The 10 Commitments

You’ve heard the old clichés: “Aim at nothing; you’ll likely hit it.” Or “If you aim at the sun, you have a good chance of at least hitting the moon.” But the fact that they’re clichés doesn’t mean they aren’t true. What are you aiming at?

He would have been upper class, part of the intelligentsia, a shaker and mover in society. In a matter of weeks, it all changed. He described the trauma of it as the strange climax of a long list of excruciating circumstances. Stripes. Prison. Beaten with rods. Stoned. Shipwreck. Robbers. Hunger and thirst. Nakedness. To name a few. And then the one he saved for the last, but which was his first indignity as a believer: “through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall” (2 Cor. 11:33). Intending to ride into Damascus with head held high, he left the city by being unceremoniously dispatched over the wall in what was probably a trash can. Thus began the far-reaching ministry of the Apostle Paul with its eternal implications.

What kept him going—when even his converts distanced themselves? What dried his tears after he had wept “night and day”? What sustained his resolve? What will sustain ours? Listen now to Paul’s ten commitments, and pray them up to your Father that they also may be yours.

1. A commitment to spend my all in the pursuit of evangelism: “I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians … So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel …” (Rom. 1:15).

2. A commitment to be focused on Christ, and refuse to be distracted by petty personal issues: “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).

3. A commitment to keep the past in the past and daily aim for the Best: “This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Php. 3:13-14).

4. A commitment to always live with the shadow of the cross upon my life: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

5. A commitment to accept how God has made me, and watch for Him to use my liabilities as assets: “Most gladly … will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities … for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

6. A commitment to seek the glory of the Lord in all things: “That with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death” (Php. 1:20).

7. A commitment to work and pray for the spiritual well-being of the saints: “We … do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will … that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work …” (Col. 1:9-10).

8. A commitment to be thankful, uncomplaining, and content with what the Lord has given me: “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need” (Php. 4:12).

9. A commitment to endure present sufferings in light of future bliss: “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day” (2 Tim. 1:12).

10. A commitment to pass on this commitment to others:  “And the things that thou hast heard of me … commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2). Amen!   You’ve heard the old clichés: “Aim at nothing; you’ll likely hit it.”
Or “If you aim at the sun, you have a good chance of at least hitting the moon.” But the fact that they’re clichés doesn’t mean they aren’t true. What are you aiming at?

He would have been upper class, part of the intelligentsia, a shaker and mover in society. In a matter of weeks, it all changed. He described the trauma of it as the strange climax of a long list of excruciating circumstances. Stripes. Prison. Beaten with rods. Stoned. Shipwreck. Robbers. Hunger and thirst. Nakedness. To name a few. And then the one he saved for the last, but which was his first indignity as a believer: “through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall” (2 Cor. 11:33). Intending to ride into Damascus with head held high, he left the city by being unceremoniously dispatched over the wall in what was probably a trash can. Thus began the far-reaching ministry of the Apostle Paul with its eternal implications.

What kept him going—when even his converts distanced themselves? What dried his tears after he had wept “night and day”? What sustained his resolve? What will sustain ours? Listen now to Paul’s ten commitments, and pray them up to your Father that they also may be yours.

1. A commitment to spend my all in the pursuit of evangelism: “I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians … So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel …” (Rom. 1:15).

2. A commitment to be focused on Christ, and refuse to be distracted by petty personal issues: “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).

3. A commitment to keep the past in the past and daily aim for the Best: “This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Php. 3:13-14).

4. A commitment to always live with the shadow of the cross upon my life: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

5. A commitment to accept how God has made me, and watch for Him to use my liabilities as assets: “Most gladly … will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities … for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

6. A commitment to seek the glory of the Lord in all things: “That with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death” (Php. 1:20).

7. A commitment to work and pray for the spiritual well-being of the saints: “We … do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will … that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work …” (Col. 1:9-10).

8. A commitment to be thankful, uncomplaining, and content with what the Lord has given me: “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need” (Php. 4:12).

9. A commitment to endure present sufferings in light of future bliss: “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day” (2 Tim. 1:12).

10. A commitment to pass on this commitment to others:  “And the things that thou hast heard of me … commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2). Amen!