Isolating God's Commands

# 583 - Today's Du-votional comes from: Mr 10:19,20 "You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not murder,' 'Do not steal,' 'Do not bear false witness,' 'Do not defraud,' 'Honor your father and your mother.'" And he answered and said to Him, "Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth."

It is interesting to look at the word “kept” here. Most of the times in Scripture, the idea of “keeping” the commandments means to “put a hedge around them as if they are something valuable. In short, it usually means to treasure them. Of course, if you treasure them, you will seek to obey them.

But here the word means to isolate. Do you see the subtle difference? One is fear based, and the other is love based. The Pharisees sought to isolate the commandments by putting their own little fences around God's commands in the form of their man-made rules.

In time, they came to treasure their man-made hedges more than God's Word. They believed that adherence to their man-made rules would actually keep them from breaking God's commands. This is the heart of legalism.

Legalism always misses the Spirit of the Law which is love. Don't isolate yourselves from God's Words. Treasure them! And remember, only the Holy Spirit can give us the proper love of God's commands. Only He can cause us to treasure God's Word. Surrender your life to Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to rule your heart. Then you will be able to say with the Psalmist, “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.” (Ps 119:97)

Father, How I need the love of the Holy Spirit in my heart, humble me. Make straight the way, remove any and all barriers I have put up, that He might come and reign in my heart.