"Therefore you shall keep my commandments, and do them. I am Yahweh. (Leviticus 22:31)
The commandments of God are perhaps the most well-known portion of the Law, likely because they are the type of Law to which the Bible most often refers, especially in the New Covenant. Let us first look at the definition of "commandment:"
"The Hebrew word "mitsvah" comes from a primitive root, "tsavah" meaning "to command." It has to do with giving charge, or ordering something to be done. Mitsvot (plural) are action-based. A commandment is something that is to be done, having been ordered by Yahweh."
This Hebrew word is first mentioned in respect to Abraham—Yahweh stated that he kept, among other things, "His commandments" (Gen. 26:5). Most often the word is used as an inclusive term for all the different portions of the Law:
and if you shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhors my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant; (Leviticus 26:15)
Thus, in one sense, anything God commands in His Law can be considered a commandment. However, sometimes what God commands is specifically seen as a commandment and nothing else. Let us look at those specific items in the Law termed "commandments" as well as those items that God commanded His people that are not termed ordinances, statutes or laws.
19For I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God. 20I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me. 21I don't make void the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!" (Galatians 2:19-21)
Scripture Quotes: World English Bible Translation.
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