Repent and believe the good news.

From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 4:17

“This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:15

The Kingdom of God has come to earth through Jesus.  His work in restoring creation is now in process.  He has begun the process of seeing His work done again on earth as it is in heaven.  He commands us to voluntarily change our minds and our lives to allegiance to Him and alignment with His reign.  This is good news.  He will right all wrongs.  He will fix all that is broken.  He gives us the opportunity to join Him in ruling the renewed world forever.  Our only alternative is to continue in our brokenness and, in the end, be forced to acknowledge His rule and face punishment as His enemies.

You must be born again.

Jesus answered and said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a person once grown old be born again? Surely he cannot reenter his mother’s womb and be born again, can he?”  Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.  What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit.  Do not be amazed that I told you, ‘You must be born from above.’ John 3:3-7

This is obviously not something that can be achieved by human effort.  This is by the will and power of God.  The Holy Spirit is the means and the evidence of this new birth.  The life of the Kingdom cannot be lived through the flesh.  The indwelling and filling of the Holy Spirit is the gift that keeps on giving.  We must enter the Kingdom by Him and live the Kingdom life by Him.  The fruit of the Spirit and one or more gifts of the Spirit will be evidence of it.

Make my house a house of prayer for the nations and do not make it into a market or a den of thieves.  

And he said to them, “It is written: ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a den of thieves.” Matthew 21:13

Then he taught them saying, “Is it not written: ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples’? But you have made it a den of thieves.” Mark 11:17

And to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” John 2:16

It is one thing to recover expenses when charging for goods and services related to the Kingdom, but there is a lot of profit made through the sale of “spiritual” products.  I believe we should be VERY careful about this.  All we have, all our knowledge and insight and experience and resources are from God.  Freely you have received, freely give.  (Matthew 10:8b)  It is also a severe indictment that the VAST majority of the income of the Church is spent on herself in one way or another.  That is in addition to a tremendous amount of graft.

Worship and serve God alone.

Jesus said to him in reply, “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.’” Luke 4:8

At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: ‘The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.’” Matthew 4:10

Whom or what are you living for?  How do you decide how to spend your life, time, energy, money, and other resources?  What is your motive for life?  Your purpose?  If the answer is anything except God, then that is the wrong answer.

Do not put God to the test.

Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says, ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.’” Luke 4:12

Jesus answered him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.’” Matthew 4:7

We are not to go off in pursuit of anything, including the Kingdom, and expect the Lord to bail us out.  If He leads us into a risky situation, we are to enter it willing to sacrifice everything and risk anything.  He may choose to deliver us for His glory.  He may choose to let us suffer and sacrifice and die for His glory.  Difficult situations are meant to be a test of us and not of God.

Live by God’s every word, not merely by food.

 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’” Luke 4:4

He said in reply, “It is written: ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4

This has many implications.  For starters, it implies that God is speaking to us and that we need to be listening to Him.  This requires intentionality on our parts.  It implies that this listening needs to be a continual state and that our very lives depend on it.  This is a deep subject, but rather than write voluminously on it, I will simply refer to some relevant Scriptures:

“Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”  John 8:47

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.”  John 10:27-28

“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.  He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.”  John 16:13-14

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.  Romans 8:14

We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.  Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.  But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him:  Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.  1 John 2:3-6

Many people have compiled lists of the commands of Christ.  There are actually a lot of “judgment calls” that are required to do so.  You need to make some decisions about whether He was making a generalized command or a specifically limited command which was only applicable to the specific person in the specific situation.  There are many places where He gives a command which is clearly to a specific situation but there is evidence from other Scriptures that the command can and often does have broader application.  There are also commands which were given multiple times in different contexts and one must determine whether to count that as a single command or multiple commands.  One must also decide whether or not to include passages where Jesus is quoting the Old Testament.

With all that said, I have made my own list.  It has 94 commands.

Why have so many people (including me) gone to the trouble to make such a list?  I cannot speak for everyone, but I (and I suspect many others) have done it because of Matthew 28:19-20, the Great Commission.  In that verse, Jesus commands His followers to make disciples.  There are several participles in that verse in addition to the primary (imperative) verb.  In one of those participial phrases, Jesus describes the act of making disciples as including “teaching them to obey all I have commanded you.”  In other words, every follower of Christ is to seek to get others to follow Jesus, and that includes getting them to obey all His commands.  Since that is the case, it is pretty important that we have a clear idea of exactly what His commands are.

A German friend of mine, Wolfgang Simson, compiled his own list.  He describes it as “the constitution of the Kingdom (of God).”  I believe that is a helpful way to think of it.  We are citizens of the Kingdom of God.  Jesus is King.  His commands are the constitution, the laws, the principles, the standards, the practices for living in that Kingdom.  With that in mind, I am starting a series of blog posts which look at the commands of Christ.  You may differ with me on the inclusion of some of the commands.  That is fine, but don’t lose the larger narrative that our lives should be characterized by what Jesus commanded AND as His followers we should be getting others to love (and thus obey) Him as well.  This is not optional or for extra credit.  It is the very essence of what it means to be His follower.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  Matthew 28:19-20

I am going to start a series of posts on the commands of Christ.  This is an exceedingly important topic.  In fact, the Great Commission describes the process of making disciples as baptizing people and teaching them to obey all Christ commanded.  There are a number of lists of the commands of Christ.  I am going to add to them by creating my own.

Perhaps the most well-known list of the commands of Christ summarizes them in just seven commands.  I feel there is value, however, in a more complete look at the topic.  If we want the simplest list possible then we should probably just limit ourselves to the Great Commandment (and the Second) as Jesus did.  If we love God with all our being and love our neighbor as ourself then all the other commands will be fulfilled.  In fact, Jesus equated loving Him with obeying Him.  That is another way we can look at it.

Obedience to the commands of Christ has nothing to do with legalism or with somehow earning salvation.  It is the response of our grateful heart in love to the One who loved us and gave Himself for us.  It is done in the power of the Holy Spirit Whom He has given us.  It is evidence of our new life in Him.  It is the expression of our love for Him.  As it says in 1 John 5:3, “this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.”  It is not an onerous duty but an overflow of loving gratitude.

Christ is our King.  His desire is our aim.  He has specific plans for what He wants to do in us in conforming us to His image.  He has specific plans for what He wants to do through us as we are told in Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  We want to please Him.  We want His will to be done.  That is what life in the Kingdom is all about.  Kingdom living is about seeing His will done on earth as it is in heaven.  That starts with obeying Jesus’ commands.

Luke 10:25-28  On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”  He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”  “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

Matthew 28:18-20  Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 6:9-10  “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…”

Romans 8:28-30  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.  And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

John 14:15 “If you love me, keep my commands.”

One of the ObeyGC² values is that work has an exit strategy if it is not in one’s home community.

This is essential in order to avoid dependency. I’ve discussed dependency resources in another entry, but I wanted to mention another book on the subject. Steve Saint, son of missionary martyr Nate Saint, has written a book called “The Great Omission” which describes dependency in a fresh way. An exit strategy touches on many of the other values I’ve discussed. It probably most directly relates to reproducing, scaling, community-based, viralocity, training (not teaching), local ownership, do no harm, and transformational. The point is that work is not going to be as empowering or developmental as it needs to be if someone does not phase themselves out of the work and phase in local leadership and manpower. This process should begin from day one and be intentional.

The training cycle summarizes this process: model, assist, watch and leave. At first you will do something or train something that is new. You are modeling. Then you will help a local person do or train that new thing. This is assisting. Then you will watch as they do it on their own and be available as a consultant. This is watching. Once they have demonstrated the ability to repeat these three stages in the next generation of learners, you leave. I like to compare this to teaching someone to ride a bicycle. The first step is the person seeing someone ride a bicycle (model). The next is holding the bicycle (assisting) while they pedal. The next step is watching them try and often fail and get back on and try again. When they have the skill learned and know the rules of the road, the trainer leaves. The learner can then help someone else learn to ride. The leaving is important! If my parents had to watch me every time I rode my bike, I wouldn’t get to ride too often. (I’m in my 40’s!)

Paul clearly used this pattern in his missionary activity, but that’s a bit long to look into in a brief blog entry. These first verses are excerpts of his address to the leaders of the church he planted at Ephesus and give a glimpse into these stages.

Acts 20:25, 28, 32, 35

25 Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again.

28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.
32 Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’

2 Tim 1:13

13 What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus.

1 Cor 11:1-2
11:1 Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

2 I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the teachings, just as I passed them on to you.

One of the ObeyGC² values is that work respects local community leaders.

This makes good sense from a practical perspective as well as simply being the right thing to do. Since ObeyGC² work aims to be transformational, it is concerned with the entire community environment. Local community leaders play a major role in shaping the local environment. Generally, the more they can “buy in” to work and the more community-based the work is, the better chance it has to continue and prosper over the long haul.

Respecting the local community leaders also sets a good example for local believers and provides a good witness for those who are not yet believers. Clearly God wants us to respect our leaders and we can best represent Him when we model that.

Rom 13:1-7
13:1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. 4 For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience.

6 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. 7 Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.