Changes through Ministry III
Welcome, dear friends! Thanks God for this wonderful day that He has given us and for yet another opportunity to get filled with His living word!
We are continuing our discussion on the importance of ministry and how God effects changes in our lives through the ministry.
Ministry helps us to live for others not just for ourselves. When a person has a servant or serving heart, his life is focused on making other people happy instead of waiting on the other people to make him happy. Somebody with such an attitude and life position has no time for depression or for self-pity. His life is rather focused on searching for and helping other people who lives in poorer conditions himself instead of sitting around celebrating self- pity party. The person who understands the purpose of true ministry doesn’t live for himself, but his goal is to love God and to love other people.
Your usefulness in this life hangs upon two things that I call “Two supreme commandments”. You probably have a clue of what I mean. Let’s turn to the gospel of Matthew:
«Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments”». (Matthew 22:37-40).
Here Jesus is saying that the commandment of love is the essence of the whole law and the prophets of the Old Testament. Everything God was trying to convey to us through Moses and all of the prophets of the Old Testament can basically be expressed in two simple statements:
- Love the Lord, God with all your heart, with all your soul and all your mind.
- Love your neighbour as yourself
That is why in the New Testament Jesus gave a new commandment to His disciples, – the commandment of love.
«A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just like I have loved you; that you also love one another».(John 13:34).
«And whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he commanded». (1st John 3:22-23).
«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. His commandments are not grievous». (1st John 5:2-3).
All the above verses testify about only one thing – without walking in love we won’t have God’s life inside of us and we won’t enter His fullness.
If we love God, we shall obey His commandments. But which of the commandments are we actually to obey? There are more than 500 laws in the Old Testament, including the 10 commandments. You can find a law in almost every verse of the Old Testament. Judaism contains some 613 laws (mitzvot) – 365 commandments say “do not do” (according to the number of days in a year) and 248 commandments that say “do” (according to the number of human body parts). You can read more about that on the web:
http://toldot.ru/tora/articles/mitzvot/ (RUS) or http://www.jewfaq.org/613.htm (ENG).
Which one out of the 613 laws should we obey every day, so that we prove our love for God?
Jesus has simplified all of the laws and condensed them together into one simple commandment – the commandment of love.
Love God and love your neighbour!
May God help us to live according to these two supreme commandments!
God bless you abundantly!
Rufus AJiboye, pastor
