KEEPING CHRIST'S COMMANDMENTS

"If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them" -John 13:17.

The joy and the blessing of God's Word is only to be known by doing it. This subject is of such supreme importance in the Christian life, and therefore in our Bible study, that I must ask you to return to it once more. Let us, this time, just take the one expression, keeping the Word, or keeping the commandments.

Keep His Commandments

In Jesus' farewell address to His disciples, He emphasized the importance of keeping His commandments.

"If ye love Me, keep My commandments, and He (the Father) shall give you another Comforter" (John 14:15,16).

"He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he.. shall be loved of My Father" (John 14:21).

"If a man love Me, He will keep My words: and My Father will love him" (John 14:23).

"If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 15:7).

"If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love" (John 15:10).

"Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you" (John 15:14).

Study and compare these passages until the words enter your heart and work the deep conviction that keeping Christ's commandments is the essential condition of all spiritual blessing. It is necessary for the coming of the Holy Spirit and His actual indwelling, for the enjoyment of the Father's love, and the manifestation of Christ in our life.

Power in prayer, the abiding in Christ's love, and the enjoyment of His friendship depends upon the keeping of the commandments. The power to claim and enjoy these blessings in faith day by day also requires obedience. The will of God, delighted in and done, is the only way to the heart of the Father and His only way to our heart. Keep the commandments: this is the way to every blessing.

Proving Our Love For Him

All this is confirmed by what we find in John's first epistle: "Hereby do we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar. ...But whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected" (1 John 2: 3,5). The only proof of a true, living, saving knowledge of God; the only proof of not being self deceived in our religion; the only proof of God's love not being an imagination, but a possession, is keeping His Word.

"If our heart condemns us not, then have we confidence toward God; and whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments. And he that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him" (1 John 3:21,22,24).

Keeping the commandments is the secret of confidence toward God and true intimate fellowship with Him.

"This is the love of God that we keep His commandments: for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world" (John 3:3,4). Our profession of love is worthless unless it is proved to be true by the keeping of His commandments in the power of a life born of God. Knowing God, having the love of God perfected in us, having boldness with God, abiding in Him, being born of Him, and loving Him—all is dependent upon one thing: keeping the commandments.

The Key To Blessing

When we realize the prominence Christ and Scripture give to keeping His commandments, we will learn to give it the same prominence in our lives. It will become to us one of the keys to true Bible study. The person who reads his Bible with the determined purpose to search out and to obey every commandment of God and of Christ is on the right track to receiving all the blessing the Word was ever meant to bring. He will especially learn two things. First, he must wait for the teaching of the Holy Spirit to lead him into all God's will. Secondly, there is joy in performing daily duties because they are the will of God.

He will discover how all daily life is enriched when he says as Christ did: "This commandment have I received of My Father" (John 10:18). The Word will become the light and guide by which all his steps are ordered. His life will become the training school in which the power of the Word is proved, and the mind is prepared to be taught and encouraged. The keeping of the commandments will be the key to every spiritual blessing.

When we realize the prominence Christ and Scripture give to keeping His commandments, we will learn to give it the same prominence in our lives. It will become one of the keys to true Bible study. The person who reads his Bible with the determined purpose to search out and to obey every commandment of God and of Christ is on the right track to receiving all the blessings the Word was ever meant to bring. He will especially learn two things. First, he must wait for the teaching of the Holy Spirit to lead him into all God's will. Secondly, there is joy in performing daily duties because they are the will of God.

Then accept Christlike love and humility as the law of the supernatural life you are to live. Let this thought encourage you to put your hope entirely in Him. By His Spirit, He will work in you both to will and to do that which pleases Him.

Once again, our one aim must be perfect harmony between conscience and conduct. Every conviction must be carried out into action.

Christ's commands were meant to be obeyed. If this is not done, the accumulation of scriptural knowledge only hardens us and makes us unable to learn from the Spirit.

In your inner chamber each morning, you must decide whether you will keep the commandments of Christ throughout the day. This decision will also determine whether in future life you will be a person completely yielded to know and do the will of God.