Ten Commandments Part 1
(The beginning of a 19 part series)
(click on "Next" to move to the next part)
Introduction
When you hear the words “The Ten Commandments,” what are your
first thoughts? For many people in our
secular age they are seen as being very negative, something which cramps our
lifestyles. They are thought to be old
fashioned and out of date. We don’t want to be commanded to, or prohibited
from, doing anything. Secular society doesn’t want to be reminded of them,
preferring them to be out of sight and out of mind. We see this in the campaigns to have them
removed from courthouse walls, etc.
Unfortunately, many in today’s churches don’t think of them in a
positive light either. We may also think
of them as negatives.
But are they
really restrictions and constraints placed upon us, or are they something more? Can they be freeing and liberating? To answer this question it’s helpful to
answer another question first. What is
it in the Ten Commandments that threatens us?
Do I want to live in a society where adultery, murder, theft, slander,
etc. are the norm? Most people will say
“No!” In this sense the Ten Commandments
are positive and life enhancing. They
are designed to help us flourish in society.
G. K,
Chesterton once said “If men will not be governed by the Ten Commandments, they
shall be governed by the ten thousand commandments.” We certainly can see this when we look at all
the laws we deal with on a day to day basis. It becomes burdensome to keep
track of them all. To only have ten
would be liberating.
Most
of us learned them during our catechetical instruction in our youth. Oftentimes we memorized them. Memorizing them without looking at them in
greater detail leads to our having a false idea about them. Viewing them as merely “you shall not”
commands leads to having a negative viewpoint.
They can then be seen as inhibiting our happiness and freedom.
Jesus,
when asked what was the greatest commandment said it is to love the Lord our
God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbor as
ourselves. These two statements
summarize the Ten Commandments.
Elizabeth Scalia notes “But the greatest commandment, coupled with what
Jesus called the “second,” – which sum up all the rest – is meant to save us
from ourselves.”[1] In the Ten Commandments we see God in search
of man. He desires us to experience
freedom from being enslaved to our passions.
He seeks to be in relationship with us.
Ps
119:45 says “I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your
precepts.” Have you ever thought of the
Ten Commandments as the Ten Great Freedoms?
It is my contention that God gave them to us to promote human
flourishing. They help us to avoid
becoming enslaved to our own inappropriate passions. To help us understand this it is important to
look at the historical background to the Ten Commandments. That will be the topic for next week.
Food for
thought:
1. How does my
attitude towards God compare to my attitude toward the Ten Commandments?
2. Why is it
important as a Christian to keep the Commandments?
1. What are ways
the Ten Commandments can be liberating?
No comments:
Post a Comment