What are his commandments?

1 John 2:3-5
King James Version
3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

So what are his commandments?

When we truly Love our Heavenly Father Eternal, we know.

His commandments aren't a list of rules like under the old covenant. Jesus said in John 8:31-32, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” His word is the New Testament. We obey His commandments by walking in the truth submitting to the Holy Spirit's sovereignty.

Acts 17:30

Amen

the word of truth

“Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.”
‭‭John‬ ‭18:37‬ ‭KJV‬‬

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.”
‭‭John‬ ‭8:51‬ ‭KJV‬‬


that sets believers free

“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
‭‭John‬ ‭8:31-32‬ ‭

“in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.”
‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭2:25-26‬ ‭

The word of life

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”
‭‭John‬ ‭5:24‬ ‭

When we submit to the spirit

“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”
‭‭John‬ ‭6:63‬ ‭KJV‬‬

And walk by faith

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭10:17‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Jesus is our lord his word is his word

People took their sins to the high priest at the temple in Jerusalem, but in Psalms 110:4 we read that God spoke to Christ telling him He was our high priest forever.

Christ never changed anything of the commandments, bur there was a change, it changed the commandments given through the flesh to those commandments given through the spirit of the Lord. Christ lived as a man, he was tempted as we are so he understands and rules as our high priest with mercy and grace.

Hebrews, the 4th and 5th chapter explains. Now, we have the same rules of the OT, but through the heart and the spirit of Christ. All the commands given come from the greatest commandment. They are no longer freshly rules, but the spirit of God.

The greatest commandment scripture is found in the Bible, in the book of Matthew 22:37-4012, and Mark 12:28-3134. Jesus said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy mind, and the second is like it, thy shall love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

You have two options: (1) a summation in one sentence or (2) a dissertation within a whole book (going into every detail). I trust you already have the answer.

The commandments are simple enough but they were unobtainable through the flesh and the Pharisees sought to fulfill the law through the flesh by applying their heavy handed external works onto Gods law. The commandments and in turn Gods law involves our hearts being transformed. As we transform we will keep the “spirit” of Gods laws not perfectly of course but ever increasingly till we finally become one in spirit and truth with Him when we are fully restored and revealed. Not perfection in this life but direction. The sermon gives examples of the progression of the Christians heart through transformation in our inmost being. As we progress in the faith outlined by the sermon we can begin to make sense of what the transformed heart does out of the overflow of Gods love.

“Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.””
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭22‬:‭37‬-‭40‬ ‭NIV‬‬

It would be worthwhile to read Exodus 20. Before God gives the commandments, He makes a statement concerning redemption...He brought them out of Egypt. He has been gracious and merciful towards them. To try to understand the commandments of God without first understanding His grace and mercy relegates the law to becoming either an unjust taskmaster (which they had just come out from under) or a list of do's and don'ts on which to base God's approval.
They already enjoyed God's approval. This should have been clearly seen by what God had done. So the law should have been seen as the way or as befitting a redeemed people. That is to say, the purpose of the law was always to reflect grace. When sin was committed, the appeal should have been to God's mercy as pictured in the animal sacrifices.

So fast forward to today. What purpose does the law fulfill for us?
Does it provide justification? No.
Does it establish a legalistic relationship between us and God? No.
Does it provide sanctification? Again, no.
What it does do is show us how unholy and unlike Christ we are, and the impossibility of ever becoming so apart from grace. It should cause us to come face to face with our failures and in humility and contrition to call afresh upon God for His divine aid.
God's people have always been a people of grace. The law, for God's people, serves as a reminder of just how much grace we need.

They're still unobtainable.

In this physical life yes. Especially If to break one is break them all. This is why are to apply them in spirit, rather than in flesh. To try to make it primarily about physical obedience, we actually make the laws less than they really are. Like the Pharisees we will have diluted the law down to something obtained through our flesh leaving our hearts behind and creating hypocrites in us as were the Pharisees. Even though we won’t see perfected obedience in this life Let that not dissuade us from growing in love to become the kind of people that from our hearts would desire to obey the law as to sing along with the psalmist in 119with joy describing following Gods law. We can become the kind of people that want to follow Gods law and that internal transformation is what God is after not the low sum of heartless external rule keeping the Pharisees were up to.

What does "apply then in spirit" mean? Can you clarify?

Bible says worship in spirit and truth.

Now that application is going to look differently for different people in different situations. Only you through the spirit can determine weather your heart moved in response to a situation correctly in a godly manner. Before sin ever becomes physically visible it is either agreed to or rejected in your heart.
The pressures of our lives tend to reveal what the real condition is of our hearts are in and what we actually believe. This is what God is after I believe. For we know that

“But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭15‬:‭18‬-‭19‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus wants to fix this part of us so that good things come out of our hearts and by default the behavioral sins stop.

1 John 3:23

And this is His commandment, That we should believe on the Name of His Son Yeshua Messiah, and love one another, as He gave us commandment.

.

There's been times during my 26+ years of internet forum activity when I've
encountered people wanting to know what they're supposed to do now that
they decided to become a Christian.

A mega Baptist church that I attended back in the decade of the 1970's had
a discipleship program that incorporated an outreach booklet called "The
Four Spiritual Laws" authored in 1952 by Campus Crusade for Christ founder
Dr. Bill Bright.

Those guidelines are helpful as far as they go, but they're pretty elementary
and in my judicious estimation are inadequate for taking Christ's believing
followers to infinity and beyond, so to speak.

Some years ago, just for the fun of it, I set out compiling a home-spun
catalogue of Christ's instructions from the new Testament that apply to all
his followers regardless of denominational affiliation. In time I realized that
his instructions, accompanied by a little commentary, would make a pretty
good how-to handbook; so here we are.

* I chose to start in the book of Acts because that's pretty much where
Christ's apostles began telling his believing followers what to do in accord
with the Lord's instructions per Matt 28:19-20.

Buen Camino
Pleasant Journey
_

.
1» Acts 15:20a . . Abstain from food tainted by idols,

In the old Roman world, nourishing things offered to pagan gods were not
always destroyed but instead were afterwards sold as groceries. Most of us
here in the USA will likely never encounter that kind of food in Costco,
Safeway and/or Whole Foods whereas markets in places like India might
carry stuff like that.

2» Acts 15:20b . . Abstain from promiscuity

Promiscuity typically refers to things like adultery, incest, shacking up, one
night stands, sleeping around, etc.

"It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual
immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way
that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do
not know God." (1Thess 4:3-5)

3» Acts 15:20c . . Abstain from the meat of strangled animals.

Strangulation is a slow, inhumane way to die. If you know that the meat
you're being served came from an animal that was choked to death,
consider it food fit only for barbarians. We want nothing to do with animal
abuse.

4» Acts 15:20d . . Abstain from blood

In other words: Christ's followers are forbidden to imbibe blood as a
beverage.

There are cultures that poke holes in cows' necks in order to drink blood
straight out of the living animal utilizing its own blood pressure like a tap to
fill their cups; a rather ghastly thirst that might be okay for Edward Cullen's
family but certainly not for Christians.
_

Whether we try to keep the commandments in the spirit or in the flesh it's a losing proposition. Christians aren't obligated to keep the old covenant commandments. We have died to the old law and it to us. We walk in obedience to the sovereign authority of the Holy Spirit. Our obligation is to Him, not the old covenant commandments.

I've thought a lot about this, and it seems to me the reason Christians cling to the old covenant commandments is because it gives them more of a sense of control over their own life. Surrendering control and submitting to the authority of the Holy Spirit can be a scary proposition.

So to your understanding what is the point of surrendering control and submitting to that authority to begin with? Isn’t that essentially so we are aligned with Gods will?