Rev. {22:14} Blessed [are] they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
Blessed are they that do His commandments.
Are we supposed to automatically be able to *do* the commandments? If something is automatic do we really need to be told to do it? If it is part of our life, if it all comes natural to us we really wouldn't have to be told to do it, right? When we're raising our children we instruct them in the ways of life. Things don't come natural to them. Oh, we'd like to think a child would automatically potty train themselves but in reality they don't, they are taught where to go once their bowels muscles are under their control, or they watch and imitate what others are doing- the point being they have to learn to do it. The same for many, many things, children don't just naturally eat neatly. They are taught to wipe their mouths, taught to wash their hands, taught to brush their teeth. Life as a child is spent learning how to be a proper adult and with good instruction aren't ALL taught and learn? Not necessarily. You could be the best teacher and still have a naturally unruly child, a bad seed so to speak. Then there are all different in-betweens the good and the bad. We as human beings have been given an opportunity to learn from the greatest teacher ever- our Heavenly Father.
God is very loving and He's set up our very lives to reveal His own. Parents and children and even if you've never been a parent you can witness the parents around you and guess what, no one escapes being a child and having a parent- no one. Don't even go to the orphans and such, they all still have a parental figure who might not necessarily be a good parental figure. All children are exposed to adults and as such they have a figure to look to. Some have the best parents ever, loving and kind and others have a mere caregiver who only cares if the child stays out of their way and does what they are told. And yes, there are many abusive parents and no, they aren't good examples of a loving father but they sure teach the abused child the horrors of life and I'm not saying that's a good thing. The only point I'm trying to make is the type of Father/Child exists and there are several combinations that can exist. Good/Good, Good/Bad, Bad/Good, Bad/Bad and many inbetween, such as partially good etc. We have only one example in our Heavenly Father- He will always be Good. Will He be exacting? Yes. Will He punish? Yes. Will He get angry? Yes. But His ways are just and true.
Rev. 15:3 '...God Almighty; just and true [are] thy ways, thou King of saints.'
Our heavenly Father gives us instructions in life that will...yes, go against our naturally corrupt inclinations. We are given an opportunity to choose over and over and over again, daily we are given opportunities to make the choices. Our lives are made up of making choices and even if we're not faced with outright choices that we recognize as such- content to just live our lives as we want, that in itself is a choice. Any day we don't recognize God as our Heavenly Father, any day we don't cling to Christ asking for forgiveness, asking for salvation, asking for His righteousness in place of our own is a day we are choosing to walk our own path on our own steam thinking we exist in our good lives on our own steam. We don't. We exist because the Lord has given us life and then offered us through all our hardships and whatnot a way to the true path of life eternal. We are all offered this life eternal. We are all given an opportunity to do as God wills.
As stated above, if we all are automatically able to do something it isn't something we are told to do. If we automatically breathe we aren't told to breathe- it comes automatically, right?
Rev. {22:14} Blessed [are] they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
We have a choice to do God's commandments or not and if we think they come automatically- that we can keep them without making the choice to do so then we are setting ourselves up to fail. If we get caught up in the whole you're thinking by doing that you'll be saved, so you just don't do that thing or shouldn't be compelled to do it, then it's another trap altogether. We have to choose to do His commandments. We have a choice to make and we make it all the time. Just because you choose to do something won't save you, but certainly choosing not to will condemn you outright.
We are given commands. A command is something we are given and expected to follow or suffer the consequences of that action. There comes a point where we really do have to trust that God will take our actions and by the grace and mercy of Christ make them acceptable to Him. But we do have to commit to the action of doing.
When that verse from the Bible says- Blessed are they that do his commandments- does it mean blessed are they that don't choose but automatically do the commandments? No. There is no automatic about it all. Blessed are they that do his commandments. Meaning blessed are those that choose to do His commandments. Blessed are they that do his commandments why? That they might have right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city. Obviously those that choose not to do his commandments won't have that right, and they won't enter through the gate.
Choose and trust in God to make the choice acceptable. Don't choose purposely NOT to do His commandments under the false pretense of not wanting to be bless by your own works. Choose to do His commandments and trust in God to work in and on our hearts to make our choice acceptable. The devil would have us think we are trying to *work* our way to heaven, but that's just another trap of His. He wants us to choose not to do God's commandments for whatever reason suits us personally. He'll use any means he can to keep us from doing God's commandments. He'll set up obstacles all along the way for us at every step.
Something that just occurred to me- there are a few of the Ten Commandments that we find all but impossible to keep- those that involve the thinking- the coveting (even in little things), the lying (little white lies) and that being so-- shouldn't we strive to do all the Commandments that we don't necessarily find emotionally, mentally trying? What I mean is-- most of us don't have a problem with killing so keeping/doing that commandment is fairly easy, the same for stealing, adultery, worshipping pagan gods. We generally don't fail at those commandments we do them. And then there is the Sabbath commandment, another that should be fairly easy to keep and yet for many it's extremely hard. Some purposely don't even try to keep the Sabbath because they get caught up in the whole bit about if my spirit isn't right doing it- if I'm reluctant then I'm not really keeping it so why bother. I say bother, because if you put yourself in the position you can give your heart to God and ask Him to make it right, but if you never put yourself in the position of doing His commandment then you will never give Him a chance to make your heart right.
Anyways, we have to choose to do His commandments. Don't think for one moment that they are automatically done. It's by the grace of our Lord that we can do His commandments. If we choose to do them, Christ will make our choices acceptable to the Father. By His amazing, unfathomable mercy and love, now and forever.
Amen.
Rev. {22:17} And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
Come. I say Come!
I'm thirsty, Lord. So thirsty, please give to me the water of life freely, the water found in Christ, through Christ only and always.
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