Key NT Imperatives...

[James Peter]

Hey guys, i was just wondering what you considered to be the most important important imperatives (commands/instructions) in the New Testament. Please focus on general imperatives (i.e. instructions that apply to everyone all the time) rather than specific instructions given to an individual at a certain time for a specific purpose. It would also be useful if you could include which branch of christianity you consider yourself to belong to (Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Evangelical Protestant etc). If you have a long list it would be useful if you cut it down to maybe 8 or so, and feel free to include negatives as well as positives (i.e. "Do Not..."). Feel free to critique other people's lists within reason and if you think that your choices may be a little unusual try to justify them. Oh, and I'm mainly interested in commands that relate to personal conduct. Thanks...

[Cowthulu]

Is John 3:16 too obvious? :smile:

[James Peter]

Well as its not a command at all its not really an option...

[Tfbandie]

Hey guys, i was just wondering what you considered to be the most important important imperatives (commands/instructions) in the New Testament. Please focus on general imperatives (i.e. instructions that apply to everyone all the time) rather than specific instructions given to an individual at a certain time for a specific purpose. It would also be useful if you could include which branch of christianity you consider yourself to belong to (Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Evangelical Protestant etc). If you have a long list it would be useful if you cut it down to maybe 8 or so, and feel free to include negatives as well as positives (i.e. "Do Not..."). Feel free to critique other people's lists within reason and if you think that your choices may be a little unusual try to justify them. Oh, and I'm mainly interested in commands that relate to personal conduct. Thanks...


28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.[e (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=48&chapter=12&version=31#fen-NIV-24696e)] 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'[f (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=48&chapter=12&version=31#fen-NIV-24697f)] 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[g (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=48&chapter=12&version=31#fen-NIV-24698g)]There is no commandment greater than these."


This is what jumped to my mind. Is this too general? or not what you're looking for?

[nomad]

as far as personal conduct, they aren't direct commands as such but this passage seems appropriate:

Mat 25:34-46 "Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. (35) 'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; (36) naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' (37) "Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? (38) 'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? (39) 'When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' (40) "The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.' (41) "Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; (42) for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; (43) I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.' (44) "Then they themselves also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?' (45) "Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' (46) "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."


but it's hard - 'love your neighbor as yourself' is a good general rule, but it's not always obvious how you apply it to every situation. rabbi hillel said this was the crux of the law, everything else is commentary. but the commentary is very useful sometimes :)

On another side track, in response to the 'but god said don't eat shrimp, and you do that, so why can't i be sexual immoral?' types, another interesting list is this one:

Act 15:28-29 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: (29) that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell."

These probably include the 'obvious' prohibitions, I would imagine though, engendered in the previous passage.

And I've been in a lot of different churches, across all kinds of backgrounds, so I'm not sure what I should declare for that.

[Jaltus]

Hebrews 10:25 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-- and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

[James Peter]

Yeah 'Love the Lord...Love your neighbour...' are the two most obvious but i thought I'd leave the field entirely open.

Acts 15 is a little strange - does that mean that we shouldn't each our steak properly? (i.e. Medium) Similarly much poultry is strangled... Strange dietry restrictions really. Similarly Paul authorises eating food sacrificed to idols.

Hebrews 10 is another interesting choice and one that I didn't expect, is gathering together really a critical moral imperative? Certainly it is a good thing to do but is it immoral not to?

To make a more constructive suggestion I'd offer that "do not repay evil with evil" (1 Th 5:15) and the implication from Romans 3:8 that it is unacceptable to do something wrong even if something good will result from it are pretty fundamental commands concerning how we should act. Whether Romans 3:8 would stretch to, for example, include it being unacceptable to take a life to save two lifes I'm not sure but you could certainly read it that way.

Anyway, keep the suggestions coming...

[Jaltus]

I think it is moral because of the concept of mutual encouragement and the dangers of falling away that is heightened by one going alone.

[nomad]

Acts 15 is a little strange - does that mean that we shouldn't each our steak properly? (i.e. Medium) Similarly much poultry is strangled... Strange dietry restrictions really. Similarly Paul authorises eating food sacrificed to idols.


i dunno... i find it interesting because sexual immorality is really the one big thing that Peter asks them to avoid. most meat has most of the blood drained out even before you get it (at least for beef, where it matters, they drain as much blood as they can out of it before they cut the cow up); i don't think the little amount left in meat (which I'm not sure how much more you can drain it) is what Paul meant.

But my main reason for replying is: Paul didn't strictly allow food sacrificed to idols; more correctly, he said that if you don't know, don't worry about it. But if you do know that it was sacrificed to idols, don't eat it (he does say this is only for other people's conscience, but he does back Peter up here).

I didn't know poultry was strangled... how does that work? I thought most of the time they just cut the heads off.

[James Peter]

Well I don't know how the ratios stack up but I know at least some people kill chickens by breaking their necks...maybe thats not quite strangling though. Personally I don't think the blood issue is that big a deal but if its one of the most important moral imperatives in the NT then I'm not sure if eating blood-dripping steaks is a wise idea...I'm sure there are other passages that could be used to back up the prohibition on pornia (sexual immorality/fornication/however you think its bets to translate it).

I'll continue to mull over your suggestion Jaltus, I can certainly see your logic but maybe my personal experiences are swaying me against including it as a 'must do'.

[nomad]

I saw Jaltus' as an important imperative, but maybe not a moral imperative. You didn't specify that in our original posting; there are plenty of things, like brushing your teeth or washing your hands before you eat, that aren't moral but are still well recommended.

I don't know if it's important, but Peter found only those important enough out of the whole law to recommend to the gentiles (he probably did not include those things against the law of course, that everyone should know), so I've at least given it some respect and tried to keep to them. I hardly eat red meat anymore anyways though, and never have liked them bloody, so God blessed me and made it easier for me to keep these commandments from the beginning.

However, my main reason for posting this was that as i was typing up today's fragment of St. Peter of Damaskos, i saw that it related to this thread - he saw commandments within the Beatitudes on the sermon on the mount, each 'Blessed are the xxx' statement being a commandment for us to be xxx. I won't repost his arguments; they start in post #21 here (http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/showpost.php?p=1091144&postcount=21).