For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.    Romans 3:23

It’s easy to read through the Ten Commandments and think, “Yes I can do this.” Or maybe, “Sure, I am doing this.” But are you really? In Matthew 19:16-22, the parable of the rich young ruler, this young man came to Jesus asking Him, “What good must I do to have eternal life?” Jesus recited the commandments to Him and this young man said he was following them. But then Jesus told him to sell all he owned, give to the poor, and come to follow Him. This young man walked away sad because he had many possessions.

By refusing to part with his possessions and follow Jesus, this young man was disobeying the first commandment, “Thou shall have no other gods before Me.” His wealth and his possessions had become his idols. Have your wealth and your possessions become your idols?

The Israelites also had a hard time with this first commandment. They had come from Egypt and had lived among the Egyptians who had many false gods. God had performed many miracles when he brought the plagues. With these plagues He confronted the false gods of Egypt. Both the Egyptians and Israelites saw these false gods were no match for Yahweh, the one true God.

Our Scripture passage says God will punish to the third and fourth generation those who hate Him but will show love to thousands of generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments. This doesn’t mean we pay for our parents sins it just means we tend to do what we were taught as a child. If we were taught to love the Lord, pray, study our Bible and attend church, we are more likely to do the same when we get older and more likely to teach our children to do the same.

Loving God requires keeping His commandments. Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep my commandments.” Maybe you think you do a good job of that like the rich young ruler thought. Is it possible, you’re wrong? Do you maybe fall short?

While you say, “I may not commit adultery, and I don’t steal or lie or commit murder,” you may want to think about that. The Bible tells us if we look upon someone with thoughts of lust, we commit adultery in our hearts in Matthew 5:28.

Do you steal time at work by spending time working on personal things or just goofing off? And who of us could say we never lie, or we’ve never lied?

And what about murder? Well, you may not have killed anyone, but do you hold hatred in your heart for someone? Jesus said in Matthew 5:21-22, “…and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”

As I have said before, it’s easy to look at the Israelites and even those around us today and see where they sin and fall short of God’s glory. It’s sometimes not so easy to see that we do the same. We are told in Romans 3:23 that all sin and fall short of God’s glory.

This is why God sent His son Jesus to die on the cross that we may have everlasting life (John 3:16). He is the one and only way we can spend eternity with God the Father in heaven (John 14:6).

God knew that just like the Israelites we would all mess up. He knew we could not perfectly keep the commandments, so He provided a way for us to be saved. We are all sinners in need of a Savior. Won’t you come to Jesus today? Only He can save you and we all need saving.

Have a great day!