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Thursday: The Law in the New Covenant — 10 Comments

  1. Consider for a moment that the Ten Commandments may not be THE law of God but merely limited expressions of God's greater law of love. This may be the case for several reasons:

    1. Jesus made it quite clear that simply not doing the things prohibited by the law was not enough. (i.e. Matthew 5:28)

    2. The Ten Commandments are derivative of the Two Great Commandments (See Mark 12:28-31) From the words of Jesus, they are not as great as the two though they appear to be expressions of the two.

    3. The Ten Commandments do not encompass all the law of God. for example, unlike the two great commandments, they deal with sins of commission but not sins of omission. More plainly, not stealing from your neighbor does not mean you have fulfilled the law regarding your neighbor's possessions. (See Exodus 23:4-5)

    For these reasons, if we feel that obedience to God simply involves keeping the Ten Commandments, perhaps we are falling far short of the mark.

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      • Yes, you were a few months in advance of this topic in the quarterly. I thought it could bear repeating since the quarterly does not seem to fully develop this point.

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    • Dear Stephen,

      I could see your explanation as one way of looking at the Ten Commandments. Another way that I might like to explain this would be to say that each of the Ten Commandments has a deep principle underlying its words. From this point of view, the ten are not less great than the two, but are rather summarized by them.

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      • Thank you for your input, R.G. While I understand your point of view, it was the words of Jesus that the two were "the greatest." By definition, in order to be "greatest" everything else must be less. (See Mark 12:28-31)

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        • Dear Stephen,

          You said:

          "By definition, in order to be 'greatest' everything else must be less."

          This is probably true. However, if the two are a summary of the ten, then the ten are not anything "else," but are included.

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  2. Hi Stephen,
    I have really liked your posting regarding totally obeying the laws enshrined in the Ten commandment at the expense of those not explicitly not stated in the Ten....more often we are very carefully not to do the thing prohibited but we over look issues like "lustfully looking at a man or woman".

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    • Hi, Louie. Have you read Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews? That epistle answers that question and gives a great overall understanding of Christ's ministry. God bless.

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