The purpose of man on earth is to be holy and pure. God is a God of purity and His kingdom, a kingdom of purity. Nothing impure will ever enter the kingdom (Revelation 21:27, Ephesians 5:5). Only the impure man-turned-pure may re-enter His kingdom.
How many sins did it take for Adam and Eve to be banished from the kingdom of heaven? Just one. Likewise, it takes one sin to keep us out of God’s heaven. (The Truth Behind Left Behind, p. 159)
22 Keep yourselves pure. 1 TIMOTHY 5
48 Be perfect therefore as your Father in heaven is perfect. MATTHEW 5
1 Let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. 2 CORINTHIANS 7
In disobeying God, man chose death over life. God (who is a respecter of the human freewill) had to banish man to the realm of the dead. He did with great hope that man would appreciate life better when death is in sight.
As man had become capable of producing unholy thoughts, unholy actions and unholy words, God also had the great hope that before the Day of Judgment comes, man could be disciplined into producing only holy thoughts, holy actions and holy words. That man would opt for the reversal of his situation and seek the restoration of his original blessed state—to be part of God’s royal family again, partake of His bliss and immeasurable LOVE, and get to celebrate life anew.
29 God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes. ECCLESIASTES 7
Today you might think, “Our destiny is cursed and cannot be altered. We are children of disobedience, born sinners and sinners we will die. So today let’s eat and drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.” Lucifer loves that kind of thinking. But we are not totally hopeless.
To those who seek the restoration of their original blessed state, God has given instructions to live by, summed up and unified in the Decalogue called Ten Commandments.
The instructions (summarily called the Law of God or simply the Law) have blueprinted the way of life in heaven. Man—who was weak (Romans 8:3) and error-prone (Hebrew 8:8)—has been told what to do in given situations so he might not miss the mark.
The instructions reflect God’s love, plan and hope for man. Clearly it is not to abandon him in the realm of the dead but to provide him with a roadmap to the realm of the living.
17 If you want to enter life, obey the commandments. MATTHEW 19
8 The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. PSALM 19
5 Follow the practices and the laws that I give you; you will save your life by doing so. LEVITICUS 18 tev
17 I am the Lord your God who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way to go. ISAIAH 48
11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future… 14 I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile. JEREMIAH 29
50 God’s command leads to eternal life. JOHN 12
What does a journeyman who is disoriented and lost in the thick usually do? Open his eyes and ears for directional signs, right? When he finds someone who could give him proper direction, how would he feel? Relieved and delighted, right? And would he disobey the instructions given him? Of course not! In fact, he would try hard not to forget any one of them. He would obey them 100% with gladness and excitement in his heart.
Now, are we not disoriented and lost in this spiritual journey called life? God no less has provided us the roadmap.
So stay focused. If we do not stay focused, we lose sight of God and forget the purpose of our being on earth. We are likely to miss the mark and fall into satanic traps.
So be conscientious. It means be thorough and diligent. Obey every instruction of God without omitting or altering any one of its specifications (Galatians 3:15).
Rick Warren said, “Often we try to offer God partial obedience. We want to pick and choose the commands we obey. We make a list of the commands we like and obey those while ignoring the ones we think are unreasonable, difficult, expensive, or unpopular. I’ll attend church but I won’t tithe. I’ll read my Bible but won’t forgive the person who hurt me. Yet partial obedience is disobedience” (The Purpose-Driven Life, p. 72).
10 Whoever keeps the whole Law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. JAMES 2
4 Obey Me and do everything I command you. JEREMIAH 11
2 Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy. LEVITICUS 19
7 Consecrate yourselves and be holy. LEVITICUS 20
Being conscientious requires the discarding of our rebellious spirits, sinful desires, negative and compromising attitudes, and the false teachings in our minds while we make a constant practice of obeying God’s instructions until it becomes a habit.
The prophet Ezra devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law, and to teaching its commandments and decrees (Ezra 7:10). We must be as conscientious as he was.
In the Gospel of Barnabas God asked, “My instructions to you, are they given for knowing or for doing?”
So have prior understanding of what to obey. Psalm 19:7-8 says, “The Law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the soul are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.” While this is true, we must be aware that some of God’s instructions have been corrupted (the Ten Commandments made Nine is one blatant proof of this). It is not healthy for anyone’s spirituality to obey God’s instructions at face value. Before full compliance is made, the Law must be analyzed for flaws. The chaff must be removed from the grain. Our faith must be based on accurate knowledge (John 17:3) and God’s instructions, in their pure form.
17 …Understand what the Lord’s will is. EPHESIANS 5
So have prior knowledge of God’s expectations of us. In applying for a job, we have to know the job requirements before we can comply with them. The same holds true in finding our way back to life. The desire to be loyal to God must be tempered with the knowledge of how God expects us to be loyal to Him.
This book shall unfold and impart to you God’s instructions using the Ten Commandments as teaching vehicle. The Ten-C are like jigsaw parts scattered in the 66 books of the Scripture (74 books if the apocryphal books are added). The parts have been pieced together for study-made-easy.
11 Whoever wants to keep the Law must learn what the Law means. SIRACH 21
10 Find out what pleases the Lord. EPHESIANS 5
2 It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way. PROVERBS 19
So be realistic. Know first that we are spirits living in souls embodied in flesh (1 Thessalonians 5:23), and that God is not after the state of our flesh but rather after the state of our spirits. That means we should be attending more to our spiritual well-being than our physical well-being.
27 The lamp of the Lord searches the spirit of a man, it searches out his inmost being. PROVERBS 20
Secondly, know what this Scripture verse means:
4 It is written: Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. MATTHEW 4
Thirdly, know that purity cannot be achieved without holiness (100% obedience). Holiness cannot be achieved without conscientiousness. Conscientiousness cannot be achieved without understanding God’s instructions. Understanding the instructions cannot be achieved without knowing them. Knowing the instructions cannot be achieved without being realistic.
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