Panashe Chigwedere Poet Spoken Word

The Eleventh Commandment.

Love with such depth that you fulfill them all.

You have been given ten words carved in stone.  
Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not covet.  
Honor. Remember. Keep. Rest.  

But I give you an eleventh 
not to replace them,  
but to hold them,  
to breathe life into them,  
to be the roof under which every other commandment finds shelter.  

*Love.*  

Love God with a reverence that makes idols crumble.  
Love your neighbor with a mercy that makes judgment silent.  
Love your enemy with a grace that disarms the serpent’s plot.  
Love the weary with hands that serve without being asked.  
Love the broken with a presence that does not flinch.  
Love the truth more than you love being right.  
Love forgiveness more than you love being offended.  
Love obedience more than you love convenience.  

For if you love, you will not kill 
because you will see the image of God in every face.  
If you love, you will not steal 
because another’s blessing will feel like your own.  
If you love, you will not lie 
because truth will be the language of your devotion.  
If you love, you will not covet —  
because gratitude will be richer than possession.  

The eleventh commandment is not written on tablets.  
It is written on hearts.  
It is not shouted from mountains.  
It is whispered in kitchens, in hospital rooms, in the quiet act of staying.  

It is easy to follow rules.  
It is hard to love like thi  
to love when you’re tired,  
to love when you’re wronged,  
to love when no one is watching.  

But this is the commandment that fulfills all the rest.  
This is the one that turns religion into relationship,  
duty into delight,  
law into life.  

So go.  
And let your life be the eleventh commandment.  
Let people read it in how you speak.  
Let them feel it in how you stay.  
Let them know God by how you love.  

Because in the end,  
heaven will not ask how well you memorized the ten.  
Heaven will ask how deeply you lived the one.

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