/","url_meta":{"origin":89505,"position":3},"title":"The Joy of Obedience","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 9, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: I Peter 1:3-9 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Despite the persecutions Christians faced in the first century, there was joy - I Peter 1:3-9 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A great joy, an inexpressible joy, was had knowing that they were saved \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That joy overrode all the hardships of life II.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This attitude is strange\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19693,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-we-love-god-how-do-you-define-love\/","url_meta":{"origin":89505,"position":4},"title":"When we love God, how do you define love?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been writing a paper on what it means to love God.\u00a0 I have some parts and to love God you follow his commandments; if you don't, you don't love God. But how do we define love? I have been thinking about it for a long time. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13293,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-we-are-to-keep-all-the-commandments-shouldnt-this-include-exodus-20\/","url_meta":{"origin":89505,"position":5},"title":"If we are to keep all the commandments, shouldn’t this include Exodus 20?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: You mention keeping all of the commandments. Does that mean all as listed in Exodus 20? 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