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Table Talk                                                    

THE FIRST COMMANDMENT
Ron Rasmussen

“COMMANDMENTS OF LOVE”

Sarah was 5 years old. Her mother and father loved their daughter very much, but for some strange reason they kept giving Sarah orders. "Don't talk to strangers! Don't leave the yard! Don't play in the streets! Don't touch the stove!" Sarah didn't like these rules. She didn't understand why her parents were always telling her what to do. If they really loved her, why didn't they let her do what she wanted? The more Sarah thought about it, the madder she got. Finally, she decided that she wasn't going to follow these rules any longer. So, as soon as her mother wasn't looking, Sarah placed her hand on the stove. The stove was red hot.

Who do you think got burned? It certainly wasn't her parents. It was Sarah's hand that was burned. Sarah’s Mom and Dad weren’t giving their daughter commandments to help themselves. They were not the ones who were going to be hurt when the commandments were broken. It was Sarah that would be hurt. When Sarah broke the commandments that her parents gave her, she was the one in danger. They wanted to protect their daughter from danger. They didn't want Sarah to be hurt. For instance, they didn't want Sarah's hand to be burned; so they commanded her, "Don't put your hand on the stove!". They gave her this commandment because they loved her. All the commandments they gave her were given because they loved her. In fact, if they hadn't given her these commandments, it would have been cruel and heartless. The commandments her parents gave Sarah were commandments of love.

In the same way, the Ten Commandments that God gives us are commandments of love. God did not give us the Ten Commandments because He needed something from us. The Ten Commandments don't help God. When the Ten Commandments are broken, it is not God that gets hurt. On the contrary, when we break the Ten Commandments, we are the ones who get hurt. Just like Sarah was hurt when she broke the commandment "Don't put your hand on the stove!", we are hurt when we break any of the commandments God has given us. And just like John and Jami didn't want to see Sarah get hurt, God doesn't want to see us hurt. God loves us too much. So God gives us the Ten Commandments to protect us. The Ten Commandments are commandments of love.

THE UNCONDITIONAL PROMISE

Did you know that God has made a decision about you? In the 1st Commandment God said, "I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD". God has decided to be "YOUR GOD". That is the decision God has made about you. God didn't wait for you to make any decisions. God didn't wait to see if you were good enough, or smart enough, or strong enough. God has already made the decision. God has decided to be "YOUR GOD".

God first made the decision to be "YOUR GOD" when you were baptized, when most of you were babies. It didn't matter that you didn't understand it. It didn't matter that you did nothing to earn it. It was God's decision. "I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD". That is God's promise to you; to be "YOUR GOD".

Just think about it! What could be a better promise than God's promise to be "YOUR GOD". God is the Almighty, the All-powerful, the Lord of the Universe. God created the heavens and the earth. God can do anything. There is nothing God can't do; and this God is promising to be "YOUR GOD". That means that all the power and all the glory of God is working for you, because God is "YOUR GOD".

Can that be right? Has God really decided to be "YOUR GOD" without us doing anything in return? There has to be a catch somewhere, doesn't there?

No, there doesn't. That's the remarkable thing about God's promise. There are no catches to it. When you look at the 1st Commandment you will notice that the promise "I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD" comes first, and then the command "YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME" comes. Before God gives us any rules, He promises to be "YOUR GOD". First comes the promise, then comes the command.

That is what makes the 1st Commandment so unusual, and so important. God's promise comes before the commandments. This is unusual because usually the commandments come before the promises. Usually, you have to do something before you get something. For example, if you eat your spinach, then you will get the ice cream. That's the way the world works. You obey the commandment, then you get the promise.

But God does things differently. God gives us the promise first, and then God gives us the commandments. Thus, we know that the promise cannot be taken away. God has promised to be "YOUR GOD" before the commandments, and God will not take away that promise even if you disobey the commandments.

That is why the promise "I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD" is called the "unconditional promise", because it is a promise without any conditions. The phrase "unconditional promise" simply means: you don't have to earn the promise and the promise can't be taken away. We don't have to earn God's promise to be "OUR GOD" because God has already decided to be "OUR GOD". Also, God's promise can't be taken away from us. No matter what we do, no matter how bad we are, no matter how many commandments we break; God will still be "YOUR GOD". That is God's "unconditional promise", and it will last forever.

"I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD". That is the unconditional promise God has made to you. And this unconditional promise means three things. First of all, it means that God loves you. This is not a mushy love or a "puppy love" that might go away. God's love lasts forever. It is a loyal love. God's love for you doesn't change, nor does it go away when we forget God or anger God. God will always love you.

The second thing that God's unconditional promise means is forgiveness. Because God will always love you, God will always forgive you. There is no sin so great, no action so terrible, that God can't forgive it. God's forgiveness, like God's love, lasts forever.

The third and final thing that God's unconditional promise means is life after death. Not only has God promised to forgive us, God has promised to raise us from the dead and give us new life. "I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD". That is God's unconditional promise to you.

THEME FOR TODAY'S LESSON

The unconditional promise is God's promise to be "YOUR GOD". It is unconditional because you don't have to earn it and it can't be taken away.

Part 2 of the lesson on the First Commandment will appear in the next issue of The Crux of the Matter.

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