written by Dries Cronje
After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee preaching the Message of God: “Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message.” – Mark 1:14-15 The Message (emphasis mine)
The words Jesus spoke in the above verse could be considered his first command in the gospel of Mark. This category of echurch will be highlighting the commands or instructions of Jesus and focus on how we can go about practically living and obeying them.
Why bother with the ‘commands’ or ‘commandments’ of Jesus? ‘Command’ is such a stern word, right? Almost out of place in our free society today. Well, consider a superior at your workplace, someone you really respect and don’t mind working with who also shares your values. Let’s say this person asks you to do something that’s very important. You agree that it’s important, and see the value of complying with your superior’s instructions very clearly. That would be a ‘command’ if you look at the meaning of the word and forget the clutter that we’ve added to it. Jesus gives such instructions to those who respect Him and want to follow Him.
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Language lives. Just consider how powerful a run-of-the-mill phrase like “Thank you” can be. Or a short sentence like: “I love you!” In the same way, sharp words can be very hurtful. Hard, loveless words are like gun shots. They wound people. That’s why the bible instructs us to count our words before we let them loose on the world. By the way, this isn’t merely good advice. God created us to be able to form second opinions. Our emotions are our first opinion formers. Some researchers are of the opinion that our emotions are as much as a million times faster than our thoughts, which are our second opinion formers. When we literally count to three, we have allowed our thoughts to kick-in. Then they can eliminate the words that our emotions want to let loose prematurely.