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My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments; for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.¹

It is not man’s bent to be subject to rules and regulations due to our sinful nature²; thus, our need for diligent teaching,³ training,⁴ discipline,⁵ and constant reminder⁶ that we may realize the rules and regulations are for our own good, protection, and benefit. We find many teachings from the bible. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.⁷ Yet not everything written carries the same weight; E.g., there are the first and the most important.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.⁸ Trust God. He knows what we need.⁹ “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’¹⁰. . . . As we order our vertical relationship with God, we gain understanding and wisdom towards our  horizontal relationships.

Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children.¹¹ God first loved us.¹² And walk in love, as Christ loved us, and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.¹³ Walk as children of light.¹⁴ Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise.¹⁵

The commandments are set in place to give us a standard of God’s holiness and to remind us of our sinfulness.¹⁶ Apart from the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ, our works are futile¹⁷—like filthy, menstrual cloths.¹⁸ He gives us commands that we may walk wisely.¹⁹

The father-heart of God weighs heavily on family—marriage, parenting, spiritual community. To wives, he instructs them to submit to their husband²⁰ (although this command is not exclusively for the wife²¹); to husbands, to love their wife²² (again, not exclusively for the husband²³); Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”. . . that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.²⁴ (generally, the promise is for all the commandments²⁵); Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.²⁶ Do not intermarry for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods.²⁷ God had to be specific particularly with family relationships as he is a God of order and peace.²⁸ He is mindful of the generations.²⁹

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”³⁰