Read Exodus 20.
These requirements from the Living God are commonly referred
to as the Ten Commandments. Some have
noted they are not called the Ten Suggestions.
They comprise a prologue to the rest of the Old Testament Law.
The Law was exact and demanding. Violation of the law and God's expectations
required a payment for the sin and guilt.
Those payments are also detailed in the Law. Time after time, year after year, those
sacrifices only covered the sin. They
never took away the sin. "But when
the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born
under the law, to redeem those who were under the law" (Galatians
4:4). Finally, Jesus, the Messiah, gave
Himself as the once and for all sacrifice for sin. We are no longer to live under the Old
Testament Law but under the life-giving grace of God.
Does that mean that followers of Jesus are lawless? By no means.
Reviewing the expectations of these commandments in Exodus 20 and
comparing the expectations of believers in the New Testament will reveal an
even higher standard of living on each point.
Read, for instance, Jesus' comparative statements in Matthew 5:17-20.
Jesus was later asked which was the greatest commandment in
the Law. "And he said to him, 'You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your mind. This is the great and
first commandment. And a second is like
it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments depend all the Law and Prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40)
Ann Landers was a committed to her Jewish faith. It was this faith that provided much of the
basis for the advice that appeared in her daily newspaper columns for
decades. In one response to a reader she
wrote, "Never have the principles of justice, ethics, morality and good
mental health been enunciated so clearly as in the Bible. ....may I suggest you read only the Ten
Commandments. It won't take long, and
you will have the guidelines for an honorable and rewarding life."
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