Series How to please God 2 of 4

The second step that every man takes toward “pleasing God” is when he endeavors to 2) keep His commandments.  

Now in this lesson, rather than list all of the many commandments of God in order to see how each one of us rates in regard to our obedience to them, I want us to consider the most important one of God’s commandments.   

But first of all, let’s see what the scriptures teach us about being able to keep most of God’s commandments, but failing in just a few of them.

James 2: 8 If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well:

9 But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.

10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

11 For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

Notice verse 8) if you fulfill the royal law which means that in order to do this, that you must love others even as you love your own self . . . and if accomplished, this is a good thing.  

But then James qualifies what fulfilling this commandment actually means in the reality of everyday life.  If you think that you have reached the point where you are able to love your neighbor as thyself, consider that you have failed, if you ye have respect of persons.

To have respect of persons refers to showing “partiality” or giving favored treatment to some but withholding it from others.  What this means is that we have respect of persons when we treat our friends better than we treat those who are not our friends. 

If we favor our fellow Razorback fans with tickets on the fifty yard line, while we only give “end zone” tickets to those who are not Razorback fans, then we are showing partiality and

we are having respect of persons and according to James 2:9 this is a sin.  And because of this we have not really kept (to the fullest extent possible) the commandment which tells us to love our neighbor even as we love ourselves.

Verse 10) tells us that if we were able to keep the whole law (which is not really possible, but if it were possible) and if we failed in only ONE of God’s many commandments 

then we would still not be able to say that we had “kept” God’s commandments, but we would be guilty of disobedience just like those who had kept all of them except two.  

Consider the state trooper and how useless it would be when we were pulled over for speeding to explain that even though we were speeding, there were many other laws that we were obeying.   

Yes, I was speeding, but I was wearing my seat belt.  

Yes, I was speeding but I was not following too close.   

Yes, I was speeding but I was doing everything else according to the letter of the law.

Now if the situation described above actually occurred, would your obedience to all of the traffic laws except the speed limit law only, would this in any way make you “not guilty” of speeding so that (in the eyes of the law) you would be except from getting a ticket; of course not.  

Well this is exactly what James is telling us in the passage above.

11 For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

For he that said, do not speed also said, do not follow too close, use your turn signals properly and come to a complete stop at a stop sign.  Now if you are guilty of speeding, yet if you do not follow too close, if you use your turn signals properly and if you always come to a complete stop at a stop sign, you are still a TRANSGRESSOR of the law.

So before we continue with the next lesson, in which we will define in no uncertain terms, the most important commandment that God has ever given to mankind.  

I want us to consider {that in light of what we have read in James 2: 8-11} that even though we honestly try to “keep” His commandments, because we cannot keep them all, we have become guilty of breaking God’s Law.  And the result of breaking God’s Law, is that we are in danger of His judgment against sin.

Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

So of all the commandments of God, the most important one is . . . See my next post, until then God bless.