“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.”
– Matthew 22:36-40
What are you going to do today?
My advice? Don’t consult Siri or Alexa or Google. Don’t get on you smartphone either. Don’t watch any news. It will only drive you crazy. Turn off all the background noise. Open your heart, your mind and your spirit, and quietly take 10 minutes and read this column.
To say there is some confusion about right and wrong in our world today would be a great understatement. It’s chaos! Every man does what is right in his own eyes. Just what God saw in Bible times. It hasn’t got any better.
Right and wrong is determined by God, not man. It’s His absolute prerogative as the Creator of the universe. Of course, mankind has rebelled against His definitions since the beginning. Like lawyers, we’ve looked for loopholes in the law. We’ve rationalized what He meant. We permit ourselves to be lured by temptation. We’ve even attempted to rewrite the rules or pretend they have changed or been done away with.
As I said, it didn’t take long for us to fall to what God, the Creator of all things and the lawgiver, defined as sin – the transgression of His law. (1 John 3:4) It happened in paradise – a perfect world in which man lacked for nothing. Today, we make excuses for sin – poverty, unfairness, injustice, inequity. We heed the call of false gods. We openly mock God and pretend He doesn’t exist or is a paternalistic, arbitrary and capricious tyrant.
But, most of all, we seek to be our own gods – determining for ourselves what we do and how we behave.
It doesn’t work. It has never worked. And it causes incalculable pain, suffering and death.
Jesus, or Yeshua, who is the Creator of all things (John 1:1-3), reminded us how simple God’s laws really are – love God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. Yet, we all fall short of that mark and need a Redeemer, who was provided for everyone willing to repent.
Still, we insist on making it up as we go along – telling ourselves lies.
If it feels good, do it.
Do what you want as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else.
You can be whatever you want to be.
Here’s the thing we often forget: Though God clearly wants us to love Him and one another, we are all ultimately accountable to Him. All sins are offenses against God and require forgiveness from Him. The penalty is separation from God and death.
How do we show love for God and our neighbors? By obeying His commandments. (John 14:15)
There’s no getting around it. We cannot escape obeying His commandments and then live forever. It’s just that simple. You can get away with sin for a time, but that time is actually quite short compared with eternity.
What if science offered you everlasting life in paradise? What would you be willing to do for it? How much would you be willing to pay?
At the end of the day, that’s what God offers each and every one of us. And all He asks is that we love Him like His sons and daughters made in His own image and love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
Is that possible? Yes, because He doesn’t expect us to be perfect. He loves us so much that He gave His only begotten Son to die for our sins so that our transgressions could be forgiven and forgotten.
Isn’t that the kind of God you would love to serve? Or would you really prefer to serve His adversary, a rebellious, fallen angel, the prince of this world, who hates and resents you and who himself is destined to die?
That’s the choice we face – the only choice.
Planet Earth is a battleground between this rebellious, people-hating fallen angel and the God who created it and everything else that exists. It’s not even really a contest. The outcome is already decided. It’s just your fate that is still in doubt.
Do you want to die – or live forever in paradise? That’s the most important decision you need to make today. God has been telling us the same news for 6,000 years.
REPENT! It’s all you have to do – sincerely, quietly, in prayer.
Don’t wait another minute.
God’s offer of forgiveness is found throughout the Bible. “The Gospel in Every Book of the Old Testament” by Joseph Farah is available in both hardcover and e-book versions.
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This article was originally published by the WND News Center.