JESUS' FIRST COMMANDMENT?

JESUS’ FIRST COMMANDMENT?

Friday, April 08, 2016

  Yesterday I posed 3 questions. Confessing to a bit of tricky wording of the questions, today I answer:

What was Jesus’ first commandment?

                The most common answer to this question when I’ve posed it thru the decades is the first two of The Ten Commandments. This however is not Jesus first recorded publicly voiced commandment. It was  “Repent [G3340 μετανοέω; metanoeō; met-an-o-eh'-o From G3326 and G3539; to think differently or afterwards, that is, reconsider (morally to feel compunction): - repent.] : for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”   (KJV Mt.4:17)

What is Jesus’ first commandment?

                It was later in Jesus’ ministry recorded by Matthew that He responded to a Pharisee, lawyer in the sect, tempting him, saying,  “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 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. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’” (KJV Mt.22:35-40)

How are the two questions connected?

                It is impossible to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind, and our neighbor in kind apart from initial and ongoing repentance. Without repentance there is no true godly love. (Rom.12:1-3; 1Cor.13)

EBB4