There are over 1,000 commands in the New Testament alone. Some of them are specific. Some of them, I’m calling, non-specific. You can easily find a list of all the commandments of the New Testament. I said “some” for the specific and “some” for the non-specific, but those two are far from equal.
Scripture uses commandments a lot. This has stopped being normal in our culture. Very few people tell people what to do anymore, and especially as it relates to the Bible, what God says.
When I took English, the command was a verb with an implied subject, “you.” A command is not an option. You are required to follow a command. It’s called “obeying a command.” A command demands obedience.
The Bible is authoritative. It is an authority. It is the highest authority. It is God’s Word. God makes commands because He is the highest authority. He is on top of the command chain. He is called “the Highest” in scripture. He is above everything and everyone.
Sometimes God’s commands are specific. Here are some examples.
Ephesians 4:28, “Let him that stole steal no more.”Ephesians 5:6, “Let no man deceive you with vain words.”1 Corinthians 7:10, “Let not the wife depart from her husband.”1 Corinthians 7:11, “Let not the husband put away his wife.”1 Thessalonians 4:2, “Abstain from fornication.”
I’ve got some news for you. Most of the commands in scripture are non-specific. If you kept all of the specifics, I haven’t counted how many that is, it’s at the most twenty percent. That leaves 80% of the commands as non-specific. It may be more than that. Those are commands too though. They also require obedience.
To obey non-specific commands also requires specific applications of those non-specific commands. If someone wants to, he could ignore these commands, and someone could easily go without notice. God will see it, but these commands, and there are hundreds of them, I contend, are ignored. They’ve got to be applied and they can be applied in a specific way. God isn’t commanding us to do something or not do something (a prohibition) that can’t be understood. Let me give you some examples of these.
Romans 13:14, “Make not provision for the flesh.”1 Peter 2:11, “Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.”Romans 12:2, “Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.”Luke 12:15, “Beware of covetousness.”2 Timothy 2:22, “Flee youthful lusts.”
We’re all still accountable to God to obey all of these non-specific commands. They do relate to music, to dress, to what we call “cultural issues.” We can’t play dumb. God knows.
Recent Comments