The New Testament includes books recognized as authoritative and sacred by many Christian denominations, containing the core of Christian beliefs and doctrine, such as the gospel accounts, letters of Paul, the Book of Revelation and many other well known verses. This is a list of 684 commands found in the new testament to help you explain/defend/explain Christianity. I have divided the list into main categories including: Love and Charity, God, Other People (Non believers), Discipleship (humbling ones self), Church, Marriage, Submission to Authority, Holy Living.
Summary List of 684 Commands In The New Testament
Love and Unity (61 commands)
1. Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37)
2. Love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:39)
3. Love your enemies (Matthew 5:44)
4. Be at peace with one another (Mark 9:50)
5. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love (Romans 12:10)
Prayer and Worship (52 commands)
1. Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
2. Rejoice always (1 Thessalonians 5:16)
3. Sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Ephesians 5:19)
4. Offer thanksgiving in all things (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
5. Do not be anxious, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God (Philippians 4:6)
Service and Ministry (73 commands)
1. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers (Hebrews 13:2)
2. Preach the gospel to all creation (Mark 16:15)
3. Bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2)
4. Serve one another in love (Galatians 5:13)
5. Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due (Proverbs 3:27)
Character and Conduct (89 commands)
1. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2)
2. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33)
3. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt (Colossians 4:6)
4. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable (1 Peter 2:12)
5. Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another (1 Peter 5:5)
Discipleship and Growth (82 commands)
1. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus (Matthew 16:24)
2. Abide in Christ and bear fruit (John 15:4)
3. Endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 2:3)
4. Discipline yourself for godliness (1 Timothy 4:7)
5. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18)
Justice and Mercy (61 commands)
1. Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves (Proverbs 31:8)
2. Do not show partiality in judgment (Leviticus 19:15)
3. Care for widows and orphans in their distress (James 1:27)
4. Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8)
5. Defend the rights of the poor and needy (Proverbs 31:9)
Holiness and Purity (84 commands)
1. Flee sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 6:18)
2. Purify yourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit (2 Corinthians 7:1)
3. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things (Colossians 3:2)
4. Be holy, as God is holy (1 Peter 1:16)
5. Abstain from every form of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22)
The New Testament is made up of two main parts: the Gospels and the Epistles. The Gospels are four books that tell the story of Jesus’ life and ministry: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The Epistles are a collection of letters written by early Christians. These letters were written to specific people in particular situations (such as Timothy or Titus) but they contain timeless truths that can be applied to any believer today.
The New Testament contains a total of 63 books but only 24 are considered canonical. These include: Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians (which is really one letter), 1 Timothy/2 Timothy (depending on whether you consider it one book or two), Titus/Philemon (again a matter of opinion), Hebrews and James. The other books in the New Testament are considered apocryphal or pseudepigraphic writings, meaning they appear in the Bible but don’t have any authority because they weren’t written by apostles or prophets.
In the New Testament, there are 678 commands. This number is certainly impressive, but it’s not as big as you might think.
For example, there are only 846 commandments in the entire bible. Most of these involve dietary restrictions and other things that have been very much out of fashion since the time of Jesus.
In fact, if you take away all of these inconvenient laws and just keep the ones that have been proven to be beneficial to people’s health (like “don’t eat pigs”), you get a total of just 411 commandments. So while 678 is still a lot of commands, it’s actually less than half of what we’ve got in our holy book!
And then if you take away all those commands that were only given once (like “don’t eat pork”), but kept anyway because no one wants to be seen as breaking God’s law), we’re down to only 212 commandments remaining. That’s still a lot of rules, but not nearly as many as 678!
684 Commands
Jesus gave 21 commands, and the Old Testament gave 10 commandments.
There are 684 commands in the New Testament.
The most repeated command in the entire Bible is “Fear not.” “Do not be afraid” or “Do not fear” appears in the bible 365 times or once for every day of the year. The most repeated command in the New Testament is “Rejoice.”
Other commands include: cast thy burden, let him take hold, take ye away, let us arise and build, do this in remembrance of me, watch ye therefore and pray always, Go ye into all the world and preach, and Owe no man anything.
The most repeated command in the New Testament is “Rejoice.” (1 Thes. 5:16-18) Other commands include, “go ye into all the world and preach,” and “let us arise and build.”
The most repeated command in the entire Bible is “fear not” (6 times).
We are to follow the commandments given to us by God.
In order to truly understand the Christian faith, we must understand that Jesus Christ is God. According to the Bible, he is the Son of God and is a messenger for God. We are told to obey his commandments because he is our leader and guide through life on earth. Jesus spoke many times about following His example in order to lead a life of righteousness. He mentioned several important things that we need to do as Christians:
- Love one another (John 13:34-35)
- Love your enemies (Matthew 5:43-48)
- Feed the hungry (Luke 14:13-14)
- Clothe the naked (Matthew 25:36-38)
- Visit those who are sick (James 5:14-15).
New Testament Commands Of Jesus
Like the Ten Commandments, these commands that Jesus gave in the gospels were not the ten suggestions but imperative commands that we have no room to rationalize them away. If Jesus came down to earth, which He is destined to do again, and He came to you and told you to do something, surely you wouldn’t hesitate would you? You wouldn’t try to wiggle your way out of it would you? When Jesus gives believers commands, He is not asking us to do them but tells us to do them. He said that “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15) so our love for Christ is reflected in our obedience to Him. If you don’t love Him, naturally you won’t obey Him. Obedience tells us whether we truly love Jesus or not so in these seven commandments, we must prove our love for Him by keeping them and teaching others to do the same thing. Truly, there are more than seven commandments that were given by Jesus as I counted over 30 so there may be more than that but I do hope to reveal seven of the greatest commandments Jesus gave us in the gospels.
Love One Another
John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Here is “a new command” that Jesus gives to His disciples, and if we are saved then this means us. We are commanded to love one another but how great is this love to be? We are to love one another just as Jesus loved us. That’s a tall order! If we love one another like Christ loves us then this means that we will not gossip about others, we will be a servant of others, we will put others ahead of our own interests and if we do this, “everyone will know that [we] are [His] disciples.” This love is an evangelistic love that draws men, women, and children to Christ because they reason, “Look at how they love one another in such a sacrificial way…that is real godly love” and so even the lost will know that we are the disciples of Jesus Christ. It’s not about religion but about a relationship with the Son of God.
Pray for your Enemies
Matthew 5:44-45 “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
This command is off the charts for those who don’t have the Holy Spirit. The Romans could not have understood this at all. Really? Pray for your enemies? This is diametrically opposed to the ways of the world and that is exactly the reason that Jesus commands us to not only pray for our enemies but to love them too! Is that humanly possible? No, it is not. This kind of love…loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us is the kind of love that is like that of God and we can’t possibly do it without the Holy Spirit of God. He tells us to pray for them and love them “so that” or in order that we “may be sons (and daughters) of [our] Father.” A godly love is one where we are to pray for our enemies because Jesus prays for us and died for us while we were still His enemies and wicked sinners (Rom 5:8, 11).
Repent
Matthew 4:17 “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
You might not think of this as being a new command but we see that it was “From that time [that] Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” From what time exactly did Matthew mean in his gospel? It was from the time that “Jesus began to preach” or began His earthly ministry. This is the only command that I could find that is directed to those who are not yet saved. Jesus says to “repent” in an imperative statement or as a direct command. He never gives the idea that this is an option. The kingdom being at hand means that if it is at hand, it is within reach or within an arm’s length so the kingdom’s being at hand is made so with the appearance of the King of that kingdom, and that is Jesus Christ.
Believe that Jesus is in the Father
John 14:11 “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.“
Once again this doesn’t seem, at first glance, to be a new command given by Jesus but He tells the disciples, and again by extension, He tells us, to “believe” in Him and that He is “in the Father and the Father” is in Him. Jesus uses the Old Testament name for God: “I am” so He is essentially commanding us to believe that Jesus is the “I AM” of the Old Testament, even though most people might not catch that. Jesus actually gave seven “I AM’s” in the four gospels. He also tells us to believe that He and the Father are in One Another. The Jews sought to stone Him for saying such things because He made Himself out to be God, which of course He is. Some cults do not believe this command, therefore they don’t believe in the true Jesus Christ. There are several other places where Jesus commands His disciples to believe in Him so this is no accident that to believe is a given command (John 14:11).
Take up your Cross and Follow Me
Matthew 16:24-25 “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Jesus tells his disciples, and He tells us to follow Him but if anyone is to follow after Jesus, they must deny themselves and then “take up His cross and follow” Him. Jesus uses hyperbole when He says that if we would save our life we must lose it and if we lose our life for His sake then we will find it. I believe He means we will find eternal life. The command is to take up His cross and then follow Him. This is not a suggestion. If we want to follow Him, it is conditional; we must take up His cross and deny ourselves. We must deny the things that we like, the things of this world, and take up the things that Jesus endured.
Go and Make Disciples
Matthew 28:18-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
This is a direct, imperative command like that of a parent who would command their children to get out of the middle of the street. There is no plan B. Jesus tells the disciples and He tells us that “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). This commandment of the Great Commission is given three times. Twice in the gospels (Matthew and Mark) and once just before He ascended (Acts 1:8) so this is of particular importance to Christ. Any command or statement that Jesus ever gives more than once is always held to be of supreme importance and we are told to go and make disciples of all nations, to teach them what Jesus teaches us, and to go into all the world, even if its next door.
Pray Always
Luke 21:36 “But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Jesus says for us, in the context of Luke 21, to stay alert because His coming could be at any moment (Luke 21:29-35). He commands us to pray:
at all times (Luke 21:36),
not using vain repetitions (Matt 6:7-8),
to the Lord of the Harvest for more laborers (Luke 10:2),
so that we won’t enter into temptations (Luke 22:40, 46),
to the Father in secret (Matt 6:6),
for God’s will and the kingdom to come, for the forgiveness of our sins, and for our needs (Luke 11:3-4),
for those who despitefully use us (Luke 6:28).
When the disciples came to Jesus they didn’t ask Him “Lord, teach us to preach; teach us to heal; teach us to minister….but teach us how to pray (Luke 11:1) because they saw that Jesus was truly a Man of prayer.
New Testament Rules No One Follows
Some Bible-believing Christians play fast and loose with their sacred text. When it suits their purposes, they treat it like the literally perfect word of God. Then, when it suits their other purposes, they conveniently ignore the parts of the Bible that are—inconvenient.
Here are 11 kinds of verses Bible-believers ignore so that they can keep spouting the others when they want to. To list all of the verses in these categories would take a book almost the size of the Bible; one the size of the Bible minus the Jefferson Bible, to be precise. I’ll limit myself to a couple tantalizing tidbits of each kind, and the curious reader who wants more can go to the Skeptic’s Annotated Bible or simply dig out the old family tome and start reading at Genesis, Chapter I.
- Weird insults and curses. The Monty Python crew may have coined some of the best insults of the last 100 years: Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries. But for centuries the reigning master was Shakespeare: It is certain that when he makes water his urine is congealed ice. Had John Cleese or William Shakespeare lived in the Iron Age, though, some of the Bible writers might have given him a run for his money. Christians may scoot past these passages, but one hell-bound humorist used them to create a biblical curse generator.
She lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. Ezekiel 23:20 NIV
You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit. Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them. . . . The Lord will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. Deuteronomy 28:30-31,35
- Awkwardly useless commandments. The Bible is chock-a-block with do’s and don’ts. Some of them are simply statements of universal ethical principles, like do to others what you would have them do to you, or don’t lie, or don’t covet your neighbor’s possessions. But from a moral standpoint most of them are simply useless or even embarrassing—especially if you think God could have used the space to say don’t have sex with anyone who doesn’t want you to, or wash your hands after you go to the bathroom.
Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material. Leviticus 19:19
Ye shall not round the corners of your heads. Leviticus 19:27
- Silly food rules. The early Hebrews probably didn’t have an obesity epidemic like the one that has spread around the globe today. Even so, one might think that if an unchanging and eternal God were going to give out food rules he might have considered the earnest Middle-American believers who would be coming along in 2014. A little divine focus on amping up leafy green vegetables and avoiding sweets might have gone a long way. Instead, the Bible strictly forbids eating rabbit, shellfish, pork, weasels, scavengers, reptiles, and owls. As is, Christians simply ignore the eating advisories in the Old Testament, even though they claim that edicts like the Ten Commandments and the anti-queer clobber verses still apply.
All that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you. Leviticus 9:10
Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother’s milk. Exodus 23:19
- Holy hangups about genitals. God, or the Bible writers, is hung up about sexual anatomy in a way many modern Christians, fortunately, are not. In “The Year of Living Biblically,” the author, A.J. Jacobs, attempts to obey Mosaic laws about menstruation. When his wife finds out what those laws actually are, she gives him the middle finger by sitting on every chair in the house.
When a woman has a discharge, if her discharge in her body is blood, she shall continue in her menstrual impurity for seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening. Everything also on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean, and everything on which she sits shall be unclean. Leviticus 15: 19-20
When men fight with one another, and the wife of the one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him, and puts out her hand and seizes him by the private parts, then you shall cut off her hand. Deuteronomy 25:11-12
- God’s temper tantrums. Modern Christians may talk about God as a loving father, or even a Jesus buddy, the kind you’d want to play golf with, but in reality Bible-God goes out of his way to be intimidating. Worse, he appears to lose control of his temper at times, lashing out like an oversized thwarted three-year-old; and his earthly representatives—including Jesus—do the same.
Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!” He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys. 2 Kings 2:23-25 NIV
Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. Matthew 21:18-22 NIV
- Times when the Bible God is worse than Satan. In the Bible, Satan is described as a roaring lion who prowls the earth, seeking whom he may devour. But if you actually read the stories, Satan doesn’t do much other than to tempt people into disobeying the dictates of Yahweh, who acts like a heavenly dictator with borderline personality disorder. God, by contrast, professes his undying love, kindness and mercy, but then commands his minions to commit brutal atrocities when he isn’t up for it himself. Some of the stories are so bad even Hollywood, with its passion for glorious biblical sex and violence, won’t touch them, especially the plentiful Bible stories about sexual slavery and human sacrifice.
Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man intimately. But all the girls who have not known man intimately, spare for yourselves. Numbers 31:17-18
He [Josiah] executed the priests of the pagan shrines on their own altars, and he burned human bones on the altars to desecrate them…. He did this in obedience to all the laws written in the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had found in the LORD’s Temple. Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the laws of Moses. And there has never been a king like him since. 2 Kings 23:20-25 NLT
- Instructions for slave masters. The reality is that the Bible says much more in support of slavery than against it. Even the New Testament Jesus never says owning people is wrong. Instead, the Bible gives explicit instructions to masters and slaves. Awkward.
You may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way. Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. Ephesians 6:5 NLT
- Bizzare death penalties. Years ago, I wrote an article titled, “If the Bible Were Law Would You Qualify For the Death Penalty?” It identified 35 different offenses that earn a person capital punishment in the Bible. Hint: You probably qualify. And so does the dog who belongs to your kinky neighbor.
If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die. Deuteronomy 21:18-21
If a man has sex with an animal, he must be put to death, and the animal must be killed. Leviticus 20:15 NLT
- Denigration of handicapped people. The yuck factor is probably wired into humanity at the level of instinct, a way to avoid contamination and pathogens. Shit smells bad to us, as does decaying flesh. Our revulsion at illness and injury fuels a whole Hollywood horror industry. The Bible writers had the same instincts, but unlike modern health professionals, who have the benefit of germ theory, they had no idea what was contagious and what wasn’t, and they blurred the ideas of physical purity with spiritual purity. Modern Christians largely escape their denigration of physical handicaps.
No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the LORD. Deuteronomy 23:1 NRSV
Whosoever … hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded, Or crookback, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken … He shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries. Leviticus 21:17-23 KJV
- Moral edicts that demand too much. If much of the Bible gets ignored because it is morally irrelevant, immoral, outdated, or factually wrong, another portion gets ignored because it sets the bar too high, like putting divorce on par with—omg—homosexuality. If you want to send a conservative Bible-believer into a froth, try suggesting Jesus was a socialist. Then, when he goes all Jehovah on you, quote from the book of Ephesians.
Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same. Luke 3:11 NIV
Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place. Ephesians 5:4 NIV
- Passages that are a waste of brain space and paper. Some years ago I worked on a website called Wisdom Commons, a library of timeless quotes and stories from many traditions. I had the idea that I would go through the Bible and pull out bits that were relevant, so I started reading.
What I found was that most of the Bible was neither horrible nor inspiring. It was simply dull and irrelevant: long genealogies written by men obsessed with racial purity; archaic stories about ancient squabbles over real estate and women; arcane rituals aimed at pleasing a volatile deity; folk medicine practices involving mandrakes and dove’s blood; superstition that equated cleanliness with spiritual purity and misfortune with divine disfavor; outdated insider politics.
Commands Of The New Testament
Laws and commandments are an Old Testament thing, right? Not at all. The New Testament is full of them. Did you know that there’s even a “law of Christ?” (Gal 6:2) Well, I’m speaking mostly to myself here, but many of the New Testament’s commands are difficult to follow.
The New Testament consists of many situational works and correspondences, so appropriating its commands can become difficult. But here are 10 that I find particularly challenging not because they’re hard to contextualize, but because my flesh prefers to avoid these altogether! While these may be applied in different ways, I believe are very much applicable to modern Christians.
1) Abstain from all appearances of evil (1 Thess. 5:22)
We all like to poke fun at the “holy huddle” Christians who go to great lengths not to taint themselves—I mean, they resemble the Pharisees better than they do Jesus, right? Well, this verse is a great reminder that holiness is something that God’s people should hold dear. It doesn’t mean we become sectarian, as if we can’t look upon evil or breathe the same air as “sinners.” Rather, if something looks evil, or we’re unsure, we simply don’t do it.
2) Be patient toward others (1 Thess. 5:14; 2 Tim. 2:24)
In the age of self-care (which is important), many of us simply withdraw from relationships that stretch us. Maybe we count strikes on one hand. Or maybe all it takes is one let-down for our guard to rise up high. Burn out and harmful relationships are real possibilities, but many times we set the bar higher for others than we do ourselves. Being attentive to a person’s story, pain, or insecurities, may help us become more patient toward them.
3) Avoid troublemakers (Rom. 16:17)
This is a wisdom genre—it will require discernment to know how to apply. But certainly there are situations where we must say a firm “no” to the company of people whose negative attitudes, lifestyles, or doctrine are toxic. This is the problem with some alleged “middle way” solutions—they prioritize attempts at visible unity over firm love. This mistake also robs troublemakers the opportunity for godly sorrow leading to repentance (2 Cor. 7:10).
4) Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers (2 Cor. 6:14-18)
Here’s another difficult one, especially for a theological tradition which has become characterized by its “niceness” and sensitivity to others. But there are times when persistent, unrepentant sin should result in clear lines drawn in the sand. While the church should be a hospital for the sick, it must not forget to be a school for saints.
5) Do all things without murmuring or disputing (Phil. 2:14)
If you live south of the Mason Dixon line—really, if you live anywhere in the world—gossip often veils itself in prayerful concerns, or “catching up.” Christians shouldn’t condone or participate in this behavior. Furthermore, I also believe that if we feel the personal conviction to live a certain way or take on some project, we shouldn’t constantly complain over its strenuousness.
6) Honor rulers (1 Pet. 2:17)
Every 4 years or so this becomes especially painful to obey. You know, when the candidate of your opposing political party takes aim at office. Christians shouldn’t villainize leaders, but instead “be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.” (James 1:19) There are times when sharp rebuke and calls to accountability are appropriate, but it has become all too common for Christians to dehumanize—even demonize—leaders with opposing political views.
7) Don’t let the left hand know what the right hand is doing (Matt. 6:3)
In the age of social media, how is it possible for us to do good deeds and not share it with the whole world, let alone keep our hands from knowing what the other is doing? Our generation needs to be particularly attune to this issue. God honors the good deeds and the good lunches eaten in secret!
8) Do not quench the Spirit (1 Thess. 5:19)
The lines between Global Christianity and the West are quickly becoming blurred—and that’s a good thing. When we meet Christians outside of the West, they often carry with them a vibrancy and power—often marked by charismatic gifts—that may at first be intimidating. We’ve all seen abuses of the charismatic gifts, but God’s instructions are clear: we must not put a cap or limit on what God can do in his church, even when it involves us and stretches us individually.
9) Study to show yourself approved to God (2 Tim. 2:15)
New studies reveal that some traditional ways of learning aren’t quite as effective at formation as we thought they were. So we avoid things like memorization, lectures, etc. We often wonder, do the details really matter that much? Well, it may just be that God is still in the details (and the devil, too)! So let’s make honest attempts at learning both the known and obscure parts of the Bible. Both the things we like and don’t like. Because somehow, this relates to God’s approval.
10) Watch your doctrine closely (1 Tim. 4:16)
Doctrine is a conversation stopper for many. But for the first church, the gospel and mission hinged on healthy doctrine. If we get God wrong, we’ll get everything else wrong. When it comes to doctrine, I’d suggest starting with historic orthodoxy, reading your Bible attentively, and perhaps exploring the Wesleyan tradition for landing in a good church.