The Ten Commandments leading to Salvation

As I was growing up I always felt that the 10 Commandments could be stated as simply as
DO NOT STEAL.

1-3 Don't steal YHWH's unique glory and worship

4 Don't steal YHWH's requested time of communion with you

5 Don't steal your parent's rightful honor

6 Don't steal the life of another

7 Don't steal another's spouse

8 Don't steal

9 Don't steal truth and justice from anyone

10 Don't even WANT to steal

I don't think this is profound or anything.

But in my own realization about God this seemed to make the most sense to me.  My initial reaction to learning that God DID exist was quite simply, "He must be a very cold hearted God."  My second realization was that it didn't matter.

He was God.
I would either submit to Him or I wouldn't.

That may seem strange to most 'Christians'.  We go on and on about how loving God is, how merciful.  Churches endlessly preach about our salvation and freedom and Love, Love, Love.  I have even been told that we need not teach our children the bible at all, just teach them "LOVE".

We forget, and fail to preach fully, that God is HOLY, PURE, JUST, and RIGHTEOUS.  We rarely want to look at how we 'measure up' when compared to the Law of YHWH.  Indeed most churches now teach that there is no law, only LOVE.

But deep in our hearts.... we KNOW there is.  That guilt.... conviction..... it is our very spirits crying out that there is a law and we are failing to walk in it.

1 John 3:4 tells us, "Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness."

Yes, to those whose conscious is not yet destroyed and seared to silence, it is clear that God can be cold, distant and hard to please. Proverbs 28:9 says, "He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination."

For me, I was brought to the conclusion that He was God and regardless of whether or not I 'liked it' I had to submit to it.  I had to submit to HIM.

It was only AFTER this submission that YHWH revealed Himself to me as Love, Healing, Hope, Joy and Laughter.  And it was astounding.  And each tide of revelation has been as astounding as the first.  Wave after wave after wave of..... WOW.

I have read of other's being brought on a similar journey by Him.  Many of those whom I know, who love YHWH dearly, were brought to Him, by HIS hand, from the midst of darkness and pain.  There was real breaking involved.

Hebrew for Christians shared a different summarization of the Ten Commandments.....

[1] “I am your only deliverer, the One who loves and personally chooses you;

[2] love me exclusively;

[3] regard my love as sacred;

[4] rest in me;

[5] honor your life and its history; do no harm to others;

[6] forsake your anger;

[7] abandon your lust;

[8] renounce your greed and

[9] abhor lying.

Finally,

[10] refuse to envy others or compare yourself with them.
Know that you belong to me and that you are accepted.
Love others as you are also loved...

I believe that this is also correct and a beautiful illustration of YHWH and His desire for His people.  And maybe for some... this more closely portrays your testimony of the Messiah grabbing ahold of your heart, wooing you gently, with soft words, and a kind hand.

But for me it was more like a parent yanking me from the train tracks that I willingly walked on blindfolded waiting for that speeding train to come and make it all end.

Know anyone who is lost?

Love is well and good.

But I question that LOVE is enough.  Especially as the word warns us

our hearts are deceitful

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9

we will have vile affections

For this cause ELOHIYM gave them up unto vile affections. Romans 1:26a

our love will grow cold.

And because lawlessness shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Matthew 24:12

ALL of these are caused by our turning from the law of YHWH.

Without the Law of YHWH we have NO IDEA what love is.

By this we know that we love the children of ELOHIYM,

when we love EL, and keep his commandments.

For this is the love of ELOHIYM,

that we keep his commandments:

and his commandments are not grievous.

1 John 5:2-3

We NEED the Law to Love.  Otherwise, our 'love', our 'good deeds', and all our 'righteousness', becomes nothing but filthy rags.

All of us have become like one who is unclean,

and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;

we all shrivel up like a leaf,

and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

Isaiah 64:6

So let us look at His actual Ten Commandments from Exodus 20

And ELOHIYM spake all these words, saying,

I am YHVH thy ELOHIYM,
which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,
or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above,
or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them:
for I YHVH thy ELOHIYM am a jealous EL,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me,
and keep my commandments.

Thou shalt not take the name of YHVH thy ELOHIYM in vain;
for YHVH will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work:
But the seventh day is the sabbath of YHVH thy ELOHIYM:
in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter,
thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle,
nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
For in six days YHVH made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day:
wherefore YHVH blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Honor thy father and thy mother:
that thy days may be long upon the land which YHVH thy ELOHIYM giveth thee.

Thou shalt not murder.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house,
thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant,
nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's.

Many are now taught that following the Laws of the Bible are REJECTION of Yahshua, Jesus.  But what does He say?

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Matthew 5:17-18

If you love me, keep my commandments.

John 14:15

And WHAT are Yahshua, Jesus' commandments?  What does John 1:1 reveal about the identity of our Messiah?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with ELOHIYM, and the Word was EL.

He was the WORD.  What word?  THE WORD!

Yashua is TORAH!  Yahshua is the embodiment of the LAWS OF YHWH.

Even Paul said,

Do we then make void the law through faith? Forbid: yea, we establish the law.

Romans 3:31

THIS is the beginning of wisdom.

The fear of YHVH is the beginning of wisdom:

a good understanding have all they that do his commandments:

his praise endureth for ever.

Psalms 111:10

Begin learning the Laws of YHWH, that you may do them, and show TRUE LOVE to YHWH and your neighbor.

To learn more about what was REALLY decided in Acts 15....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZMPjuctLAI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS1N5TnUz6A