A Guide to the Commands of Jesus the Messiah (according to Matthew)
Chris Maynard 2015-09 to 2015-12.
This is an extract that I intend to circulate to a few people to get their opinion and critique before I continue to write the rest. I have completed the first of the four sections that I plan. I have included the headings for the other three.
I am aware that the six studies that I have completed do not have a uniform style. Is this a good thing or should I aim for more consistency? If I should be more consistent, which studies read better than the others?
Is this really likely to help anyone, or should I try something completely different?
Is it OK to stick with Matthew (excluding the other gospels)? Bear in mind that if I include the other gospels I would have pretty much the same headings, but the volume of examples would double.
The target audience for this version is someone whose first language is English, who wants to follow Jesus, and who is NOT interested in being comprehensive or learning about New Testament Greek. So it follows that there are no tables or any Greek (except possibly in an appendix).
There are some candidate “side bars” that are not part of any one study, but seem to be important issues for anyone studying the commands to consider. Here is my current list of them:
3rd person commands and their significance
Jesus’ approach to the law of Moses (this is the only one I have written out and it is currently in section 4).
The significance (weight) of different commands – and implied commands
The danger of taking commands literally AND the danger of reasoning them away.
What about grace and commands?
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Table of Contents 1 Jesus commands us to listen to him 2 Jesus commands us to choose the kingdom of heaven 3 Jesus commands us to follow him 4 Jesus commands us to love and fear God 5 Jesus commands us about families and children 6 Jesus commands us to help people in need Jesus Commands His Disciples About Their Relationship with God to pray about our relationship with him about ourselves how to deal with material things to believe and trust him to be alert Jesus Commands His Disciples to Do Good to love people and tell them of the kingdom how to go, tell and heal to love his disciples how to care for his disciples to learn and be wise not to show off or pretend Jesus Commands His Disciples to Deal with Trouble how to deal with aggression to be careful of deception to deal with our own sin to deal with our enemies to deal with the world To deal with other people’s sin
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This is a simple guide to the commands of Jesus. It is designed for all people who want to follow Jesus Christ. It may also be useful if you haven’t decided yet, but you want to know what it would be like to follow Jesus. It is not like an “instruction manual” or a “quick start guide”. This guide does not have “the answers” to your questions. But it has many of the “questions” that Jesus wants to ask you. You must be ready to listen to Jesus’ commands for yourself. You should be ready to pray and meditate on (think deeply about) what you read. If you don’t, then the seeds may be lost. And you must be ready to change what you do. If you are not ready, save yourself some time and stop reading this guide now.
I have arranged the commands into twenty-four chapters. Each chapter has a different topic. You may disagree with my arrangement and with what I write about the commands. That’s OK! My hope is that you read the commands themselves and listen to what Jesus says to you today. Don’t let what I say put you off listening to what Jesus says.
You don’t have to begin at the beginning. You can read the chapter titles and see what commands you need to learn about. Maybe you need to listen to Jesus’ commands on a particular topic right now.
There is a lot more to Jesus Christ than his commands. The ancient prophecies about him, his birth, his stories, his questions, his miracles, his prayer life, his attitude, his death, his resurrection, the Holy Spirit that he promised, his early followers, the historical context – these (and more) are all important to get a good picture of the man. Yet his commands have a special significance that we should not to overlook.
Matthew records the words of a Roman centurion. In Matthew 8:8-9 the centurion says to Jesus, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
Why did the centurion speak of commanding (“Go”, “Come”, “Do this”)? Had he been watching Jesus? Maybe his soldiers or his servants had told him what Jesus said and did. Perhaps the centurion saw for himself these three things about Jesus:
1. Jesus gave many commands. These are recorded in every gospel. If we count only strong, direct commands, then we find more than 500. If we are more generous in our counting and we include more soft and indirect commands, then we can easily count over 900 records in the New Testament of Jesus giving a command.
2. Jesus gave many different commands. “Go” was one of Jesus most frequent commands. He spoke it in many different situations and for many different reasons. “Come” and “Do” are also commands that Jesus used. Through this guide your will find that Jesus used many different commands. He used more than 200 different verbs in his commands. “Go”, “Come” and “Do” are just three of the many verbs that he used.
3. People usually obeyed Jesus’ commands. In his lifetime, when he gave a specific command to someone or something, they usually obeyed him. The Roman centurion knew that his own soldiers obeyed him because there was a strong military authority behind his commands – the strength of the Roman Empire. He knew that there was no army behind Jesus. So he decided there must be a strong spiritual authority behind Jesus’ commands. Will you listen to the spiritual authority of Jesus’ commands? Good! But listening is not enough.
In Matthew 7:24-27 Jesus said: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
Jesus says that it is safer to hear his words and actually do them. Which of his words should we most consider “doing”? Can we “do” Jesus’ questions? That is difficult. Can we “do” his stories? Maybe some of them. But Jesus’ commands are ready and waiting to be “done”! In this study you will “hear” the commands of Jesus. Will you consider from the beginning how to put them into practice in your life? You can decide. Your “house” will look just as beautiful if you don’t put them into practice. And it will be much easier to build because it doesn’t need foundations. So the choice is yours. Do you want to put in the extra work to dig the foundations? What does Jesus say you will gain from doing his words?
Matthew 28: 16-20 tells us that after Jesus’ resurrection the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’
At the end of his time on earth Jesus gave these four commands to his disciples. We will look at them in more detail in some of the coming sessions, but for now consider what Jesus commands his disciples to teach. Why do you think that would be so important to Jesus?
Why are we looking at Matthew’ gospel? Each gospel writer gives a different view of Jesus and his life. God says that everything should be established by the mouth of two or three witnesses. God is so good to give us not two, not three, but four witnesses to Jesus’ life and words. If you are interested in the commands that Jesus gave to non-humans (to demons, to the waves, to a fig tree…) then make sure you read Mark. Mark records more of these than the other gospel writers. And if you want to look at commands addressed to a single disciple (such as Peter or John), then John’s gospel will give you the most. If you want to study the commands that Jesus gave to other individuals (such as people who came to him for healing) you will need to read the gospel of Luke.
But I want to take us through the commands that are most relevant to us as followers of Jesus in the 21st century. I think that the most important ones for us are the commands that Jesus gave to all his disciples. More of those are recorded in Matthew than in the other gospels. And in fact nearly half of all the records we have of Jesus’ commands (to anyone or anything) are found in Matthew’s gospel. On a strict count, Matthew contains about 200 commands. On a generous count there are more than 400. These are the commands we will look at in this study.
Sometimes Jesus speaks to his “disciples” and sometimes to “the crowd”. His disciples were committed to follow him. In the crowd there were many different people. Some were just interested to hear what was going on. They might soon need to return to their daily work. Jesus gives many more commands to his disciples than he does to the crowd. And when he does give commands to the crowd, they are often different from the ones he gives to his disciples.
So imagine that we are beginning our approach to Jesus as a member of the crowd. We are interested, but we are not yet committed to following him. What are his commands to us? This first section contains six studies of commands that are relevant to all people – not just to disciples of Jesus.
Jesus commanded the crowds to pay attention to him.
In Matthew 11:15 Jesus says, “The one who has ears must hear”. This is a command to everyone who has ears. Do you have ears? He has been talking about John the Baptist. He wants everyone to understand that John
In Matthew 13 Jesus repeatedly tells the crowd to hear. After telling the parable of the sower he tells the crowd, “The one who has ears must hear”. Then the disciples ask him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” His reply (from verse 11 to 17) includes a lot about “seeing”, “hearing” and “understanding”. It seems on the one hand that he doesn’t want to make it easy for people, and on the other that he does want to make knowledge available to anyone who will make an effort to understand. Read those verses and see what you think.
Then Jesus says to his disciples (verse 18), “Hear the parable of the sower.” This is the same command he gave to all those who have ears. But this time he gives it specifically to his disciples, and what he asks them to hear turns out to be not the parable itself but an interpretation of it. And the interpretation shows us that the parable is also about hearing and understanding! The commands, the parable and its interpretation all come together to teach us the importance and the nature of really “hearing”.
Verses 19 to 23: Everyone hearing the word of the kingdom and not understanding it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is what is sown along the path. The seed sown on rocky ground, this is the one hearing the word and at once receiving it with joy. And it doesn’t have a root in itself, but is short lived. Trouble or persecution happening because of the word – they trip up immediately. The seed falling among the thorns, this is the one hearing the word, and the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And the one falling on good soil, this is the one hearing the word also understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, making either a hundred or sixty or thirty.
Then Jesus tells several other parables about the kingdom, ending his final explanation to the disciples with – “Then the righteous will shine out like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. The one who has ears must hear.” (Verse 43.)
If we don’t hear Jesus, we have no chance of learning from him, following him or obeying him. That is why he commands all people to hear what he has to say. Do you hear him? Do you read or listen to his words regularly? He also commands his disciples to hear.
Here is a checklist of Jesus’ commands to pay attention. I have put the three that seem to be the most important for us at the top of the list.
Matt 13:9 Hear
Matt 13:18 Hear
Matt 13:43 Hear
Matt 7:24 Hear
Matt 24:25 See
Matt 13:23 Hear
Matt 21:33 Hear
Matthew in chapter 6 recorded that Jesus said to his disciples in the hearing of a large crowd, “‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on the earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moths nor vermin destroy, and where thieves do not break in and do not steal. For where your treasure is now, there your heart will come to be.’ … ‘No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and think nothing of the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon.’ … ‘So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’
Is Jesus arguing for a balance in your life? Does he say, “Do not get carried away with your devotion to your heavenly Father”? Does he not tell us rather that we have a choice? If we try to avoid that choice, what does he say will happen?
In the parable of the sower, there were four different results, yet Jesus often says that there are really only two ways to choose. What things does he command or encourage us to choose? List them on one side, and list the things he wants or commands us to choose against on the other side. Which do you want? Which do you want to want?
At another time the authorities try to trap him with a question about taxes. He asks to see a coin used for paying the tax. “They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, ‘Whose image is this? And whose inscription?’ ‘Caesar’s,’ they replied. Then he said to them, ‘So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.’”
To fully understand that second command: “Give back to God what is God’s”. We need to remember that in the beginning God created us male and female in his image, just as the coin bears the image of Caesar, and now he has put a mark of ownership on us – the Holy Spirit, just as the coin bears Caesar’s inscription. Our money may rightfully belong to the government, but we our selves rightfully belong to God.
Enter through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter it. For narrow is the gate and narrow the way that leads into life and few are the finders.
What do these things really mean?
Notice that Jesus gives reasons why we should obey some of these commands:
What does Jesus say will happen if we seek the Father’s kingdom?
What makes treasure in heaven better than treasure on earth?
Why does he say that the narrow gate is better?
Jesus often does this. Look for these reasons in each study. I will not always draw attention to them.
Here is a list of Jesus’ commands to about choosing the Kingdom of Heaven. As usual, the ones that seem to be the most important are at the top of the list.
Matt 6:33 seek your heavenly Father's kingdom
Matt 6:33 seek your heavenly Father's righteousness
Matt 7:13 enter through the narrow gate
Matt 22:21 give to Caesar what is Caesar's
Matt 22:21 give to God what is God's
Matt 6:19 don't store up for yourselves treasure on earth
Matt 6:20 store up for yourselves treasure in heaven
Matt 4:4 a person will not live only on bread
Matt 4:4 a person will live on every word that comes from the mouth of God
Matt 18:3 turn
Matt 18:3 become like the little children
Matt 23:13 enter the kingdom of heaven
Jesus frequently asked people to follow him. What things does Jesus ask people to give lower priority than himself? What does he expect from a follower? Read some or all of the commands listed below. Usually it helps to read a bit before and after the verse itself. It helps to see the context and understand what Jesus is talking about. Do you really want to follow Jesus now?
(I have not written much here but there are many commands to look at.)
Matt 11:28 come to me
Matt 16:24 the one who wants to come after me must deny himself
Matt 16:24 the one who wants to come after me must take up his cross
Matt 16:24 the one who wants to come after me must follow me
Matt 8:22 follow me
Matt 8:22 let the dead bury their own dead
Matt 9:9 follow me
Matt 19:21 come, follow me
Matt 19:21 follow me
Matt 16:23 go behind me
Matt 10:37 loving a father more than me
Matt 10:37 loving a mother more than me
Matt 10:37 loving a son more that me
Matt 10:37 loving a daughter more than me
Matt 10:38 who doesn't take their cross
Matt 10:38 who doesn't follow after me
Matt 19:29 who has left houses for my sake
Matt 19:29 who has left brothers for my sake
Matt 19:29 who has left sisters for my sake
Matt 19:29 who has left father for my sake
Matt 19:29 who has left mother for my sake
Matt 19:29 who has left wife for my sake
Matt 19:29 who has left children for my sake
Matt 19:29 who has left fields for my sake
Matt 4:21 he called them to come
Matt 4:19 come after me
Matt 14:29 come to me over the water
Matt 26:46 get up
Matt 26:46 let's go
Matt 28:10 go to Galilee
Love and fear are not opposites. Hate is the opposite of love. Fear in the bible is very often linked to obedience. So the opposite of the fear Jesus that talks about here is not loving God, but rather ignoring or despising him. He doesn’t want us to treat God with disrespect, but to submit to him. What is your attitude to God?
Matt 10:28 fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell
Matt 22:37 you will love the Lord your God with all your heart
Matt 22:37 you will love the Lord your God with all your soul
Matt 22:37 you will love the Lord your God with all your mind
I have included various different commands in this study that I believe are related to this theme of respect for God. There are commands not to swear – not to use the name of God or the things he has created just to emphasise what we say.
Matt 5:34 don't swear at all
Matt 5:34 don't swear by heaven
Matt 5:35 don't swear by the earth
Matt 5:35 don't swear by Jerusalem
Matt 5:36 don't swear on your head
Jesus commands to obedience to the laws of Moses and the directions of religious authorities.
Matt 23:23 do the weightier things of the law - justice, mercy and faith.
Matt 19:17 obey the commandments
Matt 23:3 do everything the scribes and Pharisees say to you
Matt 23:3 obey everything the scribes and Pharisees say to you
Matt 23:23 don't let the lighter things of the law go
Matt 5:19 whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments …
Matt 5:19 whoever practices these commands …
We should note at this point that Jesus does not seem to treat every part of the laws of Moses in the same way. Even the list above starts with a command about “the weightier things of the law”, which tells us that he considers some parts are more significant than others. It also hints at the possibility that we can draw principles from the law which may be more important than any individual command of the law. At other times Jesus “declared all foods clean” (Mark 7:19), that “man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man” (Mark 2:27) and that “the Son of Man [Jesus] is Lord of the Sabbath” (Matt 12:8 and see Mark 2:28). These suggest that in some areas there are more important or more universal principles than those embedded in certain laws. Some parts of the law he treats as permission because of our hard hearts. (See his commands about divorce in the study on family). They do not represent God’s perfect plan for us but rather God’s tolerance of our hard hearts. And in a similar vein he treats many laws as a merely a starting point for conduct that should far exceed those laws themselves. (Matthew 5 has many examples of this.)
There are implied commands to specifically obey Jesus’ words.
Matt 7:24 everyone who does these words of mine …
Matt 28:20 obey everything I have commanded the disciples
Matt 11:29 take my yoke upon you
There are implied commands to worship God and work for him.
Matt 5:24 offer your gift
Matt 5:24 come to the altar
Matt 20:4 go into the vineyard
Matt 20:7 go into the vineyard
Matt 4:10 you will worship the Lord your God
Matt 4:10 you will serve the Lord your God alone
And finally there are these two statements against specific ways that we can show disrespect for God.
Matt 12:32 don't speak against the Holy Spirit
Matt 4:7 you will not put the Lord God to the test
Jesus gives us a wide range of commands about marriage, fathers, mothers, wives and children. Some are spoken to religious leaders, some to his disciples, but most of them are in the hearing of large crowds of people. The family must be important to Jesus. What do these commands tell you? As with all his commands, these are for our good.
Many of these commands are about marriage and divorce. Let’s start with those. In Matthew 19:4-12 Jesus is speaking to Pharisees (some of the most carefully religious people of the day) in the presence of “large crowds”.
And answering he said, ‘Haven’t you read that the Creator from the beginning made them male and female and said, “For this reason a person will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh”?
There are two implied commands that a person should leave his father and mother and should be united to his wife. Up to this point Jesus has been quoting from the beginning of the book of Genesis, but now he adds a new conclusion with a very definite and broad command.
So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’
The Pharisees were confused because the law of Moses makes provision for divorce.
They said to him, ‘Why therefore did Moses command to give a divorce paper and to release her?’ He said to them that ‘Moses allowed you to release your wives because of your hardheartedness, but from the beginning it didn’t happen like that. I tell you that whoever releases his wife (except for sexual immorality) and marries another commits adultery.’
The disciples said to him, ‘If the situation of a husband and wife is like this, it doesn’t seem a good idea to marry.’
And Jesus said to them, ‘Not everyone has room for this concept, but those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who have ben like this from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by people – and there are eunuchs who make themselves eunuchs because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who is able to have room for it must have room for it.
Most commentators suggest that Jesus is not talking so much about the physical cutting off of the genitals, but more of the decision not to marry, which is what the disciples have suggested immediately before. In fact, it may be that they said, “It doesn’t seem a good idea to marry” as a sort of joke. Maybe they hoped that Jesus would soften his command against divorce, but instead he takes this as an opportunity to say that there are people, for various reasons, for whom it is indeed “not a good idea to marry”.
In Matthew 5:31-32 Jesus says, ‘It has been said, “Anyone releasing his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.” But I tell you that anyone releasing his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and anyone who marries a released woman commits adultery.’
These are not direct commands, but by implication of the results, I believe that Jesus is clearly telling his disciples not to do either of these things. How do you understand it?
Jesus gives his disciples direct commands about children. In Matthew 19:14 Jesus said, ‘Release the little children, and do not hinder them from coming to me, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to one like these.’ And in Matthew 18:5-6 Jesus gives further implied commands to welcome them and not to make them stumble. He says, ‘whoever welcomes one child like this in my name is welcoming me. If anyone causes one of these little believers in me to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung round their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.’ So what should be our attitude to children? The disciples thought that children were not important.
Several times Jesus repeats the command from Moses’ law “do not commit adultery” in ways that shows he approves of the command. And in Matthew 5:27-28 he goes further: ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to stir up lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.’
And Jesus also explicitly approves of the commands from Moses’ law to respect our parents. Jesus replied to some Pharisees and teachers of the law, ‘And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, “Honour your father and mother” and “Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.”’ (Matthew 15:3-4) In the context (and elsewhere in the New Testament) “honour” seems to include giving money.
Matt 19:6 a person must not separate what God has joined together
Matt 19:12 who can accept it must accept being a eunuch
Matt 19:14 allow the little children to come to me
Matt 19:14 don't hinder the little children from coming to me
Matt 19:18 you will not commit adultery
Matt 5:27 you will not commit adultery
Matt 5:28 don't look at a woman to stir up lust
Matt 5:32 whoever divorces his wife except for marital unfaithfulness …
Matt 5:32 whoever marries a divorced woman …
Matt 15:4 honour your father and mother
Matt 18:5 whoever welcomes this sort of child in my name
Matt 18:6 if anyone causes one of these little ones who believes in me to sin
Matt 19:19 honour your father
Matt 19:19 honour your mother
Matt 19:5 he must leave his father and mother
Matt 19:5 he must hold fast his wife
Matt 19:9 whoever divorces his wife
Matt 19:9 whoever marries another
Matt 15:4 anyone cursing their father or mother must die
I will leave you to read these passages for yourself. Let me just note that Jesus’ most direct commands on this topic are in Matthew 5:42, which I why I have put them at the top of the list. But I believe that him most comprehensive teaching on this subject is in the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. It seems to me quite clear from that passage what he wants us to do.
* possible place of a side-bar about spiritualizing parables *
Matt 5:42 give to the one who asks you
Matt 5:42 don’t turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you
Matt 6:3 your left hand must not know what your right is doing
Matt 10:8 give freely
Matt 19:21 give to the poor
Matt 6:3 do mercy
Matt 25:35 give the least of these hungry brothers of mine something to eat
Matt 25:35 give the least of these thirsty brothers of mine a drink
Matt 25:35 gather the least of these foreign brothers of mine
Matt 25:36 clothe the least of these naked brothers of mine
Matt 25:36 look after the least of these sick brothers of mine
Matt 25:36 come to the least of these brothers of mine in prison
Matt 25:42 give the least of these hungry brothers of mine something to eat
Matt 25:42 give the least of these thirsty brothers of mine a drink
Matt 25:43 gather the least of these foreign brothers of mine
Matt 25:43 clothe the least of these naked brothers of mine
Matt 25:43 look after the least of these sick and imprisoned brothers of mine
Matt 14:16 give them something to eat
Matt 14:18 bring the bread and fish here to me
Matt 14:19 recline on the grass
Matt 15:35 recline on the ground
Matt 17:17 bring the boy here to me
* Following this there will be three more sections about the same length giving a total of around 50 pages*
The commands in this section, and the two following sections, seem to be directed more towards those who are already following Jesus.