“He was there with the Lord for forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.” -Exodus 34:28
I grew up in a public elementary school where we still recited the Lord’s Prayer every morning. That doesn't happen too much anymore. In one of my classrooms, there was a large poster declaring the Ten Commandments in big, bold letters. “Have no other God’s before me” was heralded to all grade three students. The basic idea, of course, was that if we would but follow the Ten Commandments, we would grow up to be fine, upstanding citizens.
These divine words have formed the basis for many of Western society's ethical and moral instructions. They have been etched on government buildings and courtroom walls for generations. The Ten Commandments are laws that everyone should have no problem affirming. They seem basic and self-evident. We all recognize that killing, stealing, and bearing false witness work against the harmony of any society. And even if we can’t quote them line by line, most people know the gist of these divine instructions.
But are they all instructions we are to follow blandly? If they are, then they set a low standard, don’t they? After all, if “not killing” is the bar for personal goodness, it’s an easy standard to meet.
As authoritative as the Ten Commandments are for our moral and spiritual lives, they are instructions that we rarely consider. Yet these words are complex, and they open a deep set of challenges for our life of faith. The Ten Commandments call us to a particular way of life, a way that runs contrary to the ways of the world around us. Because of this, they should not be easily discarded.
Here are three important truths (that you may have missed) about the 10 Commandments.
The Ten Responses
The 10 Commandments are recorded in the book of Exodus. They are the instructions God gives to the people of Israel on the top of Mount Sinai. They are spoken to Moses and written down on two stone tablets. They are recorded in Exodus 20:2-17. This is what is printed up in documents and etched on courtroom walls.
The fact that we often separate our reading of the 10 Commandments from the first verse of chapter 20 is unfortunate. This makes the commandments exist without context. This, however, is not how the Ten Commandments occur. Like all biblical passages, the Ten Commandments occur within a specific context. In fact, the instructions that God gives directly flow out of God’s declaration that “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (Exodus 20:1). Even Deuteronomy’s version of the commandments contains this element. Deuteronomy 5:6 introduces the commandments similarly, “I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of slavery.” The 10 Commandments are to be Israel’s response to the grand work of liberation.
For Israel to know how to act, they needed to know the story that defined their lives. Their identity as God’s people was tied inexplicably to their redemption from captivity. Israel was a people saved by Yahweh. In response, they were called to reflect God’s gracious presence to the world around them. The Ten Commandments, therefore, served as the primary means of governing that response.
As Christian people, this responsiveness to God’s work of liberation in human life is important for us to consider. For example, when we think about our morality, do we think only of lists of do’s and don’ts, or do our actions reflect the grand story of our liberation in Jesus Christ? Like Israel, our lives are to be ongoing responses to God’s work of mercy. Our ethical life is not a demand, but a witness to God’s work of liberation in our lives.
The First Tablet: The Call to Loving God
We all know that the Ten Commandments are written on two stone tablets. Many of us picture these tablets as having an equal number of commandments written on them, five commandments on one and five on the other. Most biblical scholars, however, assert an unequal division of the commandments. The first tablet contains only the first four commandments. These commandments pertain to our life before God.
Simply put, if we were to ask, “How do we love God?” the first four commandments give a detailed answer. We have no other Gods besides Yahweh, we do not make nor worship any idols, we do not wield the Lord’s name for our benefit, and we set apart one day as holy to the Lord (Exodus 20:2-11). These commandments call us to live our lives with God. This is why we cannot separate the Ten Commandments from one’s faithful response. Outside of a desire to unite ourselves to the God of our liberation, the Ten Commandments make no sense.
Importantly, the first tablet contains the largest portion of the Ten Commandments. That is, the first four commandments contain more detailed instructions than the remaining six. Our life before God is of primary concern and importance. We simply cannot forsake our lives with God and believe that we are living as God intends.
The Second Tablet: The Call to Love Others
Being the people of God didn’t just address Israel’s religious life. Israel couldn’t just sequester themselves in a cave and engage in spiritual navel-gazing. Responding to God’s liberating grace needed to impact how Israel expressed God’s presence and grace outwards. Thus, the final six commandments pertain to Israel's treatment of others. Israel’s devotion to God needed to impact how they lived out their relational lives.
There is a beautiful truth in the fact that the second tablet begins with the instruction to “Honor your father and mother” (Exodus 20:12). This highlights the fact that we live out our faith before others begin at home. Our home is the primary sphere of our ministry and our witness. In such a way, responding to God’s liberating love and extending it outwards begins with the people closest to us.
Each of the commandments on the second tablet is rooted in human value, dignity, and worth. Killing is wrong, not just because it’s bad in and of itself, but because it fundamentally rejects the notion that the other person is created in God’s image. Similarly, by stealing or coveting, we deny another person God-given value and assert that they are but a pawn to be used for our enjoyment or advancement. Breaking the commandments on this table, therefore, denies both the creative and the redemptive act of God in a person’s life.
This is why Jesus takes the commandment prohibiting killing and says, “Anyone who is angry at a brother or sister is subject to judgment” (Matthew 5:22). Jesus expands on the 10 Commandments. The act of dehumanizing someone, in thought or in action, is an insult to the love of Jesus that surrounds them. This same principle undergirds all the commandments on the second Tablet.
As Christian people, the Ten Commandments are not merely bland rules we are called to follow. They are a response to the overtures of love that we have received from Christ. The Ten Commandments detail how we are to live a life of love and direct our love toward God and one another.
Photo Credit: Getty Images/allanswart
