New Testament Imperatives
We who are in Christ serve as ambassadors of The Kingdom of Light to the domain of darkness. During our assignment, we sometimes find that the people and ways of this dark land have begun to draw our thoughts away from the righteousness, peace, and joy of our homeland.
The way of the citizenry of the valley of the shadow of death is self-empowered meritorious labor. Everything about this place is regulated by the rule of law. Here, people get what they pay for. Here they expect to get what they deserve. Here they only have what they earn. Here laws must be obeyed or else. Life is chasing a carrot while being threatened with a stick.
Being so deeply engaged here, even we can succumb to the siren song of merit and penalty-based obedience. When our minds begin thinking this way, we might even begin to read the Scriptures through the lens of merit and punishment. That mindset may cause us to read imperative commands as ordinances to which we must subject ourselves or face prosecution.
But our Kingdom knows nothing of such earthiness. Our Kingdom is founded on the compassionate Love of our Lord Jesus Christ. As such it is founded on a completely different set of principles. Principles like these:
“Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it. He will bring out your righteousness as the light” (Psalm 37:5–6a, NASB 2020)
“it is God who is at work in you, both to desire and to work for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13, NASB 2020)
The imperative commands we find in the New Testament are the exact desires He is placing within us, Saints!
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will do it.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24, NASB 2020)
He has not called us to obedience or-else, but obedience born of desire. The icing on the cake is that He is the dynamo energizing us to do the good and godly things He prepared in advance should characterize the lives of His children.
