What Are the Ten Commandments? By Pastor Thomas Waters
Do you know, believe and practice the Ten Commandments? I am often bemused by church signs touting the Ten Commandments because most Christians can’t recite them and many churches don’t believe them - at least not all ten of them of them, especially the 4th Commandment.
Several years ago I preached a series through the Ten Commandments and asked the folks to jot the commandments in order on a piece of paper. Some folks could only remember only three or four, others eight or nine, one or two folks even ended up with eleven! How many can you jot down without peeking? Can you jot them down in order?
A few years ago Christians around the United States became irrate and very vocal when Judge Roy Moore refused to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the state courthouse despite orders to do so from a federal judge. When Judge Moore took office in 2001 as the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, he commissioned and installed a 5280-pound granite monument of the Ten Commandments in the state Supreme Court building. Despite a federal court order, Judge Moore refused to remove the display. For his refusal, Judge Moore was unanimously removed from his post as Chief Justice November 13, 2003.
I applaud Judge Moore’s conviction and his Christian manliness in standing up for his beliefs. What I found ironic then (and now) was the uproar among Christians who neither know, believe nor practice the Ten Commandments. God has charged the Church, not our courts or legislatures, with the responsibility to be the “pillar and ground of truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). As Tom Ascol notes, “The church has a stewardship that involves both defending and proclaiming God’s truth—including the truth of His law. Yet, how can this be done when most of those who visibly identify themselves cannot even name the Ten Commandments, much less explain them?”
What are the Ten Commandments? From where did they come? We may correctly refer to the Ten Commandments as God’s Moral Law. God’s laws given at Mount Sinai are generally divided into three categories or types. Ceremonial laws - which deal with worship in the Tabernacle/Temple, diet, cleanliness . . . Civil laws - which deal with civil and criminal laws within the ancient nation of Israel. Moral laws - which define moral, ethical behavior commanded by and pleasing to God. In other words the moral law defines sin. As Jonathan Bayes puts it: “They sum up the life of holiness to which we are called. They are the channel for the Spirit’s sanctifying power.”
The Moral Laws (Ten Commandments) are distinct from the others laws. The ceremonial and civil laws were restricted in duration and application. God’s moral laws, however, are permanent and universal. They are applicable to all peoples of all ages. In other words, God’s moral laws predate and postdate Mt. Sinai: they existed before the nation of Israel and extend past Judaism to all nations and peoples.
God’s Moral Laws stated in the 10 Commandments does not change with time, cultures or geography, but they are consistent. God’s Moral Laws stated in the 10 Commandments were, written by God on the heart of man in CREATION Written in Tablets of STONE at Mt. Sinai Embodied in Christ in the INCARNATION.
God’s Moral laws were not abrogated by Christ but strengthened and clarified by Him. Christ taught the sum of the Ten Commandments is love. So before you dismiss God’s moral laws ask yourself this question, is love of God and our fellow-man outdated, restricted to one time, culture or people?
Let the Lord Jesus Christ Himself have the last word. ‘If ye love me, keep my commandments’ (Jn.14:15).
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