rob said:What are the commandments of Christ?
How do we keep them?
I to had a point in time when I was seeking the same answers and the following is what I found. When I was searching for how to follow Jesus God showed me that I first had to know what a "Christian" was. He took me to the bible to see what it meant. We see in Acts 26:28 the first mention of people being called "Christians": And Agrippa said to Paul, Do you persuade me to be a Christian in but a little? According to Strong's "christian" means: Christianos khris-tee-an-os' From G5547; a Christian, that is, follower of Christ: - Christian. So to be a Christian we must follow Christ.
Next I wanted to know how to follow Christ so God took me to What Jesus Himself said about it in John: Joh 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. Joh 13:35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Joh 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
Joh 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Joh
14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
These verses show us that Christ equates following Him with keeping His commandments and words. Jesus then equates us keeping His commandments with Him keeping the Father's commandments and the way to abide in love: Joh 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. This verse shows us what the two great commandments shows us: Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment. Mat 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. All three verses show us God works through love mercy and justice and therefore so must we.
If we obey even just these verses alone then we will want to present God's plan of salvation to others, we will want to disciple others, we will want to do God's will, we will want to spend time with other believers and we will want to ease the suffering and burdens others bear - thereby fulfilling the great commission Jesus gave us just before He returned to Heaven and we will fulfill the love God wants us to show to others. ;D