Weekly Devotional from Potter's Wheel Ministries

I suppose that eventually these commands grow somewhat fainter to where they are hardly heard anymore. They just seemed to fade away in the back ground the more times that we have heard them. As a matter of fact we probably would have paid more attention to these orders had she not always shouted out her commands to do this or that so constant. Friends, I just took you through 31 years of things that I've had to do over and over and over again personally in order to help my wife around the house. I have just recently begun to really understand the profoundness of these Words that Jesus spoke in our text. In it lies the whole law, "If you love me, keep my commandments." It's important that we realize in this passage of Scripture that Jesus walked right into an encounter with a hostile Jewish system. It is religiosity at its zenith. This system was so religiously engrained in legalism that it was like some old crusty dry wineskin. These men were legalistic and stuck in the works in order to be righteous with God. Everything had to be perfectly upright based on their pious assessments and then Jesus shows up with a totally new covenant. His statement was, "If you love me you will keep my commandments." The ramifications of that statement are enormous.

Now, as soon as you look at that verse while perhaps studying your devotional reading that you started in January and are determined to complete by the end of the year. You are reading that and you have to stop a minute and meditate as Jesus says, "If you love me you will keep my commandments." I suppose the obvious question is what are these commandments to which Jesus refers to? Its here that I guess we need to ask a really deep theological question. Is Jesus referring to the Ten Commandments? Maybe we could ask it this way, is the Ten Commandments relative for today? Or were they abolished at the cross? Were the Ten Commandments set apart just for the folks in the Old Testament? Or could it be that since Jesus Christ has died and rose again; are we no longer under the law because we now live by grace? Or maybe it could be said in this manner; the Ten Commandments are no longer valid or apply to us today because of the work of Christ? We need to be able to answer these questions to properly understand what Jesus meant when He said, "If you love me keep my commandments." We need to consider whether He was talking about the Ten Commandments or not but some other commandments? Did they get removed out of the whole program because of what Jesus did on Calvary? We need to be able to answer these questions factually and not by personal perspectives that are more fitting to what we want to believe.

We know there are preachers that thump their Bibles declaring strongly how we need to keep the Ten Commandments without failing; and there are debates on if they should be in our court houses, and in our schools or not. Some are for them being displayed in these public venues, and I am for them being there; but the Ten Commandments have never helped or hurt one person by just hanging on a wall. A lot of people are saying that the Ten Commandments are not even relative because that was the Old Testament and we are in the New Testament dispensation. We are under grace and the Ten Commandments are the Law of Moses and we are not to be concerned with that system; but is this really the truth according to Scripture? Hermeneutics is an important word because hermeneutics interprets Scripture. Proper hermeneutics starts with the "cross" as the only true hermeneutical filter. Everything must go to the cross and see if it can go through the cross and still be valid for today. What I mean is that a lot of people have what I would call covenantal confusion. They have no idea how the Old covenant, and the new covenant connect or relate. In other words what does it mean to be in Christ, under the law, over the law, beside the law, above the law or around the Law? Forgive me for my play with words here. Nobody seems to know what it means to live in the new covenant, therefore, everyone is coming to wrong conclusions and our lifestyles are leaking the kind of love and oil it takes to live the life that God has called us to live. And because of this, we naturally go back to legalism and things that we try and do in our own strength to make us feel religious or right with God. This is because most have an unbiblical perspective of what it is to be in a new covenant relationship.

The Law in the Old Testament was made up of three things: (1). the civil law, (2). the moral law (3). the ceremonial law. We have to take those three expressions of the law to the cross if we are to see if they are valid for today. Now if we take the ceremonial law to the "cross filter," you will find that the ceremonial law was done away with by what Christ done when He became the Savior of the world. His sacrifice took away the sins of the whole world once and for all. Therefore, the sacrificing of animals ended; in other words you do not need to sacrifice your goat, your cat, your dog; and God forbid your children to atone for your sins. You do not need to do that. That is ceremonial law and it is no longer valid for today. Those ceremonial laws were only the shadow of things that were to come; whereas, Christ became the substitute taking its place in completeness. Now, we must ask ourselves about the civil law.

Does it still apply today? Actually the civil law is what most of our governments laws in this country were founded on. These civil laws are necessary because without them there would be anarchy. Much of the civil law that we find in Leviticus made it through the filter of the cross. And much of the civil law is still in force today within our country, yet I must admit, things are changing and not for the good in this area as our country loses sight of these needed civil laws which were derived from the Bible. In example: the death penalty was implemented way back in the Leviticus law and you can read that in your Bibles and in many of our states it is still the law. Now we will go to the moral law which is where the line is drawn in the sand by the various views of the Bible. The moral law specifically speaks of the Ten Commandments. Therefore, we have to ask ourselves this question is the Ten Commandments still pertinent today? And of course we find out in first Timothy that Paul writes to Timothy and poses this question to him, "Is the law bad?" How does Paul answer his own question for Timothy? No! the law is good. The law is not for the righteous, but the law is for the lawless. In other words, if you have broken the law, you will be dealt with according to that judicial code that is used to keep the land safe from tyranny. In other words, the Ten Commandments are still necessary and relevant and I will prove it to you in just a minute.

So when Jesus says, "If you love me keep my commandments," what is He talking about? He is actually talking about the Ten Commandments but notice that He ups the criteria of its truest meaning. And yet at the same time, He also simplifies it. Can I just say grace here, the new covenant totally simplified; thank you Jesus! But make no mistake my dear brothers and sisters; it is not a less covenant. It is not a "right" to pervert or trample over the grace covenant. It is a step up. Let me show you what I mean by this. The Scriptures teach us that Moses' law declared that thou shall not commit adultery; however, Jesus taught if you look on a woman and lust after her you have done the deed already in your heart. Where the Law dealt with the actions of the evil deeds already committed by a person; Jesus in the new order has enabled us to deal with things at the heart level before they could produce their wrongful deeds through us. Many people will declare adamantly, "No way! I am not under the law; I am under grace. I'm under the new covenant and I'm free!" Are you really? Last time I looked closely in the Word, Jesus upped the depth of the meaning of freedom! He said you are not your own, but in fact, He has purchased you with His own blood. You are free now to live for Him in His ability so as you abide in His Word. Just be careful about walking around and telling everyone "nope" to what God's Word commands of us! Rather than boasting in I'm free! I'm in the new covenant!!! I'm in grace! Which that would be right! However, please remember that having the grace of God simply means you ought to live on a higher level due to the grace that enables you to do so.

Getting back to our text, we find this lawyer comes before Jesus and he says, "What's the greatest command?" Jesus says answers, to love the Lord your God with all your soul, your mind and your strength; [and like a good preacher he makes a second point]. He says, the second is like the first, love your neighbor as yourself and then He said all of the law and the prophets hang on those two things. I want you to see this, first Jesus says, "To love the Lord your God with all your soul, all your mind and all your strength." If we look at the first four commandments referring to the Ten Commandments it would go something like this: If you love God you will honor Him, you will not make a graven image; you will not worship an idol and you will have no other gods before Him. That is, if you love God. So, the love of God satisfies the first four commandments. Now look at what Jesus had said: "love your neighbor as yourself, and if you love your neighbor as yourself you're going to honor your father and mother, right? You're not going to covet your neighbor's wife if you truly love your neighbor. You are not going to covet your neighbor's possessions if you in fact love your neighbor." Therefore, we can see that in loving God and loving our neighbor we satisfy all the Ten Commandments.

This is what Romans chapter 13 verses 8 - 10 teaches us: love fulfills the law! I am laboring to lay all of this ground work and we are going to get to one climatic conclusion in this teaching and hope you are going to shout, WOW!!!! But hang with me a few more moments. It therefore says love fulfills the Law! Ok this is good, we have made some headway hopefully in a positive sense. Jesus said; if you love me keep my commandments. This is not just speaking of something my wife might want me to do, but Jesus said, "If you love me keep my commandments." What are His commandments? They are the Ten Commandments, but more clearly and more simply under the new covenant: it is to love the Lord your God with all your soul, all your mind and all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Fantastic!!! all I have to do is love the Lord my God with all my soul, all my mind and all my strength and love my neighbor as myself and I will fulfill all the law and life is going to be awesome; but there is still a major deficiency isn't there? This is how we got into this mess in the beginning. God gave us clear steps to take but we were incapable within ourselves to love the Lord our God with all our soul, all our mind and all our strength and love our neighbor as ourselves. I mean I don't know if you were like me but I didn't come out of my mother's womb loving people naturally. Saying things such as: I just love you man; or I just love people who curse me; or I just love my enemies. That was not natural for me or for you. For example: while I am playing some kind of competitive sport I see them as my enemy and my concept of winning is when they fall down kick them! And then take the trophy and show it to them. That's was my world ok! I was born in this world that way! I wasn't born like Billy Graham; I was more reminiscent of the devil! I didn't care about my neighbor, I cared about me. I didn't care about anybody else's stuff; I cared about my stuff. My face, my body! My, my, my, that's the way I came into this world. That's the way we were all born.

It's one thing to know what you're supposed to do. It's a whole another thing to do what you're supposed to do. Isn't that the whole problem? From the very beginning, the story where Moses goes up into the mountain and is delayed from coming down to the people. And while he is up there the whole congregation said look I don't know where pastor "Moe" is, but he ain't coming so let's make a golden calf. I mean does that sound stupid to you? He's five days delayed and everyone says hey, throw all of you're jewelry in the fire and lets melt it and make a big fat calf and worship it. Does that sound stupid to anyone besides me? I mean its one thing to buy an idol that is already made and worship it; but to take your own jewelry and melt it into an idol as you watch it melt and then go and worship it saying holy calf, holy calf; holy cow!!! That's stupidity gone to seed. I mean you could probably still see your gold ring partially melted in the side of the calf's ear and you're worshipping something you made and calling it a god. Then Moses comes down with the stone tablets and sees the first Marti-Gras ever there in the camp of the Israelites. What happens? Moses gets angry and he throws the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments written on them to the ground broken into pieces. Oh my God! The sacred tablet with the Law was just destroyed by Moses! Hey, it's not the Ten Commandments posted on the wall of some public building or carrying them around in your wallet that's going to help anyone. Don't get me wrong here, I'm for them being in our courts, our schools and places like that, but just putting them on some plaque has never changed anyone, and neither will it change someone just because you try to preach it to them either. That's mere superstition! It requires a willingness on our part to pursue those truths that God describes Himself within those commandments and allow His finished work to effortlessly usher us away in it.

Some of us reading this are still living like this, and in fact, some are living their life trying to fulfill the law in works that they have to do and expecting everyone else to do it too!. When we try to keep the law as a means to being righteous you are living under a "have to" mentality. It goes much like this: I "have to" read my Bible; I "have to" go to home groups, I "have to" go to church. Maybe we should go down to the granite shop and have these folks engrave the Ten Commandments on some stone tablets and hang it in the room of these "have to" people, because that's the way they live for God. In fact, maybe they should carry the chunk of granite around their neck and carry it all around town showing everyone what a devout Christian they are. That is a natural illustration of how many are living their life internally. It's like I "have to" carry such a burden serving Jesus. What I am dealing with in this paragraph is the presupposition; "that I have to serve God." Some will say it like this; well, it's the right thing to do! I mean I know it's the right thing to do! and besides I don't want to go to hell. So I "have to" obey, so I "have to" not be a pervert; I "have to" keep my pants on! I "have to" stay somewhat sober! I "have to," I "have to!" Let us buy a chunk of granite and hand it to them; you law-abider. There are some who have resolved in their head that this is just how it is. I'm just going to do the right thing. Why? Well it's because it's the right thing to do. I was raised with right principles!

Isn't that about the most pathetic reason for doing what's right? Why do you go to church? Well, you know mom, her principles. You know, I was raised with principles. Why do they do this? Because they are trying to serve God mentally through the: I "have to" syndrome! In their mind it is the granite engraving tablets, and written upon it is the LAW!!! So, every week at church they expect to come and hear the preacher speak like he was a drill sergeant, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul all your mind and all your strength; soldier!!! And you shall love your neighbor as yourself!!! Now go and do it. And everyone says yes, sir! We will go and do it. Now everybody get your granite chunks and lets go! And off they go thinking to themselves I'm going to do better this week." Better! But it never happens. Moses comes down the mountain with the tablets and reads them to the children of Israel one by one and what did they say? We will obey every one of them. No will not! If I had been Moses I would have said you are liars! Why? It's impossible to do this in works of the flesh because what's truly on the inside is going to just come out. Remember: out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks! Your life happens; it's what's in you. That's why the Law did not work then and why it's not working now. Remember how the Bible teaches that the children of Israel lived on this schizophrenic level of highs, then lows, highs, and then more lows? Then finally Jeremiah prophesies a Word from the Lord:

Jeremiah 31:31-34 (KJV)
31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Wow! Now the terms have changed. It is here that the hopelessness of man can be overcome indefinitely. Now the law that was once written on stone can now be written on flesh. It is here that the law which was mere external applications to be righteous can finally be internally dwelt and realized. It is here that all of us have got a chance at this thing called living for God because we desire to and because we can do it effortlessly. Notice it says I took them by the hand in the day of their fathers; He is essentially saying that now I am going to take them by the heart instead of their rebellious hand. The Old Covenant is by the hand whereas the New Covenant is by the heart. And that changes everything. Now it's internal with eternal benefits. Since Christ has rent the curtain in the temple of ceremonial law which was a shadow of things to come; which now is no longer needed! We no longer have to tie bells around the priest's ankle in case fear that God should strike him dead for being unclean or even us today. Christ has made a better way for all of us. Now it's written on our hearts and that changes everything. We are talking about a transforming love inside. Not just a letter of rules and regulations. Now we are talking about divine internal motivation within whose Author is God. No longer is it the external manipulation that the Law was used by its religious leaders to control people. Now we are talking about the I "want to" stuff; everything has changed.

Legalism will never fulfill the law!
The letter will never fulfill the law!
Knowledge will never fulfill the law!
Your trinkets and philosophies, and your good dogma and your good doctrine will not fulfill the law!
Your Bible college degree will not fulfill the law!
Your brilliance will not fulfill the law!
Your bank account will not fulfill the law!
Your popularity will not fulfill the law!
Your last name of your family and your heritage and your church membership will not fulfill the law!

In other words, you will live under the law the rest of your life if that's what you think it takes to fulfill it! In this perspective, the law will remain unfulfilled in your life and you will remain under its legalistic burden due to your failure to maintain it. Why? It is because only love can fulfill the law; and love did just that when Christ walked this earth. Let me now show you what often happens when you choose to refrain from questionable activities around those who rally around the freer lifestyles of life. Every now and then I get in conversations with these folks that believe in such a way and it goes something like this: Tommy, have you ever seen that movie [an obvious questionable movie]? To which I answer; well, no I can't say that I have. Oh, I see. You are too holy for that. My response: Am I? Or is it possibly that I am in love. Don't make the mistake of someone's love for God to refrain from certain things as that they are being legalistic; nor should I expect someone to love Him the way I do by mandating my service and sacrifice to Him is what they need to follow to be right with Him.

Over in 1 Corinthians 8:1 it says, "Knowledge puffs up, love edifies, love builds up --- and later on Paul says if steak causes your brother to stumble don't eat steak." Pastor Tommy why don't you eat steak (which I do, this is for illustration purposes)? It is because I'm in love. Who are you in love with? Without hesitating I reply; I love people. Then I continue; You know why I don't go out to the bars at night? I'm just going to come out with it. Why I don't have Miller Time at my house? Why I don't live the High-Life in my house? You know why? It is because I wonder what you would think if you came over to my house and I cracked open a brew and said: it's Miller Time! Some of you are thinking I don't care, well you are the exception. However, most Christian people would care. I would become a stumbling block to them. Pastor Tommy why don't you party? It is because I'm in love. Who are you in love with? You! Don't mistake my love for legalism. I'm in love. I'm in love with God and I'm in love with you. Therefore, my reason for not watching a particular movie that has graphic nudity and the language that uses every imaginable curse word known to man? For them it may not seem all that bad. Their stance on this might be what's the big deal? Is this being legalistic? Are you going to preach to me that I can't go see it? It is here that I would reply, No I wouldn't say that to you at all. I just said I'm in love. In love with you and in love with God! I love God and I love people and if I came out of that movie and someone who knew me saw it and it caused them to stumble...well I'm not that desperate for entertainment. I'm in love. Don't mistake my love as being legalistic.

All over this country people are asking some very hard questions about theology and hermeneutics and it seems we have just thrown everything up in the air to see what comes down. The Church is going in all kinds of directions and the people are asking hard questions: what's the big deal about drinking? What's the big deal about smoking? What's the big deal about clubbing? What's the big deal about this or that? Here is where I believe we are asking the wrong questions. So, Pastor Tommy are you saying we shouldn't do these things? -- Wrong question!!! Are you saying we can't? -- Wrong question!!! So, are you going to give us a list of 17 things we can't do? No! I'm just going to ask you how in love are you? There is one level of love in which we love God; and there is another level of love in which we love people. It is here that we conclude in error that loving God, "Is things between me and God are alright and that's all that matters!" But it's not just about you and God anymore when you think about it. The whole commandment speaks of loving your neighbor as yourself. Now if I put out my trash and my neighbor sees my Miller Life, red dog, or Bud light cans and it causes them to stumble because they thought I was a Christian am I walking in love? I'm not that thirsty to bring down a brother and cause him to stumble by what I might not find offensive! Don't mistake my love for being ridiculous and don't box me in to call me too religious, you don't know me that deeply! Don't tell me I'm legalistic, you don't know my love affair with Jesus. Today people are calling for the church to emerge to its glorious position, but I'm not sure where we are emerging from and where we are emerging to. People tell me the church is boring, its stale, its ineffective but I'm here to declare that the church is emerging from places that I have never been a part of from the beginning. I'm in love! Love fulfills the law! Love supersedes legalism. Love goes beyond the letter of the law! Love goes beyond those petty little questions! Love goes beyond debates and discussions about theology and our various attempts to interpret Scriptures to prop up your way of thinking. Love supersedes it all! Paul says it like this:

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (NIV)
14 For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.
15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.