How committed are you?
Let us explore something that I have mulled over for a while, and we will start with 1 Corinthians 10:31 “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” This concept pretty much covers everything; how you drive, talk, mow the lawn, weed the garden, play with the kids, function in your employment, socially, shopping, Church, beach, fishing, sleeping, exercising; yes everything is to be, to the Glory of God. This certainly makes one stop and think about how well we are actually doing at; “Represent God.”
I heard a preacher and he developed things this way, and I thought it was well worth noting. We all know that Jesus summed up the first four commandments this way as recorded in Matthew 22:37-38 “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.” This is a very close reflection of what Paul gave us in our opening text from 1 Corinthians 10:31.
Now if we go back to Exodus Chapter 20 and look at the first reference to the Commandments, in their full long format, we find something very interesting; so we will develop this from there. The First Commandment is found in Exodus 20:3 “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” The key word is the third word in the sentence, which is “Have” and we all remember this from our wedding day and wedding vows, do you take this woman, to have and to hold… do you take this man, to have and to hold… it is about ownership, possession, being one with, not sharing them, this is personal, and the preacher usually goes on and declares that these two are now one, and what God has joined together, let no man separate.
The Second Commandment in Exodus 20:4-6 “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of anything] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” This talks about trying to replicate God in some visual form, but the key is “Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them,” and this is something you do in your Body, a physical action, bowing or honouring.
The Third Commandment is in Exodus 20:7 “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” This is twofold, as we often say “Actions speak louder than words,” so this covers our actions, but predominantly it is our words, or our speech.
The fourth Commandment in Exodus 20:8-11 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day [is] the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates: For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
This is clearly all about “Worship” and what or who we should worship in this commandment; for it starts with the word “Remember” to make sure that we do not forget, and as it is a memorial of the completion of creation of this world by Jesus Christ (John 1:3), we are reminded in Revelation 14:7 that in our day we all need to make sure that our worship is not vain or corrupted. So to sum this all up as a single word for each commandment in our study thus far we have four commandments and they can all be sort of summed up essentially by one key word. 1st=Have, 2nd=Body, 3rd=Speech, 4th=Worship. Now we go back to our opening scripture; 1 Corinthians 10:31 “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” Eating and drinking are Body and Speech (Diner Table Talking and Eating and feeding the body with energy, and socializing and mind interaction); but whatever you do, is the actions or activity, which are reflected in the having and the worship of our Creator/Redeemer Jesus Christ, it is simply summed up, in the doing part of everything.
Once more we have the perfect tying in together of scripture of the same thing showing up in different texts, but all with the same theme and concept; and that is as Christians, we need to be Christians, and doing so 24/7; in our eating, drinking and everything; we are to make sure that God is Glorified and that people cannot say, well if that is what a Christian does, acts and says, then I want nothing to do with it. Christian’s want the reverse, where people look at them and their lifestyle and actions and see Jesus Christ clearly reflected in us and are so compelled and drawn to God that they want to have that same thing for themselves. Are you, am I, a great Ambassador for Jesus Christ, representing him perfectly, or are you, am I, letting the team down badly by reflection Satan and not Jesus Christ in our words, deeds and lifestyle?
It should not be so, scripture clearly advises us that you cannot get sweet and bitter water from the same well. Trees do not have corrupt and perfect fruit, so why should we be as changeable as the weather. As believers and Christians, we should be “On Duty” and “Clothed in Christ” and “Filled with the Holy Spirit” and “Bearing Heavenly Fruit” always, 24/7; so let’s just do it.
