Gospel.com Blog

God’s law, revealed in the Ten Commandments and throughout the Bible, is often caricatured as a giant list of “thou shalt not’s”. Unfortunately, throughout church history, Christians have often contributed to this impression by focusing their energies too much what believers aren’t supposed to be doing.

But as this devotional by Chuck Swindoll points out, one amazing thing about God’s law as summarized by Jesus is how active and positive it is:

“Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 7:2). That single sentence is perhaps the most famous statement Jesus ever made. It is the “Everest of Ethics,” as one man put it. In some ways it is the cornerstone of true Christianity, certainly the capstone of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

I appreciate the positive emphasis. Instead of saying, “Don’t do this,” He says, “Do this.”

You want to impact your family, your church, your community, your place of employment? You want to make a difference in the life of your mate, a family member, a friend (Christian or not), some person in the workplace? Demonstrate the characteristics of Christ.

There are certainly activities God doesn’t want His children to participate in. But a truly Christlike life isn’t obsessed with “thou shalt not’s”—it’s obsessed with actively living out Christian values in our life and relationships.

Satisfaction can be an elusive thing, especially when we try to find it on our own. Buying a new TV or starting a new relationship might make us feel better for a while, but eventually those feelings of newness and completeness fade and leave us in the same spot we were before.

True satisfaction can only be found in Christ, and as we read in this devotional from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening, Christ satisfies us forever:

When Jesus is the host, no guest goes empty from the table. Our head is satisfied with the precious truth which Christ reveals; our heart is content with Jesus, as the altogether lovely object of affection; our hope is satisfied, for whom have we in heaven but Jesus? and our desire is satiated, for what can we wish for more than “to know Christ and to be found in him?” Jesus fills our conscience till it is at perfect peace; our judgment with persuasion of the certainty of his teachings; our memory with recollections of what he has done, and our imagination with the prospects of what he is yet to do.

Read the rest at Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

Is it hard or easy for you to turn to Christ to find satisfaction?