As I sat down to write this week, I asked my 7-year-old what she thinks are the most important things to remember in following Jesus. Her response surprised me. She said, “The 10 Commandments”. We certainly don’t spend a lot of time studying the 10 Commandments in her Sunday school class (or at home) and I honestly don’t remember the last time I heard a sermon on them… So I’m intrigued. Here are my thoughts (and questions) as I read the 10 Commandments as an Anabaptist Christian in the USA. I wonder whether any of these 5 things resonate with you in your own context. What would you add? Where have I missed the mark?
1. Covenant
As a student at Hesston College I learned many MANY things in my Bible classes, but one of the most interesting ones was the need to look at verses and passages in their context, not just in isolation. The context of the larger chapter, book, and Biblical narrative are essential for understanding the meaning. The 10 Commandments first appear in Exodus 20. Unfortunately, we usually start in verse 3, leaving out verses 1 and 2 “Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (CEB) These Commandments are not dictated by an unfamiliar, unknown God for the purpose of controlling God’s people–no, these commandments are guidelines for living in a covenantal relationship with God and God’s people. Following them is our response to God’s grace. So number 1–the Commandments are part of a loving covenantal relationship.
2. “You must have no other gods before me.”
The first commandment feels fairly straightforward, but somehow in my mind, it read “no other gods but me”. The word “before” brings to mind a misordering of gods/priorities. When my life is out of order, chaos follows. It’s so easy for family, work, and various selfish pursuits to take top priority in terms of my time and energy. There are too many things that may be good, but I must remember what is really Good. When God is first on my mind and in my heart, that changes the way I interact with others and the world around me. When God is first, that changes how I spend my time. When God is first, our focus is on Life.
3. “Remember the Sabbath day and treat it as holy.
Six days you may work and do all your tasks, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. Do not do any work on it—not you, your sons or daughters, your male or female servants, your animals, or the immigrant who is living with you. Because the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them in six days, but rested on the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” I include all of these verses because I thought it was worth noting how much detail God included with this commandment. Perhaps God knew just how much we needed the extra direction, perhaps the Israelites struggled with this commandment as much as we do today. A particular struggle for me is the idea that resting, setting a day (or parts of day) apart as holy, feels like being unproductive. It’s when we work and do tasks that we have learned to find our worth. Truly resting, remembering and treating a day as holy means learning to find our worth in more God-honoring ways.
4. “Honor your father and your mother so that your life will be long on the fertile land that the Lord your God is giving you.”
When I became a parent, I started viewing this commandment differently. It felt easy to want to honor my parents (though I failed plenty of times and I’m sure I will continue to), but having loving, strong, gentle, respectful parents make it easier to want to honor them! As a parent, I start to see just how easy it is to fall short of being a good parent–I get tired, I get frustrated, I am selfish. It’s given me more empathy toward the parents in our lives that have missed the mark. What does it mean to honor parents who failed to live up to their God-given potential to love and nurture the precious lives entrusted to them? What does it mean to honor parents who use(d) and/or abuse(d) their children? I don’t pretend to know the answers and what “honoring” looks like in these situations. What I DO know is that family relationships are important. We are called to live God’s way, whether as parent, child, or any other relationship. What does it mean to respect authority, and to honor the dignity inherent in each human being? How do we respect the boundaries sometimes needed in relationships in order to be healthy? We worship a God of healing, wholeness, and health.
5. “Do not desire and try to take your neighbor’s house. Do not desire and try to take your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox, donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.”
I’m closing with yet another challenging commandment for my household–perhaps this is also a challenge for you. The idea of being content with what we have and not being envious of others is counter-cultural (at least in my cultural context). Beyond just the physical things we see that we wish we had. What does it mean to be content with my realities when it comes to things like my neighbor’s good health, my neighbor’s healthy relationships, my neighbor’s ability to retire early or my neighbor’s peace in the midst of the storm? How can we all learn to celebrate our neighbor’s blessings and joys and not envy them?
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