(First 4 about loving God)
(Last 6 about loving Others)
* Each in order of relational priority

Agape Love = God's Short Version

© 2001 Sid Galloway

^{Mat 22:36-40} "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said to him, " ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ "This is the first and great commandment. "And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

^{Think about it, folks:}

^{Why did God give only ten commandments to Moses?
Did He just grab the first things that popped into His mind, or did he have a reason?
Why did He pick those particular commands?
Why'd He put them in that order?
** Do you and your household know, understand, and apply them?}

Most Christians today couldn't tell you what God's 10 commands are.  So there's no way they could explain what they mean and how to apply them to their own life and relationships in the power of God's Holy Spirit.  One of the reasons some Christians have never memorized all ten is that they've never been taught how to memorize, much less how to study, meditate, and apply information.

The best way to study any information is to condense it down into a very simple outline, preferably down to one word per point if you can.  Then each memorized word will trigger in your mind the meaning of the principle or truth it represents.

It also is important to arrange the information in a order that makes sense systematically.  For example, note how God arranged the Ten Relationship Commandments.  It's not a random list.  It's a list of relationships placed in the order of their priority.  The first four teach us about how to love God, while the last six describe how to love our neighbors.  A new born baby's most important relationship is with his parents, so that is the first command about loving other people - Honor your mother and father.  The next most important relationship is with his siblings, like Cain and Abel.  And you know what Cain did.  The next most significant relationship for that young person is preparation for being a spouse.  Isn't it interesting that this command of fidelity to your spouse comes before the generic commands about friends (stealing, lying, coveting).  But sadly in our modern society, kids are taught to put "peers" above parents, siblings, and future spouse in priority.  And the result is a society of rebellion, fighting, and divorce.

Exodus 20:1-17  
"And God spoke all these words, saying:
²"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
³"You shall have no other gods before Me.
⁴"You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; ⁵you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, ⁶but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
⁷"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
⁸"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. ¹¹For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
¹²"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
¹³"You shall not murder.
¹⁴"You shall not commit adultery.
¹⁵"You shall not steal.
¹⁶"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
¹⁷"You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s."