The blessing behind laws

Does the word command to you seem forceful, and make commandments seem like harsh punishments? Did you know the word "commandment" comes from the Old French commandement and from Latin commandare. Com means together and mandare means to entrust, commit, and put into someone's care. The word carried the idea of entrusting something important to someone, not just barking an order. But if you go back even farther, and look at the Old Hebrew world, commandment was actually originally written as Mitzvah.

מִצְוָה (mitzvah)

It mean instruction, guidance, duty, and a path you are meant to walk. A mitzvah is not just a rule, it is something given for your good, something that connects you to God and to right living. That’s why in Jewish thought, doing a mitzvah is considered a privilege, not a burden.

So when the scriptures say blessed are those who keep his mitzvot, this implies life-giving guidance, not oppressive law. Of course, Satan, the old serpent of the garden, has dedicated ages of time to getting people to think that the commandments are oppressive laws that take away freedoms.

Now you are probably thinking of the basic old "ten commandments" right now given by Moses the prophet. The Hebrew word used specifically for the Ten Commandments was:

עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְּרוֹת (Aseret ha-Dibrot)

It literally means "the ten words" or "ten sayings" and this is important. They are not called ten orders, ten laws, or ten threats. They are ten truths to shape life. Now we can look at the Greek word for commandment:

ἐντολή (entolē)

This word means instruction, charge, something set in order, a guiding directive. It comes from "en" meaning "in" and "telos" meaning goal and purpose. So an entolē is something that leads you toward your intended purpose. When Jesus talks about commandments, He uses entolē—and then summarizes them as love. So across Hebrew, Greek, and early usage, a commandment is not primarily about control. It is about guidance towards flourishing. You could honestly translate the idea as:

• “Life-giving instruction”

• “Trusted guidance”

• “Words that show the way”

• “Directions aligned with your purpose”

In modern English, command implies authority, force, and obedience under threat. But in the biblical world, commandments were understood more like a parent guiding a child or a map showing a safe road.

Biblical commandments were originally understood as entrusted, purpose-filled instructions—spoken words meant to guide people into life, not rules designed to control them.

Imagine the scriptures like a poem.

The poem is the words you see in the Bible and other modern scriptures that come from God, and those words give you the secret to joyful living.  Faith and prayer is reading that poem and applying what it says to do.  It seems so simple, almost too simple, and often over-looked.  Science, on the other hand, is sort of like the notes to the poem.  It helps us see how the poem was put together, but the poem itself gives you the magic recipe of success.  So when you read the Bible, and it tells you to pray over your families, your farms, your daily affairs, and your life, you could simply have the faith to do that and reap the rewards of prayer.  It is the faith that moves us into action, and the action that reaps the reward.  But sometimes, the faith is hard to come by.  Sometimes the poem seems too simple, or too straight-forward.  Sometimes, people like to see the notes to the poem.  When you look at the science behind things, it is like reading the notes to the poem. Science is not going to give you the full recipe to joy.   Faith in the poem itself is always a better option.  However, we live in a day and age, where the science is ever-growing into something that seems to be pages and pages of notes to every word in the poem.  Find a commandment you read in the scriptures, and you can find a research article that confirms why that commandment is important.  Like this crazy science behind love: