The editor of the Diocese of Toronto’s paper, Stuart Mann, thinks that the Ten Commandments are too judgemental: they are not there to keep us on the “straight and narrow” but are there to make us “free.’
The problem is, if God is not “judgemental”, if he doesn’t pass judgement on evil and sin, then there was no reason for Jesus to take our punishment by dying a horrible death on the cross. There is no reason to believe that we need Jesus in order to be saved, no reason to call ourselves Christians and no reason to attend a Christian church.
If a church teaches this, then people will stop attending and the church will die. And that is what is happening to the Anglican Church of Canada.
From here (page 5):
“You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol.
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
Honour your father and your mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness.
You shall not covet your neighbour’s house, your neighbour’s wife or anything that belongs to your neighbour.”
When I was younger, I would have recoiled at such a passage. It seems so harsh and judgemental, like a parent scolding a child. But I’m beginning to look at it in a different way. Rather than keeping his people on the straight and narrow, perhaps God is telling them how to be free.
When you add up all the complications that arise from some of the things God is warning us about—greed, envy, false gods, lust, lying— is it any wonder people are stressed out these days? Even if we kept half of God’s commandments, we would lead simpler—and happier— lives. It would free us up to think and dream and enjoy each other’s company—in short, to be closer to God.
The 10 commandments have been much maligned and ridiculed over the years, but there is great wisdom in them. Can we keep some of those commandments?
I think we can. You could probably cross a few off the list right now.
I read the newspaper column and I think the author is actually making a good point. We have a loving God and His commandments are for our own good. As the author points out, we would save ourselves and our society a lot of stress, pain, and sorrow if we followed the Ten Commandments. David’s point about judgement is true, but I don’t think that the author of the column was denying the fact about God’s judgement. The most important thing, in my view, is to remember that the relationship comes before the rules. We need to have a relationship with God through Jesus, and then we are able to keep the rules. We can’t earn a relationship with God by following the rules.
Ken,
That raises an interesting point. I would certainly agree that “relationship comes before the rules” in the sense that we have no chance of obeying the rules without a relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ.
As Paul said, though (Gal 3, for example), the purpose of the law was to make clear God’s requirements and, because of our inability to live up to those requirements, make clear the impossibility of gaining salvation on our own merits – paving the way for salvation through Christ. For that, the law had to be before the relationship chronologically.
And I think the chronology still applies in that it is difficult to realise our need for a Saviour if we are blissfully ignorant of how far short we fall of what God expects of us.
Ken,
As warm and fuzzy as you make it sound, we don’t
get to choose the rules. We can’t have a relationship with God by ignoring the rules either.
Remember: God sent in the Levites.
Yes, Jim, that is very true. I believe it was the Levites that Moses sent to deal with the Israelites after the golden calf episode in Exodus 32!
Well Ken, that’s a interesting take on Exodus 32! My view is that Moses sucessfully implored God not to destroy the people entirely. The Levites then consecrated themselves for the service of God in the blood of their brethren.
Harsh indeed.