Do we need to hear of things we are not to do?

9/12/2021

I have recently heard a woman state that she liked how her pastor preached. Always preaching on how you should live your life, the things you should do, what God approves of and never on things that are sin in our lives. Thanks to the many years and many preachers that have taught me over the years, it didn’t sound right to me.

While sitting here reading the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy it caused me to think about God and His Word, the Bible. Verse one states “Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it:”. I noticed that we are to teach His commandments and His statutes as well as His judgments.

To teach His commandments, hmmm, doesn’t His commandments tell us things we are to do and are not to do? As I pondered this my mind went to the Ten Commandments that God, Himself, gave to Moses. Yes, some of them are teaching us to do and live right such as honoring our parents, putting God first and nothing before Him. Then there are the ones that tell us what we should not do which is telling us how not to live. In other words, God, Himself, gives us both viewpoints, how to live and how not to live. God said “Thou shalt not” ten times in the Ten Commandments which leads me to thinking that we need to focus on what God tells us NOT to do just as much as we focus on what we ARE to do.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for our instruction manual, Your Bible. Thank you for our instructor, the Holy Ghost, and our brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son. Help us in this world do what You want us to do and not follow the carnal nature.

Guide us in Your ways. Amen.

C.I. Wilson