Commands

      I mentioned recently about the Apostle Paul using imperatives in a scripture passage.  Imperatives are not just for formal speech nor are they only Biblical.  My Mother would use them all the time especially when I was getting ready to leave the house for some activity usually involving music but she knew I would be picking up my girlfriend to go along with me.  I played in the Michigan City municipal band at an open air bandshell in one of the parks in Michigan City, Indiana.   It was about a 30 minute drive to the spot on now famous U.S. Route 20 which runs from New York to Chicago, Illinois.  As I was leaving the house, Mom would always give me the list of imperative commands.  They were not long lectures, but short instructions that were not options.  They included my driving skills, my manners, my looks and my expected time of arrival back at home.  As I mentioned, they were not suggestions, or reminders, they were commands.  These were the last minute instructions that would cover everything that had not been already mentioned.   Ephesians 4:26-27 says, “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:  Neither give place to the devil.” 

It has always been interesting to me that the first three chapters of Ephesians do not have a single imperative command in them while the last three chapters contain about thirty-nine imperatives. Two of them are mentioned in the passage for today.  We have been exhorted to be angry and sin not and not to give place to the devil.  Hal Lindsey wrote a book in the seventies entitled, “Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth.”  Nothing has changed much since that book was written.  Satan, or the devil if you will, is certainly active today even in the lives of believers.  One might say, “especially in the lives of believers.”  Satan wants to keep every believer from doing anything that would ever promulgate the kingdom of God.  When you leave a campsite, one of the things you do is to separate the coals in the firepit or grill or pile of rocks on the ground.  Coals that are separated will soon die out while coals that remain next to each other will fuel each other until they are both gone.  Ten pieces of charcoal, once in a fire pit, will soon die out when separated and will return to a black remnant of a piece of charcoal.  If the same group of pieces of charcoal remain next to each other, they will continue to glow until they are either consumed or extinguished.  Satan wants to extinguish the believer from doing anything profitable for the promotion of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  One of the easiest among believers seems to be anger.  If Satan can keep you angry, you will accomplish very little for God.  In contrast to the anger that quite often exists with the believers, is the list of the “one another” commands that appear here and there in the New Testament.  Such passages as “Pray for one another,” or “love one another,” or “exhort one another,” or “bear one another’s burdens.”  You get the idea.  This should be the norm for the believer rather than the anger that quite often exists in the hearts of people.  We soon find that we can keep from giving place to the devil when we are fully exercising the “one another” commands of the Scripture.  Praise God today for His instructions to us in His Word.