Obedience, the requirement of the law, is possible only by faith. Faith is possible only by grace, as a gift, and not of our own works.
>> God sums up the Bible; in fact- God sums up ALL ‘Religion’- in the following 28 words; the most important words ever recorded.
1599 Geneva Bible
James 1 – 27:
Pure religion and undefiled before God, even the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their adversity, and to keep himself unspotted of the world.
>> GREATEST Commandments ever given:
Matthew 22- 37//38//39//40:
37 Jesus said to him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and the great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hangeth the whole Law and the Prophets.
>> Helping the poor is an expression of the greatest commandment, which is to love God and love your neighbour as yourself. We need to reach out and ‘’Touch the Untouchables’’. The Bible account of the Good Samaritan says it all. Helping the poor is undoubtedly one of the most important COMMANDMENTS of all. It is NOT a ’suggestion’, it is a COMMADMENT straight from GOD.
Deuteronomy 15 – 11:
11. Because there shall be ever some poor in the land, therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand unto thy brother, to thy needy, and to thy poor in thy land.
The above 3 excerpts are just 3 out of Hundreds. People ask me--- what about the 10 commandments? What about the other 40-some commandments? I always say to them- ‘if’ you are keeping the preceding 3 commandments, then you are already keeping all the rest. And that is ONE of the reasons they are so important.
The real, and main reason these three are of utmost importance is outlined in Matthew 24 – 14: And this [g]Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached through the whole [h]world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.
NO CHURCH in history has preached the true Gospel- of the Soon-coming Government//Kingdom of GOD’’ – to the whole world. Today’s SEEKER FRIENDLY mega churches preaching their corrupted ‘Prosperity’ doctrines to rich and Middle-class congregations of 5000 to 100,000 are Not reaching the world. And no church to date has ever built a university just for the orphans & poor. There are poorer people in the world than there are rich & middle-class people, and no church is concentrating on these marginalised masses. No church in history has given 100% of all tithes and donations to the ORPHANS, the WIDOWS, and the poor.
And because they are not keeping these three commandments, God pulls their blessings, and these mega-churches splinter and falter. And BECAUSE they are not keeping these commandments, the gospel is not reaching the four corners of the world! AND THEREFORE-as Matthew 24 points out, the return of Christ Jesus is being delayed.