Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.
The commandments of God come with an ought. God does not talk just to hear His teeth rattle. If He commands it, it isn't optional. He doesn't make suggestions or share His opinions. What God says is our obligation. His commands merit honor and respect.
In other words, we owe God our obedience. When we obey Him, we are merely paying our debts. We are giving Him what He is due. Our obedience merely pays the bill His glory and honor demand.
No one shall diminish the ought of God's words. We do well when we clarify that glad-hearted "get to" is more in line with what we owe than hard-hearted "have to," but we must also carefully clarify that "get to" does not mean that we get to do whatever we want, but that we get to do what He requires.
Luke 17:10
When you have done all that you were commanded, say, "We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty."
Additionally, God's commandments cannot benefit from any of our contributions to them. Nor do God's commandments suffer from any of our retractions from them. We cannot promote God's Word or demote it by any addition or subtraction of ours. We neither make it more attractive by adding to it nor make it less offensive by subtracting from it. God's commandments cannot be fortified by synthetic vitamins and minerals and God's commandments cannot be purified by our state of the art refineries.
Anyone who adds to the God's commands is accusing His Word of being insufficient. Anyone who removes the ought from His commands is accusing His Word of being insignificant.
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