THE PURPOSE OF CREATION

The purpose of creation is LOVE. God created us to love and be loved. When He thinks, He thinks of propagating and perpetuating LOVE. When He acts, He acts to propagate and perpetuate LOVE. When He speaks, He speaks to propagate and perpetuate LOVE.

Our Creator is LOVE. His nature is LOVE. Rick Warren said, “1 John 4:16 says God is love. It doesn’t say God has love. He is love! Love is the essence of God’s character.” (Purpose-Driven Life, p. 24)

LOVE too is our nature. Remember, we were created in the image and likeness of the First Tree. Matthew 5:48 says, “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” It means we are potential perfections (seeds) that must grow into actual perfections—into trees that constantly produce fruits of LOVE.

¹⁸ What is the kingdom of heaven like? What shall I compare it to? ¹⁹ It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. LUKE 13

³¹ It is the smallest seed you can plant in the ground. ³² Yet it grows and becomes [a tree] the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch on its shade. MARK 4

In us is LOVE that “yearns to be expressed and shared; it needs an outlet,” said Billy Graham (The Journey: How to Live by Faith in an Uncertain World, p. 27).

It is most natural for us to love and most unnatural for us not to. Act contrary to our nature—immobilize or isolate it—and we feel heavy, down and lonely; our life becomes empty and meaningless. However, let our nature fly, let it find an outlet, and we feel light… excited… inspired… fulfilled… easy to smile and laugh… 

What is our world without LOVE? Rosario “Boots” Zulueta Santos said: “Without LOVE, our week would be Sin-day, Tears-day, Wasted-day, Thirst-day, Fight-day and Shatter-day.”

We are created to build and nurture LOVE-relationships. God blessed our first parents and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number” (Genesis 1:6). A mandate has been given and it extends to us, their seeds. The mandate is to propagate and perpetuate LOVE. In this context John 15:12 becomes our accountability—an obligation—to our Creator.

¹² Love each other as I have loved you. JOHN 15

⁶ Fill all the world with fruit. ISAIAH 27

¹⁷ Wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then… full of good fruit. JAMES 3

Gratefulness dictates that we reciprocate God’s love for us in a manner most acceptable to Him. He deserves nothing less.

¹⁹ We love each other because God loved us first. 1 JOHN 4 nlt

¹⁴ Anyone who does not love remains in death. 1 JOHN 3

Now, why must we love God with all our heart and with all our mind and with all our soul and with all our strength?

The teacher of the Law in Mark 12:28 asked the question. Y’shua replied, “When a man loses a purse, does he turn only his eye to look for it? Or only his hand to feel for it? Or only his tongue to ask for it? Certainly not! He turns his whole body and employs all his powers to find it. Is this not true? Now, is not your Father in heaven more valuable than your purse?” (Gospel of Barnabas, chapter 100)

 Why does God command us to love Him? DOESN’T IT SOUND LIKE GOD IS selfish?

God is not selfish. Our existence is one proof of this. He created us to share with us what He has.

Rick Warren said, “God made us so He could love us. This is a truth to build our lives on.” (Purpose-Driven Life, p. 24)

God has no need to be selfish. The whole creation belongs to Him; everything in it is His (Job 41:11, Psalm 24:1, Leviticus 25:23, Psalm 50:10, Haggai 2:8). God is called God because He is perfect and complete. Nothing can be added to Him and nothing taken away (Sirach 42:21).

²⁵ He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything. ACTS 17

The command to love Him is for our own good. You see, our journey through life is always a matter of choice between the kingdom of God and the evil empire. Life is like standing at the edge of a cliff—with Lucifer urging us to jump and God urging us not to. Lucifer is urging us to jump because it would kill us. God is urging us not to jump so we might live. The devil does not have our best interest in mind (John 10:10). But God is the opposite. He wants us to keep busy living, not dying.

⁶ I am the way, the truth and the life. JOHN 14 

Strictly speaking, God cannot be served by human hands. Nothing can be added to HIM and nothing taken away. How then should we translate “Love God” into action?  

Love of God = Love of neighbor. That is the equation.

⁸ If you really keep the royal law found in the Scripture, which is Love your neighbor as you love yourself, you are doing right. JAMES 2 

²⁰ For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. ²¹ [God] has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. 1 JOHN 4

The term neighbor encompasses our family members, friends and relatives, churchmates, schoolmates, workmates, townmates and countrymen—even the strangers that come into our sphere and the peoples that live in foreign lands.

God identified “Love your neighbor as yourself” as the second greatest commandment (Mark 12:31). Now, if “Love God” is Commandment No. 1 and “Love your neighbor” is Commandment No. 2, isn’t that two? If we add the Two to the Nine, there would be Eleven, isn’t that right?

No, it isn’t. God gave Ten, not Eleven.

There is only one LOVE Commandment. Y’shua said Love your neighbor is “like” Love God (Matthew 22:39). For whoever loves God must also love his neighbor and whoever loves his neighbor must also love God. No one can love God and put his neighbor aside; neither can he love his neighbor and put God aside. The two commandments are corollary, made to be part and parcel of one another. In the sight of God one is not pleasing without the other. To love God is to love your neighbor and to love your neighbor is to love God. Love God and Love your neighbor are clamped together. They are not really two separate commandments, but one. 

Y’shua said, “When you have seen your brother, you have seen the Lord.”—Tertullian, On Prayer

Does it follow that our neighbor must be loved as well with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength?

The answer is Yes. That precisely is how Love God is translated into action. “And since a neighbor is every person, regardless of race, gender or age, we get to love everyone!” said Paul J. Meyer (Unlocking Your Legacy, p. 31).

If an occasion arises wherein we must choose between GOD AND NEIGHBOR, who must we choose? 

Remember that God called one “first” and the other “second”. Choose Love of God over Love of neighbor. Prioritize the Creator over the creation.

Why was the patriarch Abraham called righteous? He was called righteous because he chose God over his beloved son Isaac. Abraham always prioritized God.  

We love our neighbor only because we love God. Make no mistake about it. Love your neighbor is but an offshoot (meaning only a subsidiary or an extension) of Love God. God should be our first and foremost priority, and Love God our primary focus.  

²³ Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. COLOSSIANS 3

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THE LOST COMMANDMENT

               

²⁸ One of the teachers of the Law came… and asked Him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” ²⁹ “The most important one,” answered Y’shua, “is this: Hear, O Isra’el, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” MARK 12

³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. MATTHEW 22

“This is the first commandment” means Love God with all your heart is Commandment No. 1. But we won’t find it written in the Ten-C. Why? Because it has been omitted. Open your Bible to Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:1-21. Did you notice the heading? It says “Ten Commandments”. Yet there are only Nine. God gave to the prophet Moses Ten but, unknown to most men, only Nine have been listed. 

Scripture Verse		Commandment
Deuteronomy	Exodus
		No. 01	Love God and neighbor.
5:7-10	20:3-6	No. 02	No idolatry.
5:11	20:7	No. 03	Do not misuse the name of God.
5:12-15	20:8-11	No. 04	Observe the Sabbath.
5:16	20:12	No. 05	Honor your parents.
5:17	20:13	No. 06	Do not commit murder.
5:18	20:14	No. 07	Do not commit adultery.
5:19	20:15	No. 08	Do not steal.
5:20	20:16	No. 09	No false testimony.
5:21	20:17	No. 10	Do not covet.

The Great Omission created a spiritual blind spot among men. What followed was legalism (that means obedience of the Law with the element of LOVE missing in it). The Jews, for example, have become rigidly strict in their obedience of the Law and quick to stone the lawbreakers to death.

Many clergymen in our present time would not correct the omission, insisting that the Scripture is inerrant and nothing can be wrong with it. Lucifer loves it!

⁸ How can you say, “We are wise; the Lord’s Law is with us” when in fact the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely?  JEREMIAH 8

Lucifer is anti-LOVE.  He has made the whole world believe the LOVE Commandment is never a part of the Ten-C. Actually the commandment was not deleted; it has been moved to another chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy. What was deleted is a phrase in the commandment: and with all your mind. Consistent with his mind-centric ploy, Lucifer did it so that whoever finds the “lost” commandment gets to find and believe a corrupted copy!

⁵ Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength. DEUTERONOMY 6

Point to Ponder: Has it ever occurred to you that he who violates the Love Commandment will get to share the same fate that awaits murderers, plunderers and adulterers? Ignorance of the Scripture is no excuse.  

¹⁷ If a person sins and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands, even though he does not know it, he is guilty and will be held responsible. LEVITICUS 5

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ARE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS PASSÉ & IS OBEYING THEM EMPTY LEGALISM?

Many churches claim this is the teaching of St. Paul—particularly in Colossians 2:14, Ephesians 2:15, Galatians 3:25, Romans 10:4 and 7:6. Is the claim legitimate? The answer is No.

Scripture says, “The Lord will judge the world in righteousness” (Psalm 9:8). Along this line, St. Paul wrote:

¹³ It is those who obey the Law who will be declared righteous. ROMANS 2

¹² The Law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. ROMANS 7

²¹ Is the Law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! GALATIANS 3 

³¹ Do we, then, nullify the Law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the Law. ROMANS 3

¹⁴ I [Paul] believe everything that agrees with the Law and that is written in the Prophets. ACTS 24

St. Paul was not telling anyone to disregard or disobey the commandments. The Ten-C are never passé and obeying them is not empty legalism. What St. Paul was saying in Colossians 2:14, Ephesians 2:15, Galatians 3:25, Romans 10:4 and 7:6 is that no one may re-enter the kingdom of God by sheer obedience of the Law of Moses (the Ten minus Commandment No. 1 version). He was saying the Jewish belief must be corrected.

The full teaching of St. Paul was this: Man’s relationship with God should be one of faith perfected by 100% obedience of God’s instructions, resulting in good works motivated by LOVE.

It was not obedience that really mattered but the motive behind the obedience. If LOVE was not the motive, then the obedience was insipid and worthless in God’s sight. 

¹⁰ Love is the fulfillment of the Law. ROMANS 13 

Also, St. Paul stressed that obedience must be accompanied with faith that Y’shua is God. (Y’shua is Jesus Christ to the world.) God alone can forgive sin and so Y’shua alone can forgive sin. He who has no faith in Y’shua will not receive total forgiveness of his sins. Without the total forgiveness, the impure will stay impure and barred from heaven; his obedience will be worthless—an exercise in futility, an empty legalism.  

⁴ If anyone ever had the reason to hope that he could save himself, it would be me [Paul]. ⁵ For I went through the Jewish initiation ceremony when I was eight days old, having been born into a pure-blooded Jewish home that was a branch of the original Benjamin family. So I was a real Jew if there ever was one! What’s more, I was a member of the Pharisees who demand the strictest obedience to every Jewish law and custom. ⁶ And sincere? Yes, so much that I greatly persecuted the Church; and I tried to obey every Jewish rule and regulation right down to the last point. ⁷ But all these things that I once thought very worthwhile—now I’ve thrown them all away so I can put my trust and hope in the Messiah alone. ⁸ Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Messiah Y’shua my Lord. I have put aside all else, counting it worth less than nothing, in order that I can have the Messiah, ⁹ and become one with Him, no longer counting on being saved by being good enough or by obeying God’s laws, but by trusting the Messiah to save me; for God’s way of making us right with Himself depends on faith—counting on the Messiah alone. PHILIPPIANS 3 tlb

¹⁵ We are not under Law but under grace. ROMANS 6

⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that one can boast. EPHESIANS 2

Think logically. Sin is the breaking of the Law (1 John 3:4). If the Ten-C were passé, that would mean no more sin and no more need for total forgiveness and for faith in Y’shua. No more need for anyone to be righteous, ethical and decent. No more need for religion, the churches and the clergy!      

Many churches teach that the New Covenant has replaced the Ten-C (“the Law of Moses”) with the two commandments of Love God and Love your neighbor (“the Law of Christ”)? Is this true? 

It is not. Y’shua said:

¹⁷ Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill [pleroo, make full, perfect] them. MATTHEW 5

³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. MATTHEW 24

¹⁷ It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law. LUKE 16

¹⁹ Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. MATTHEW 5

Take note of His encouragement for the Ten-C to be taught and obeyed.  

²⁹ Let them listen to Moses and the Prophets. LUKE 16

³¹ If you continue in My Word, you really are My disciples. JOHN 8

²¹ My mother and brothers are those who hear the Word of God and put it into practice. LUKE 8

³⁶ Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him. JOHN 3

Discard and dishonor the Ten-C? Do not be hoodwinked. Y’shua said:

¹⁷ “If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.” ¹⁸ “Which ones?” the man inquired. Y’shua replied, “Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, ¹⁹ honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.” MATTHEW 19

Never will God abolish the Ten-C because doing so will contradict the very purpose of His incarnation and His instituting the New Covenant. “I will put My Law in their minds and write it on their hearts,” said He in Jeremiah 31:33. To stress this, the New Testament quoted Jeremiah 31:33 twice in Hebrews 8:10 and 10:16.

²⁷ I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws. EZEKIEL 36

¹⁹ Keeping God’s commands is what counts. 1 CORINTHIANS 7

³⁴ I will not violate My covenant or alter what My lips have uttered. PSALM 84

⁸ (The commandments) stand fast for ever and ever. PSALM 111 kjv

The Gospel teachings were given to expound the proper intentions and applications of the commandments, to raise our level of awareness of them. The two commandments Love God and Love your neighbor (which really are one) were not given to replace the Ten but to make the Nine to be Ten again. The element of love was reinstated to perfect and amplify the Law.

God did not expunge any commandment. What He expunged were the man-made traditions (kjv calls them the handwriting of ordinances) that were effectively diluting or nullifying the sought-effect of the commandments to which they were grafted.

¹⁴ [He] canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross. COLOSSIANS 2

Let us cite an example of a man-made tradition that was expunged off Commandment No. 5.

³ (Y’shua said to some Pharisees and teachers of the Law from Jerusalem:) Indeed, why do you break the command of God by your tradition?  ⁴ For God said, Honor your father and your mother and Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death. ⁵ But you say, “If anyone says to his father or mother I have promised to give to God what I might have used to help you ⁶ then he is rid of his duty to honor his father or mother.” Thus, by your tradition you make null and void the Word of God! ⁷ You hypocrites! Yesha’yahu [Isaiah] was right when he prophesied about you, ⁸ These people honor Me with their lips but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is useless, because they teach man-made rules as if they were doctrines. MATTHEW 15 cjb

¹² Then His disciples came to Him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” ¹³ He replied, “Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. ¹⁴ Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” MATTHEW 15

In the Oxyrhynchus Gospels Y’shua explained to His disciples, "The Pharisee plans in advance; before doing wrong, he slyly reasons everything out. Take care that you do not end up suffering the same fate as them. For the wicked of humanity receive Judgment not only among the living, but they will also undergo punishment later." (Wikipedia)

¹¹ “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” ¹² Then they understood that He was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. MATTHEW 16

Many churches teach that the Messiah’s resurrection had fulfilled the Law and therefore observing them is no longer necessary. Is this true?

It is not. Let us recall what Y’shua said on the matter:

¹⁸ I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. MATTHEW 5

Take note of the words “until heaven and earth disappear.” Neither the earth nor the heaven (the sky) has disappeared or passed away. That means the Ten-C stands.

Colossians 2:17 says the Law is a shadow of things to come, the substance of which is Y’shua. That is true. But “not everything that must happen has happened”—at least not yet. The Law is given so man could be restored; therefore, the fulfillment of the Law will come after the Judgment, when the impure-turned-pure shall have received his reward of restoration. This being the case, observance of the Ten-C is still necessary.

Y’shua purified the commandments of the corruptions grafted into them. He warned us of the troubles we shall face for obeying the commandments. This indicates that He expected us to keep and honor the Ten-C.  

¹⁷ Then the dragon was enraged at the woman [the Church] and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Y’shua. REVELATIONS 12    

²⁰ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also. JOHN 15

² They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. JOHN 16

Many churches teach that the Ten-C is only for the Jews. Is this true? 

It is not. If it were, why else did God say in Leviticus 24:22, “You are to have the same Law for the alien and the native-born”?

¹³ Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. ECCLESIASTES 12

Observance of the Ten-C does not stop in Isra’el. The Jews are called to live by the Ten-C and so are the rest of the world (Buddhists, Taoists, Hindus, Muslims, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Catholics and Born Again Christians included).

¹⁵ The community is to have the same rules for you and for the alien living among you. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the alien shall be the same before the Lord. ¹⁶ The same laws and regulations shall apply both to you and to the foreigner living among you. NUMBERS 15

¹⁶ Then, if [the other nations] will carefully learn My people’s ways, swearing by My name, “As Adonai lives,” just as they taught My people to swear by Ba’al, they will be built up among My people. JEREMIAH 12 cjb

God looks down from heaven at both Jews and non-Jews to see if there are any who are wise, any who worship Him (Psalm 53:2 tev). He is waiting to welcome into His kingdom Jews and non-Jews whose hearts are right with God.

¹⁰ Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? MALACHI 2

²⁹ Is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too. ROMANS 3

⁵ [There is] one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. EPHESIANS

¹⁶ I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. JOHN 10

⁶ And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve Him, to love the name of the Lord, and to worship Him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to My covenant— ⁷ these I will bring to My holy mountain and give them joy in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. ISAIAH 56

Whether one is born a Jew or non-Jew is immaterial. God is after the spiritual man, not the physical man. He does not look at our religion, nationality, skin color, intelligence, wealth, gender, strength or physical beauty; God looks at our hearts. To Him the true Jew is anyone who hears the voice of the Good Shepherd and heeds His instructions. The true Jew is he who worships God in spirit and in truth. The true Jew is he who soaks in LOVE and exudes it.     

⁶ For not all who are descended from Isra’el are Isra’el. ⁷ Nor because they are descendants are they Abraham’s children. ROMANS 9

²⁹ A true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the Law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by God’s Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people. ROMANS 2 nlt

The true Jew is the true lamb of Messiah Y’shua.

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