A Study of the commands from our Lord, Jesus the Christ.

Week 3, December 14th

I bite off more than I could handle last week. When taking on any large undertaking, one should be mindful of "scope creep". "scope creep" is the incremental increase to the scope of the project. Last week, I was in full "scope stampede". I lost focus. These weekly lessons are to get you the reader to take a deeper dive into the commands from our LORD. With that said, let us resume the tour this week and explore the other "love" commands from Jesus.

I left off last week by exploring how Jesus demonstrated love towards both "enemies", non-believers or those opposed to GOD, and "one another", other believers. What those examples showed was how Jesus, our LORD, loved others. The real question I struggle with is: how do I know I have obeyed the command: Love your enemy? or Love one another? Who decides? Will I know?

An answer came to me while I was out walking. You can ONLY know after an interaction between yourself and the other person has occurred. And ONLY after you reflect on the interaction and ONLY after you ask the Holy Spirit.

It does NOT matter how the other person reacts to the interaction. You are to love everyone whether they love you or not. The ONLY opinion that matters is that of the Holy Spirit. Remember, the Holy Spirit was sent to guide you in all truth (see John 16:13). And the Holy Spirit will let you know. As your tour guide, let me point you back to the words of our Savior, Jesus. Jesus told us to "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:" Matthew 7:7 (KJV).

Another thing, you ARE going to fail and the Holy Spirit will convict you. And when that happens: you recognize it, you repent and ask for forgiveness, and you will receive the Father's forgiveness. And then you move forward trusting the Holy Spirit to guide you during the next encounter.

Reminder: you are not a failure because you failed; you are only a failure when you fail to Love again.


That's it for this week. The tour will continue next week as we talk about the other parts of the love commands: Praying for those who persecute you and doing good to those who hate you.

If you have any other questions please email me.

Return to: "and teaching them to obey"