7 Commandments Jesus Gave From the Gospels

Jesus gave us commands that went beyond the Ten Commandments, some new and some from the Old Testament. What seven commandments did Jesus give us from the Gospels?

Jesus Commandments

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.

Conclusion

Jesus commands all who are not saved to repent (Matt 4:17), to take the gospel into all the world (Matt 28:18-20), to take up our cross and follow Him (Matt 16:24-25). He also commands us to believe that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him (John 14:11), to stay alert and always pray (Luke 21:36), to love one another like Christ loved them (John 13:34-35), and to pray for our enemies and those who persecute us (Matt 5:44-45). These are not suggestions but commands given by the King of kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ our Savior. The only question is, you I obey? Will you?

Take a look at what the Bible says about obedience: Bible Verses About Obedience

Resource – Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Tagged as: Commandments, Gospels, Jesus, Jesus words