Love Me, Keep My Commandments

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To love the Lord is to live according to His commandments. (see Apocalypse Explained 433)

The Ten Commandments were the covenant between the Lord and the children of Israel. And they are an essential part of our covenant with the Lord as well. To love the Lord, we must receive the truths of the Lord’s Word into our hearts and lives and live by His commandments. Responding to the Lord’s love in this way creates a connection or “conjunction” with the Lord that can bring us peace and happiness.

Discussion Ideas

What is a covenant?

  • A covenant is a promise—a commitment—between two or more people.
  • “The purpose of any covenant is conjunction, that is to say, its purpose is that people may live together in friendship or love” (Arcana Coelestia 1038).
  • The Ten commandments show us the covenant the Lord made with the children of Israel. He told them what should not be done, and they responded, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do” (Exodus 19:8).
  • The Lord alone conjoins a person to Himself, and not a person to the Lord. The Lord conjoins a person to Himself when the person knows, understands, wills, and does the precepts of the Decalogue (see Apocalypse Explained 1027:2).
  • “The covenant that the Lord has made with us and we have made with the Lord is the Word” (True Christian Religion 730).

Other discussion ideas

  • The Ten Commandments were written on two tables or tablets of stone. The first table shows us how to love the Lord, looking to Him as our source of good and truth. And the second table helps us see how to love the neighbor.
  • We should obey the commandments, both literally and spiritually. The Heavenly Doctrines can show us deeper levels of meaning to help us better follow the Lord’s rules.
  • “The Ten Commandments contain everything concerning doctrine and life…. That is why the law was written on two tablets, one dealing with God, the other with people” (True Christian Religion 287:2).
  • When a person conjoins himself to the Lord by following the last six commandments, as of himself, then the Lord conjoins Himself to the person by the first three precepts which involve acknowledging and believing in the Lord and keeping His name holy. For unless a person obeys the commandments that involve loving the neighbor, he is not loving the Lord (see Apocalypse Explained 1027:4).
  • The Lord and the angels are always with us, helping us obey the commandments. But we have to do our part in learning how to apply these commandments to our lives and reflecting on ways we need to change.
  • “If you walk according to these commandments because God has spoken them, then you are walking in the path that leads to heaven, to eternal happiness, and to true freedom” (Elmo Carmen Acton).
  • “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11:28)

Readings

Projects and Activities for all ages

“Great peace have those who love Your law” (Psalm 119:165).

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