(The Preface of the Book)
I have written a book entitled The 11th Commandment. I know. You, like me, thought there were Ten Commandments. Not eleven. After all, it was Ten Commandments that Moses received on Mt. Sinai. In a Christophany, in a miraculous display of power, Christ our Savior wrote them with His finger on stone tablets.
And now you are being told that there is one more, the 11th Commandment. The natural question would be, “What is the 11th and where did it come from?” Christ is the All-Knowing and has the answer. But instead of His finger carving tablets of stone again, He wrote the 11th Commandment with His own blood onto the tablets of our hearts.
It reads: “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). Love each other like I loved you. The 11th Commandment is this “new commandment” Christ gave us. We read the words, and it sounds simple enough. But how to love like Christ escapes us. Doubts creep in. Nobody can be like Christ. Why would He command us to do the impossible?
This book answers these and other questions: How do we obey the 11th Commandment? How do we love others like Christ loved us? We will see that in the scriptures, Christ gives us smaller commandments, that when obeyed, add up to the keeping of the 11th. Christ’s 11th New Commandment issues organically out of God’s purpose, which is to reproduce Himself—Love.
Christ is the answer to all questions in our search; it begins and ends with Him. He said, “Seek and you shall find.” Seek God and His purpose in multiplying Himself. Every word that He spoke pertains to this purpose. Christ is the Seed Son. He compared Himself to a grain of wheat that dies and then springs to life and grows to full maturity bearing “much fruit.” Thus, the law of harvest is complete. Since He is the Seed, then the harvest will be Christ fully formed in us. We will be just like Him, for each seed bears its own kind (John 12:24; Gal. 6:7).
God has a plan to accomplish His purpose. It is to use humans as the medium to reproduce Himself through. Because it takes time, His plan has been written down and has come to us in the pages of the Holy Bible. But unfortunately, it is a closed book for most readers. It is full of mysteries because people do not know His purpose in creating the earth.
For example, He commanded us to forgive each other (Mark 11:25). When we forgive, God’s Spirit grows within us, much like our muscles grow when we use them. God’s purpose is for Him to grow in us to a point that it is all Him inside of us.
His New Commandment is to love each other the way He loved us. Under this overarching Commandment are many other new commandments. When we obey them, we will have obeyed the larger 11th Commandment: Love each other the way Christ loved us. Christ knows that for us, it is a big order to fill. So, He breaks it down into smaller steps.
To continue our example, we ask Him for more of His Spirit to help us forgive another, thus loving that person. For it is only His Spirit now growing in us that can do the forgiving and loving. We do not strive to obey His new commandments to obtain salvation or reward or to be pleasing in His sight. We obey that He may grow in us. By obeying them, we develop His “divine nature” within our new heart.
How the Book Is Organized
The first section of the book gives more background information, elucidating the spiritual setting of these New Commandments. The second section will address a dozen of them.
There are many more sprinkled throughout the New Testament. It is the author’s hope that this book will encourage readers to explore and investigate other commandments that the Spirit will show them. Joy comes when He reveals a new one to us as we study His word. They are like pearls just under the surface of the sand, waiting for us to discover them.
It is our hope that this book will bring awareness of Christ’s new commandments and their importance for our spiritual growth. When we keep them, we are obeying the 11th Commandment. May it be used to help carry us all on down the road to immortality, that God may reproduce Himself in each of us, thus fulfilling His purpose for you and me. Understanding all this prepares us for bearing much fruit. This is the 100-fold fruit bearing that He has for His sons and daughters. But it all starts with understanding God’s eternal purpose. Kenneth Wayne Hancock
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