Last week we saw that the revealed will of God is what God wants us to do and that the first thing that God wants us to do is believe in Jesus. But if you have believed, is there anything else that God wants you to do?
Once you become a Christian by believing in Jesus, God also wills that you will keep his revealed laws. What are the revealed laws that God wants you to follow? The Bible actually contains many laws and so it is all a bit bewildering to anyone who opens the Bible for the first time. But thankfully Jesus summed up all the laws of God into two commands when he was asked which is the greatest commandment: ‘Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments”’ (Matthew 22:37-40). So God’s revealed will for you is to love God and love everybody else as you love yourself. When you are trying to work out what you should do in a given situation, you need to simply ask is this loving towards God and towards my neighbours. If it isn’t a loving action, then it is against God’s will and he doesn’t want you to do it.
To help you work out practical examples of loving God and your neighbour, the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:1-17 have long been considered as a good summary. The first four commandments focus on loving God (don’t have other gods; don’t have idols; don’t take God’s name in vain; keep God’s day), while the last six focus on love for neighbour (honour parents; don’t murder; don’t commit adultery; don’t steal; don’t lie; and don’t covet).
But the trouble is that if you have ever tried to love God and your neighbour, you will know that it is extraordinarily difficult. Thus many Christians may claim that they are struggling to find out God’s will for them, but in reality what they are doing is struggling to obey God’s will. God has very clearly revealed what you should be doing in most situations that you are faced with, the problem is that you don’t like the revealed will of God and would much rather do your own will.
So when you are faced with a situation and you think you don’t know what God’s will is, ask yourself whether it is quite clear and you are simply avoiding it? Then ask God for the power to be able to do his revealed will by loving him and loving your neighbour.
Joel Radford.
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