ALL THE COMMANDS OF JESUS

In an earlier article entitled LISTING DOWN ALL THAT JESUS COMMANDED, I wrote about my desire to have a list of all the commands of Jesus.  This was in connection with what Jesus said in Matt 28: “teach them to obey everything I have commanded you.”  So, I went back to all the four gospels and listed all the commands that Jesus gave to his disciples, and which in my mind, I thought He wanted all His disciples then, and now and forever, to follow. 

I tagged a total of 89 commands of Jesus from all four gospels: Matthew (= 42 commands), Mark (= 13), Luke (= 25), and John (= 9).  Some of these commands are cross referenced with one or another gospel; I counted 26 of them.  Some of the commands are actually similar to each other, or even repeated by the same writer in separate instances.  I kept those intact for the sake of this listing.

So, in terms of unique command statements, I was able to narrow this down to 63 commands of Jesus.  Click on the link below to download the list of those 63 commands that I compiled. Buy the way, these are listed in the order that they appear in the gospels.  Since Matthew has the most commands, I used Matthew as the baseline, in case there are cross-references in the other gospels.

I’m sharing this in a downloadable MS Word version so that you can copy it and do stuff with it easily, as suggested in the list of bible study activities below. I’ve also arranged these commands by category and type of command for easier appreciation and study, together with a short descriptive and personal paraphrase of the commands. If you wish a copy of my organized list, please send me a comment below, and I shall share a copy with you. 

BIBLE STUDY ACTIVITIES:

Here are some bible study activities that you can do individually or with a discipleship group. I hope these studies will get you to appreciate these commands more concretely, and also to help you begin the process of teaching (yourself and) others to obey, and to ensure that you get to the point of obeying EVERYTHING that Jesus commands.

STUDY ACTIVITY 1 — LABEL THE COMMANDS

For every one of the commands, paraphrase or summarize the command into one actionable and understandable statement.  Be discerning when you do this, because you will have to determine the essence of the command of Jesus as it would apply in the life of today’s disciples. Do this for all the 63 commands. If you do this as a group activity, you can divide the commands among the participants, and then review and validate each one’s summary paraphrase.

STUDY ACTIVITY 2 — GROUP AND TAG

After you have paraphrased the commands in Study 1, you will quickly realize that several commands are similar to each other, either in the command itself, or in the essence of what Jesus is trying to teach. What you want to do now is to group all of the similar commands together, according to a common theme, or direction, or purpose.  Give a label to those groups.

Depending on how you formed the groupings, you may want to do a further (higher level) grouping.

As you will see, after you’ve grouped the similar commands together, you will discover what are the key themes of commands that Jesus wanted his disciples to focus on and to obey. This grouping will also make it easier for you to share and to teach others to obey.

STUDY 3 — OBEDIENCE-BASED BIBLE STUDY

This is a method that will allow you to put the commands into practice in your personal life circumstance. 

Step One — Select one command, and read the words of Jesus. 

Step Two — Translate those words into your own words (This can be similar to the paraphrase that you had done in the first exercise above).

Step Three — Prayerfully discern and list down at least one thing that you will do differently in the next few days in obedience to this command. Be specific: don’t say “This week I will serve others”.  Instead, you should identify who it is you will serve specifically, and what concrete action you will take, and when.  If you do this prayerfully, the Holy Spirit will guide you exactly and specifically as to what Jesus wants you to do.

Commit to do what you listed in Step Three, and hold yourself accountable to your prayer group or discipleship group leader or fellow members so that they can check up on you as to whether you have done what you said you would do to obey Jesus.  Report your accomplishment in your next meeting.

REPEAT. Pick another command from another category, and repeat the process.  Do this for each of the categories that you have listed: pick one command and commit to obey it.  The result is that for the coming week, you will have intentionally thought of the commands of Jesus, and obeyed them.

In future bible study sessions or meetings with your prayer group, choose a different set of commands, and repeat the process, until you have finished obeying everything that Jesus has commanded.

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