The Same Command

The Same Command

11/10/18

Sometimes we become lost in how much the Old Testament corresponds with the New Testament and through this hidden accuracy of God’s Word we tend to misunderstand just how important God’s commands are to our lives.  It is far-reaching for our eternal lives and for the continual spiritual battles that we face if we just remembered how vital it is to keep God’s commands within our hearts and to submit to its meaning.  For such a long time Christians have ignored the Old Testament’s words and placed them into a cultural stigma that we deem unnecessary to live under, but through what God wants us to place into our hearts in this article should brings us to the point where we must take into consideration and bring it into our hearts that ALL of God’s Word represents life for all people.  Until we figure this truth out we shall continue to struggle with our fellow citizens when explaining or trying to explain the Word of God to them, God is a complete God and His Word represents His definition, so disunity has no consideration in His Word either.

When it comes to listening and obeying our parent’s rules the variances and levels of obedience to those rules varies with potential unlimited speculations.  I fell into that category so many times when my parents would say one thing and I would spend a considerable amount of time trying to figure out what they really meant.  When I was in kindergarten we lived in Dyersburg, Tennessee and my parents were pastors to one of the largest churches in Tennessee.  And while we were there I had a few friends that I hung around with for most of our tenure there.  This time period was in the 1970s and things were a bit different back then for most of the time parents would not have to worry about their children taking off and going down to a friend’s house alone; however, many parents also made sure that their children when doing such acts actually arrived at the requested destination too.  Today, I became nervous when my girls would walk three doors down the street to play with the neighbor kids.

One day I asked my mother if I could go to one of my friend’s house to play, that was one of the rules in the house I always had to ask permission first and at the same time receive permission from the friend’s house to go.  Up until that moment, or at least that my mind can recollect my parents would always respond with a “yes” or “no” when I asked to go to a friend’s house or to go anywhere without their presence accompanying me.  On this day, my mother threw me a curve when I asked her if I could go play for she told me when I asked: “I don’t care”.  So, after she had spoken those words I walked away and went out to the front yard and began playing alone and staying within the confines of our yard.  Now, I could find numerous things to occupy my time in that yard and I was plum happy to do so but after a while, I wanted something from inside and I went back into the house for a moment.  Mom met me inside and asked me why I did not go to my friend’s house to play?  I responded to her that she had told me “I don’t care” and that the word “don’t” took precedence in my mind as being the same as the word “no”.  Mom immediately sat me down and began to explain exactly what that phrase meant and that it meant that it was okay for me to go do what I had wanted to do.  Now, I was in kindergarten mind you so my grasp on the English vocabulary was not the most robust at the time, but my logic of what she said that day followed with what she had stated in the past, or at least I thought so.

I now ask you how many times have we studied God’s Word and read over verses and have missed truths that make things so much easier if we have figured them out beforehand?  Many of us think that God sits on His throne and does nothing but try and complicate our lives with vocabulary that we do not understand, which in turn causes us not to understand what God really is trying to tell us, I have to admit that this setting has been presented to me many times over ever since God began showing me what to write because I really believed that I understood the main concepts and truths about Genesis.  Boy, was I wrong on that belief.  The two Scripture verses that will be used in this article are Genesis 2:15 and Mark 16:15.  Both verses are well known and have been used many times from countless pulpits and have even been used in articles that God has given us through these writings as well.  However, God wants us to know and to remember that He is a consistent and pure God on all levels and when He gives a command at one point in His Word He gives the same command at another point as well.

If our enemy is successful enough to confuse our thoughts and beliefs about what God says for us to do then our hearts shall follow in this confusion and present as an unsure witness when times of battle arrive.  God demonstrates this truth in both testaments and it is our responsibility to study His definition well enough that we are able to know what to say when these witnessing opportunities arise.  Through this knowledge about God, we will have the capability of growing in God in areas that we need in order to survive against our enemy and his kingdom.  This is not an impossible task and while God is all knowing and all powerful He puts His definition in such a way that all of us have the capability to understand Him well enough so that when challenged we can have logical and simple answers to those who really want eternal answers.  Unfortunately, we find that when both of these verses are not followed (obedience) that the same loss of unity, peace, and eternal life follow, a destination that everyone wishes to avoid.

In Genesis 2:15 we find that God has placed Adam in the Garden of Eden to dress and to keep the Garden as God commanded him to do.  The reason God placed Adam into the Garden was to do such a command, he was placed there to work and to be active in keeping God’s Kingdom advancing in perfect order.  When I was younger I was taught that the Garden of Eden was the perfect place that God created for Adam and Eve to live and that basically, all they had to do was to inhabit the place and not have to worry about any dangers approaching their lives.  A logical thought process would be made if we considered such a utopic plane and one that Adam and Eve had to have thought about as well for as time went along they fell into the sleepiness and temptation of slacking that would eventually cost them their lives.  It is at this point that many people lose the point of God’s contention for it is not the focus on the Garden per se but the obedience of the man to complete the job that God had intended for him to complete that represents the eternal detail.  It becomes obvious that Adam and Eve lost this desire to obey God at all times for we find that in their future they would lose everything and be forced out from their paradise.

This brings into the topic the condition of the hearts of Adam and Eve and how over time they became incumbent with the thought of living in such a euphoric atmosphere and setting that when it came time for the enemy to introduce himself to them, a relationship was not too far off down the road.  It is through this loss of truth and divine purpose of what God commanded Adam to do in the first place that drives our enemy to seek out an opening into our heart so that this one command from God can be skewed and thus disobeyed.  There also can be no doubt that for a specific amount of time that Adam and Eve did keep in accordance to God’s command with a pure heart, the setting to which our enemy cannot stand and will stop at nothing in order to end such meant lifestyle.  But the more Adam and Eve allowed the Serpent into their realm, they had opportunities to doubt what God said to them and what He meant by such words; to put it in another way, Satan understands the meaning and importance of obeying God and what occurs when one does not so it is the logical motive and technique that he would use in order for us to stray from this one command to work for God’s Kingdom and to maintain its advancement as it grows.  Can you now understand just how we can become confused or unsure about the direction God has for our lives if we allow our enemy into our lives?

Since God created the Garden of Eden and humans in a perfect and specific manner, it cannot be understood any differently than a state of completeness.  It is this state of Creation that also defines God and His existence which means that He expects His creations and all other aspects of His Kingdom to act accordingly to this definition, which provides the recognition of an enemy who deviated from such a Truth.  The spirit of the age that the Serpent introduced to Adam and Eve eventually caught up with them and the consequences of this alliance proved eternally deadly.  It is this spirit that we can compare our lives and the existence of the Church through the command of Jesus to us as the reason why we fail at fulfilling this one or same command.  How complete was this command to Adam concerning working the Garden of Eden, enough that the word for work, tend or dress here is placed on the devotion of the worker to that of being a slave towards a goal, an extraordinary drive that compels the worker to do as much as possible on the expected level of accuracy with the utmost ethics demonstrated each day.  When this degree of work is compromised we allow our plan for our lives to override God’s plan for our lives and it is this lowering of our workplace that achieves self-kingdom alliances thus establishing a connection and bond with our enemy resulting in disobedience according to the command that God gave to be kept.

Now, we come to Mark 16:15 and this verse is another popular verse that many have heard over their lives it is also one that has been a common theme in the topics of the articles that God has shared with us over these past few years.  This verse states: “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”  This short, quick, and straight to the point verse do not include any directional deviances at any point and it gives the single command that Jesus gave to His followers.  Throughout His time on earth, Jesus taught us to be the examples of God to those who did not know about the true God and what He has to offer them.  All of the teachings that Jesus gave during His ministry were wrapped up into one single command to His followers for it provides us with the work that needs to be done in order for others to hear and understand the eternal message of God’s salvation and plan for their lives.

If we are to go into the entire world and to share the gospel with those who do not know God we need to understand something.  Those people who may be fine individuals are still considered to be participants of Satan’s kingdom and may not willingly accept the words of salvation that we present to them.  Jesus never stated that witnessing to the lost would be easy work and it is for this reason alone that both God and Jesus stated that we follow God the Father’s Word at all times which means we have to understand it like the back of our hand because when eternity is at stake you cannot afford to make any mistakes when it comes to sharing the eternal truth.  Jesus uses the exact same command in this verse as His Father used when He gave Adam the command to dress and to keep the Garden of Eden.  Jesus places His Church into the entire world to work for His Father with the message of salvation, to everyone.  God instructed Adam to keep the entire Garden in order and Jesus does the exact same thing in His commission to His followers to preach to everyone.

Going into the world and telling others about God and His plan of salvation for their lives is work, for what we are doing is doing our best to share the message of God so that He can pluck them from the snares of the world and its death grip on their lives.  When we pull weeds, do they come up easily?  No way!  It is a fight to get them out of the ground intact as possible for we know that if we do not get the root out as well that weed shall grow back in a very short amount of time.  Satan does not want any of us to spend eternity in Heaven with God, it is his goal to see all perish in our sins and be tortured without the presence of God to protect us for our remaining existence.  So, Satan is not going to give up his conquests easily and shall do his best to fight back when the truth is shared.  Satan did the exact same procedure in the Garden of Eden and he continues to lie to us in this manner today.

The process of witnessing to others as stated above may not be the easiest procedure to complete but it is one that is vital on both sides of the command.  First off, we must be willing to follow such command with our entire heart committed to the cause for if we do not then Satan already has a foothold in our lives enough to mar any help we could be doing to those who need God.  Of course, when we first set out it is exciting and our hearts are full of joy but as time goes along and the road becomes a bit bumpy it is then that we need to fall back on the Word of God for instructions so that we can secure our own protection in God in order to share God’s protection.  The other side of the command deals with those who do not know God and if our hearts are not fully committed to God then how can we honestly expect for them to commit their entire hearts as well?  A totally committed heart to God shall never deviate from the biblical truth because God shall never ride the backs of a donkey or an elephant but shall answer only to Himself; therefore, we cannot preach ANY worldly status or present any acceptance speech that aligns ourselves with the world when we witness to others.  We have dropped many of the purity aspects of God’s witnessing command for ones that seek permission from the world instead.  This is a direct sign that we have fallen into the lying trap of Satan that deals in communion with the world.

We have an excellent example that explains exactly what we need to do to complete such a vital task and it begins back in Genesis with our first verse.  Genesis 2:15 gives us the statement that God placed Adam into the Garden of Eden that means that God separated Adam from other parts and this setting was a pure and holy site that God had made.  It was the act that God did with Adam that sets the stage and the importance of how our hearts should be conducted while we are witnessing to the dying world.  When we accept God into our lives and commit our hearts to Him, somehow on a supernatural level He takes us from the immoral world and places us underneath the covering of His son’s blood.  It is this separation from sin that brings into play faith, for if we try and explain things on our own understanding we shall fail miserably and thus provide a damaging witness process to others.  The world has no compromise in its goals for your life so why do we allow God’s goals for our lives to be compromised?  When the heart is not in complete trust with God we cannot be in obedience with Him either.  There is a reason God’s Word says to trust and obey.

So, this brings us to the question that requires us to examine ourselves and then ask ourselves how is Jesus’ command performance being presented and received by the world?  If you are not receiving any type of fallout in your presentation of Jesus to the world then you need to go back to God and allow Him to take out more of the world in your life, for the world shall not give up so easily and if one wants a good example of this then go to any news organization and watch videos of all the animosity against each other.  Many of us who consider ourselves to be Christians have lost the focus and the meaning of this eternal command that Jesus gave to those who seek His Ways.  We are now presenting ourselves in the same manner in which Adam and Eve did before they fell into sin.  The command that God gave Adam and Eve was visibly recognized by Satan as one that was not being followed according to God’s standard which meant that he had successfully infiltrated their hearts thus further allowing a sub-standard work ethic from them.  This sub-standardized work proved to be eternally costly to their lives and is in full swing today as well.

The Church has come to question the validity of God and His Ways, and sadly this means that our hearts have been turned away from the truth enough not to have complete trust in God any longer.  According to His Word, God states that if we do not trust Him then we cannot obey Him which means disobedience (sin) will automatically return as the god of our hearts.  Many no longer even believe that we must be saved and separated from the world in order to have eternal life with God, a clear lie that “provides” an easy path to salvation without any commitment what-so-ever.  Does this phrase and belief sound familiar to you at all?  It should because it is exactly what the world is preaching today about obedience to laws and authority or I should say the lack of obedience to laws and to authority.  Others spend countless hours reading Scriptures that try and justify their individual worldly beliefs in order to withdraw from any type of separation protection from God, a direct ploy from the personal playbook of Lucifer himself.  With all of the turmoil that we witness each day around the world, it would make sense that we find a solution to these issues, but our reasoning and logic that we suggest as solutions have fallen short simply because we have not reverted back to the only command God gave to us so long ago, just obey God and all shall be okay.

Church, we need to wake up and realize that we need God back into our lives so that we can once again completely fulfill our command that Jesus gave us to do.  When we live in such total obedience we are automatically fulfilling the command that God gave to Adam in the Garden of Eden as well for it is the exact same command.  What is our reward?  What reward did Adam and Eve receive when they had the utmost obedience to God?  A place of total peace, tranquility, and livelihood that one can imagine was the result of this living Truth.  Was the work that Adam and Eve did easy?  It would seem so at first but God asked for total commitment for a reason which means that their road was just as tenuous as ours is today.  If we are not totally committed to knowing the Word of God as it is presented from God’s definition then our walk with Him cannot be in obedience.  Only the world offers selfishness and self-serving reasons for doing something, not God.  Church, we need to repent and to allow God to infiltrate our hearts again so that we can preach the TRUE GOSPEL of God to those who need it.  One simple command that connects the Old Testament and New Testament link us together with Adam and Eve and when we live in complete truth we can do no wrong when it comes to fulfilling the command of God.

DLB