A little boy was once asked by his Sunday school teacher if he knew the Ten
Commandments. "No ma'am," came the reply, "my dad said that I don't have to
know them since they are doing away with them anyway." It is one thing to be
ignorant of the Ten Commandments; it quite another to mock them with
impunity. Millions dismiss them as mere platitudes fit for nothing more than
a dusty old bookshelf. They disdain them because they are "religious."
There are still others who want to do away with the Ten Commandments
altogether. This cannot be an option. These are not just words; they are
principles woven into the very fabric of life. They are not just another
lifestyle option. They are basic realities upon which all of creation is
structured. If we violate them, there will be consequences.
As one person has written: "They are the Ten Commandments, not the Ten
Suggestions." I think because the Ten Commandments are so stern they have
gotten a bad press. They are often thought of as a list of don'ts and shalt
nots. It has been correctly pointed out that, except for the first and fifth
commandments, all are worded negatively. That does present a problem. Think
about this: It is possible to keep negative commandments by simply doing
nothing. A person might truthfully be able to say that he had not stolen,
committed adultery, or murdered, but that does not mean that that individual
is loving and caring.
There was an ancient expression in Judaism that stated: Do not do unto
others what you would not have them do unto you. Jesus took these words out
of the negative and put them in the positive: Do unto others what you would
have them do unto you, the golden rule. In other words, love requires us to
take action. It is not enough simply to refrain from coveting what our
neighbor has. If we want to be please God we must act well; if we want
others to be kind and respectful to us, then we must act so to them. In
other words, much of the Ten Commandments call upon us to refrain from doing
bad. But the call of the Christian life is to do good.
So let's just get it out on the table at the outset of this sermon, the Ten
Commandments are not meant to be an end in themselves. Still, having said
that, we must also concede that the Commandments are so basic to life that
if we disregard them, we court disaster. Look at it this way. Jesus called
upon us to go the second mile. But to go the second mile you must first go
the first. The Ten Commandments represent the first mile. Love represents
the second mile. Both are needed; both are necessary. One is law, the other
is grace. One is duty, the other is joy. Both go hand in hand. Let us now
look at the first mile - the Ten Commandments:
1. The first four speak to our relationship with God.
2. The last six speak to our relationship with others.
The
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