To you it is commanded, O people.
The Importance of the Imperative
We cannot do without this word “command” in our religious education. It is a Divine word. It would be instructive to trace the history of that term, and to study its meaning in the various relations which it assumes. The Bible is full of commandments; in Genesis the Lord commands, in the Apocalypse there is a commanding voice; and Jesus, gracious, meek, patient, tender Jesus, commands--He says, “A new commandment give I unto you.” How, then, can Jesus give commands? Because of what He is. God can give commands because He is God; and not only so, but being God, He knows human nature, and can address it in its own terms, and according to the line of its own instincts and necessities. When He thunders down His commands there is nothing that offends the mental or moral constitution on which the commanding voice falls with ineffable authority. The command awakens something that is already slumbering in the nature. We must have our duties in the first instance in the form of commands, but only God can tell what commands are not arbitrary, but are natural, and operate in the line of instinct and Divine intention. What is a commandment to one man is an easy task to another. Some hard and all but impenetrable natures require to be commanded, stirred, roused; and others hear the word of the Lord and spring to it in obedience that seems to understand it all ere it be fully spoken. Many have sweetened the bitterness of their lot by an ample and proper use of the promises who have forgotten that every promise has behind it or near it a corresponding command. The imperative mood has never been allowed to fall into disuse in the Bible; it is, “Son, give me thine heart”; it is, “Love one another”; it is, “Hear my words and do them.” We draw the line, then, as between human authority and Divine sovereignty, as between an arbitrary decree and a command that is in harmony with the wisdom and love of God, and in harmony with the peculiarity of human constitution and capacity. (Joseph Parker, D.D.)