Day 38 - The Ten Commandments

John 14:21: Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.

The test of love is a desire and effort to please the one that we love.Jesus told his disciples that part of how we display our love for the Father is by keeping his commandments.

The Apostle John wrote very similarly: By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5:2,3).

This morning our reading begins with the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17). What are we to make of these words? There are some who would argue that these words were only for Israel and have no real bearing on Christians today. I would not be one of those people, nor would the Reformed & Presbyterian world.

In the Westminster Confession of Faith we read this:

2. This law, after his fall, continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness; and, as such, was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai, in ten commandments, and written in two tables: (James 1:25, James 2:8, 10–12, Rom. 13:8–9, Deut. 5:32, Deut. 10:4, Exod. 34:1) the first four commandments containing our duty towards God; and the other six, our duty to man. (Matt. 22:37–40)

5. The moral law doth for ever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof; (Rom. 13:8, 9, Eph. 6:2, 1 John 2:3–4, 7–8) and that, not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator, who gave it. (James 2:10, 11) Neither doth Christ, in the Gospel, any way dissolve, but much strengthen this obligation. (Matt. 5:17–19, James 2:8, Rom. 3:31)

~ Chapter 19:2, 5

These commands are applicable to all of history. But these commands are not directions for how to make oneself right with God. Mankind cannot do that on his own. These are commands for how to live as one rescued by the grace of God. The first 2 verses of chapter 20 help us to see that:

1 And God spoke all these words, saying,

2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Our Shorter Catechism asks what the preface (these verses) to the Ten Commandments teach us: “The preface to the Ten Commandments teaches us, that because God is the Lord, and our God, and Redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all his commandments.” (WSC 44; WLC 101)

We obey because we have been rescued from the slavery of sin. We obey because we love our Lord and we want to be conformed to his image and please him.