Hello my fellow steemians! I am starting today my weekly Sunday/Wednesday posts. I plan on blogging/vlogging daily, but until I am ready to launch this commitment of mine, I will guarantee a new post on Sundays, and Wednesdays. The content I publish on these days will be balanced between blogging and vlogging. Today, as you all know, I will be blogging. On Wednesday, I release the vlog version of this blog. So with that said, I hope you find this interesting, inspiring, as well as encouraging. I believe passing this knowledge along to others is what God would want me to do, just as He passed this knowledge along to me.
In the above picture, I am holding my favorite bible, the Evidence Bible, in which I will be using for the scripture found in this post. It's the NKJV and is mainly used as an evangelism bible. Now if you will, grab your bible and go to Matthew 22:35-40.
The Two
The Ten
So we have established the two great commandments. Now let's take a look at the ten. You will find them twice, Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21. Let's go to the original scriptures that introduced the world to the ten, the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20:2-17. First, let's view the following video:
The Breakdown
Now that we have gone over the two great commandments, as well as the ten commandments, let me show how the two great commandments do not make the ten commandments obsolete. Without the Ten Commandments, the two great commandments would be obsolete. It's the ten commandments that make the two great commandments, as well as the two greatest commandments that are the ten commandments.
Take a look at this simple drawing of the ten commandments:
Let me ask you something: Did you notice the two great commandments within the Ten Commandments? Let me show you how the two greatest commandments are hidden in plain sight within the Ten Commandments.
Here are the Ten Commandments:
1-You shall have no other gods before Me.
2-You shall make no idols.
3-You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
4-Keep the Sabbath day holy.
5-Honor your father and your mother.
6-You shall not murder.
7-You shall not commit adultery.
8-You shall not steal.
9-You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10-You shall not covet.
Taking a closer look, you will notice that there are basically two sections of the Ten Commandments. "Section 1" are Commandments 1-4, while "section 2" are the last 6, Commandments 5-10. As you can start to see, the "two sections" of the Ten are the two great commandments.
You see, Commandments 1-4 strictly deal with our relationship towards God Himself, while Commandments 5-10 strictly deals with our relationship towards other people. Are you starting to see it now. Commandments 1-4 make up the First and Greatest Commandment "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind", while Commandments 5-10 make up the Great Commandment, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Knowledge is the Beginning
Before I close out this post, I hope this knowledge will inspire you more to seek Him out. Diligently! He rewards those who diligently seek Him. I tend to think God doesn't necessarily reward with material things, but with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of Him and His will for our lives.
You see, the first of the two great commandments is the greatest because it deals with our relationship with Him. Everything starts with God. Even Genesis 1:1 starts off with putting God first, "In the beginning God". If we can't keep the greatest commandment of all, we will never be able to "Love our neighbors as ourselves". We must learn how to love God first. If we can't, or don't, love God first, we will not be able to love others. That's why this is the Greatest Commandment of all. Once we can love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, then we will we know how to love thy neighbor as thyself.
Closure
I hope that you were able to see and understand this topic a bit more. I know many people who say the Ten Commandments are no longer applicable in today's time, but even Jesus says in Matthew 22:40, "On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets" Hence, the Ten-In-2!
Thank you as always for reading my content here on the awesome steemit platform. I pray this helps all who need it. Don't forget that on Wednesday, January 24, 2018, I will be uploading my vlog on this same post. The video will be longer and help explain everything a lot better. Until then, God bless,
and keep seeking Him diligently. The rewards are mind blowing!