In my church we read Ten Very Familiar Rules every Sunday morning. In the past few years of exploring my Christianity and attending other churches who do not keep this practice I have questioned the importance of keeping this tradition. I hear feathers bristling! Read on dear Friend! You haven't reached my conclusion yet!
First of all I've done some researching and questioning about the 10 Commandments as part of the law of the old testament that was fulfilled by the death of Christ. In Matthew 5:17 Jesus himself says he came to fulfill the law not abolish it. I think this is very significant. Jesus didn't hate the law, he knew it was a law of love and he came to complete it not to destroy it. Now the question is can we say that Jesus fulfilled the part of the law with the sacrifices and uncleanness etc but he didn't fulfill the 10 Commandments? It's just not possible. Jesus fulfilled the entire law and he gave us a new one, he gave us a law of love. He shifts the focus from the justification by obedience to justification through faith by His sacrifice. Just read the book of Galatians that speaks of the gift of the Spirit and freedom from the law. I don't think that means we don't follow the 10 Commandments I think it means we follow them with a different purpose. Our salvation has already been accomplished. Following those rules doesn't get us anywhere with God, but it does get us far in our own lives. Our lives will be easier if we follow the rules. Just like we say to our kids! :)
In Matthew 12 Jesus tells us that the most important commandments are Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength and love your neighbour as yourself. Three things shout out to me here. Love GOD. Love your NEIGHBOUR. Love YOURSELF. In that order. If you love these three truly and purely if you try very hard to follow this summary Jesus gives then you will by default follow the entire Ten. Every person who loves God wants to worship him on Sunday! No person who loves his neighbour would kill him or lie about him or try to take his spouse! A person who loves herself as a child of God will care for herself and live close to the Lord. Beyond this Jesus also repeats all the commandments in the new testament except for 'Honour the Sabbath' which makes sense since we no longer have a 'sabbath' which was Saturday, the day God rested.
In our church we still read 'honour the sabbath' commandment, but we honour it on Sunday. I don't want to get completely into this as it's another whole blog post but I do want to say this. For Ryan and I honouring Sunday is going to church, and keeping it special by not doing our daily routine. We don't shop or mow the lawn. I will however bake a cake if I feel like it and pull some weeds in my flower bed if I see them while sitting outside Sunday afternoon. When Ryan was in university he would read a chapter or two out of his text book if he felt like it. We know some people don't think these things are right, but we also know it is really between us and the Lord. I do not think it is fair or right to say 'Well, those people don't believe because they shop on Sunday." It's not even logical. It's certainly not loving your neighbour.
If obeying the law is so important why then weren't the Pharisees exalted in the Bible as they obeyed the law meticulously? Aha! Here is a fascinating concept. The motivation is considered just as or more important as/than the actions. Romans 2:29 speaks about obeying the letter of the law not meaning anything if you don't have a changed heart. This was about circumcision but it's an excellent warning for us too. It has nothing to do with gaining brownie points for obedience and everything to do our motivation. Oh what a stumbling block Jesus was for the Pharisees. They hated him because he wanted to take away their self righteousness and their idolatry. Really they had made a god out of following the rules the right way. They never obeyed it in love but looking down their noses at everyone else. And then Jesus came along and says people who never obeyed it a day can go to heaven? They couldn't stand the idea! Read Romans 9: 30 -33 from the NLT.
What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said,
“I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble,
a rock that makes them fall.
But anyone who trusts in him
will never be disgraced.”
Another reason we have 10 Commandments is to show us our need for a Saviour by shedding light on our sin. You only have to look to the title of this blog to know that I feel this an important reminder. Feeling convicted is good because it makes us thankful for our salvation and in turn out of thankfulness we follow God's laws for our lives which pleases Him. It slows us down from trying to do it all on our own. (Again God's great love for us to remind us not to try to do it on our own!) When we make this the only or most important reason to follow God's commands we actually dishonour God. We place the focus on our sin when it should be on Grace. Especially in a room full of redeemed people! Those commandments should bring us immense JOY. They should not be a burden. Each one should resound in our hearts saying "Yes I did that, Lord, thank you for your incredible GRACE." The focus should be that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
So should we still follow the ten commandments today? Well look at it this way. If you were given a country to run what is the very first thing you would do? Would you suppose that people by their good natures and kindness would live in harmony? Or would you think some guidelines were necessary? Every country and kingdom has rules! If they didn't there would be anarchy! Endless factual and fiction books are written on the consequences of the breakdown of government and rules. This is how the ten commandments free us. If you live in a community of people who all agree not to kill or steal or bear false witness you live in safety and not in fear. Better yet if they agree to honour God on Sundays together and love each other compassionately. Who wouldn't want to live in such a community!
I guess my main point here is that if we misuse the Ten Commandments by honouring them out of a sense of duty rather than a sense of thankfulness we really aren't following them at all. Not in the light of the summary of them in Matthew 12. They are not meant to be a measuring stick to condemn others. We can leave the condemning up to God. Even in church cases where someone is excommunicated based on a sin or sins against certain commandments the goal is not to condemn but rather to discipline and hopefully instill repentance. Even then it must be loving motives not our own sense of justice. (Remember what happened when Jonah wanted to appease his own sense of justice rather than God's.) True justice is the eternal condemnation of all of us. If God can love us enough to give us the LIFE of his only Son we can certainly love Him enough to help one another to follow His rules, and forgive one another when we fall.
Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.~ Galatians 3: 24,25 NIV
Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” ~ John 14: 21 NIV
