1 FOR 10: LOVE CONQUERS ALL, AGAPE!

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

7 “You shall have no other gods beforea me.
8 “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10but showing love to a thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments.
11 “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
12 “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. 15Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.
16 “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
17 “You shall not murder.
18 “You shall not commit adultery.
19 “You shall not steal.
20 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
21 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor’s house or land, his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Many people focus on the 10 commandments only so I will, however, the law contained hundreds of commandments to follow. In Romans, we are told that we are no longer subject to the law but we are under grace. Why? Because it is almost impossible to keep the entire law. You may be thinking what is she talking about it is not hard to keep the law. Remember there is more to the law than the 10 commandments.

Allow me to prove my point Deuteronomy 21:18-21 says "If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. They shall say to the elders, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard.' Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid."
Now I can say at times I have a stubborn and rebellious child, but Yahweh, and I am not going to take him to the elders to be stoned to death. In me not doing so, I would be breaking the law! Thank Yahweh for Jesus and grace.
So when grace came in we received 1 for 10. What is our 1 commandment Luke 10:27 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.”

To love, we are commanded to LOVE. Yahweh loves us with an agape love, unconditional. We can do everything to Him and other things that we are not supposed to do but if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us. Please keep in mind that does not negate reaping what you have sown!
So, what is Love? 4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. (I Corinthians 13:4-8)

It is difficult, DIFFICULT, to love someone unconditionally but it is what Yahweh ask of us. It is amazing, we can lie, cheat, steal, do something, anything that the bible specifically tells us not to do yet when we go before Him with a sincere hard and confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us. Not only does He forgive us but He forgets that it ever happened. That’s awesome. However, if our child, relative, significant other and/or co-worker wrongs us we have 3 choices, we can forgive and forget, we can forgive but not forget, or we can choose not to forgive. Most people choose options 2 or 3. Why? And don’t say because we aren’t Yahweh! Part of it is due to our flesh (pride etc.) and it is also because in order to learn how to LOVE the way that we should we have to be put in situations where we have to be patient, kind, forgiving and so on even when we feel wronged by someone else. It is our choice, our own free will to decide to act out of love or act out of flesh and disguise it as love.

When we feel wronged, that usually causes strife in our relationships. Bill Winston blessed, BLESSED me this AM because I was experiencing strife in my relationships this week. He said, “Strife is an enemy of love and it breaks down your spiritual immune system.” The one thing we have to remember is that it is not people that we are fighting with. What we should be fighting is the good fight of faith. Outside of that we have to recognize that we wrestle not with flesh and blood but with the rules, spiritual hosts of wickedness, principalities (Ephesians 6:12). People are not our problem heck I won’t even say the enemy is my problem. Instead of focusing on people we have to think about the driving force behind them at times. We have to also remember sometimes that driving force is behind us.

Strife, being in strife with someone else makes us spiritually vulnerable. Vulnerable means that you are weak in an area or some areas and that also means that you can be a victim of deception or simply choose to make not so good decisions because you are in a vulnerable state.
So what do we need to do? WE need to work on practicing LOVE at all times because Faith only works in LOVE. Yahweh is LOVE, LOVE conquers ALL. Trust me it is easier written in this blog than done as this is something that EVERYONE, I promise you EVERYONE on the face of this earth struggles with in one way or another. Nevertheless, let us learn how to act in love towards ALL of mankind, ourselves, and Yahweh (in reverse order).

Be a blessing and be blessed,
Epiphany Essentials