Transcript
Edmund: Here’s a crazy question: What would your life look like if you tried to follow every single rule that’s in the Old Testament?
The author Rachel Held Evans did this for a year. She tried following every single rule she could find in the Old Testament, particularly the ones that had to do with being a woman. Throughout the year, she blogged about it, and it later got turned into this book here. And she found that it was extremely difficult. Things like “You’re to make tassels on the corner of your garments with a blue cord on each tassel,” like it says in Leviticus 3:17. Or completely removing animal fat from your diet, like in Numbers 15:38. It’s hard for me; I love bacon.
It was difficult to keep track of all these rules and laws. And many of these laws were really challenging in a modern-day context. Maybe you’ve felt this way before about trying to follow God’s “laws”. They might just seem like a bunch of arbitrary, impractical rules that are either not very straightforward or seem very straightforward so they don’t seem to apply at all, like “Don’t murder.” And at the end of the day, you might sit down and just go, “Okay, great. I didn’t murder, or steal, or lie, or covet. Is that it? Is that really it?”
Okay, first of all to understand this, we have to understand the ritual laws of the Old Testament, which no longer are really applicable to us, and the law of the 10 Commandments. The 10 Commandments are set apart. These still apply to us and Jesus did not do away with the 10 Commandments. God gave us the 10 Commandments so we can know easily, clearly, and fully the life in Christ that we’re called to live. By following the 10 Commandments we avoid sin and are guided in how to choose the good and live a life in Christ.
So next thing you might be thinking, “Okay if the 10 Commandments are the Commandments, then they seem pretty straightforward. Some of these I don’t really struggle with, so do all of these actually apply to my everyday life? How do they help me?”
The catechism says in paragraph 2081 “The Ten Commandments, in their fundamental content, state grave obligations. However, obedience to these precepts also implies obligations in matter which is, in itself, light.”
God clearly revealed the Law in the 10 Commandments. But they aren’t just 10 very specific situations we should look out for. They also give us a glimpse into how God views the world in the human person. The 10 Commandments speak to grave obligations, meaning they speak the things we really should do or avoid. But they also imply ways we ought to act in other life scenarios. So the 10 Commandments actually give us a guide to decoding how God views the world.
There’s this saying, “If you see as God sees, you’ll do as God says.” If we really take time to reflect on the 10 Commandments, we can understand more clearly how they apply to our everyday life. And we’ll begin to realize that they might impact other areas of our life in unexpected ways.
For example, let’s take the fifth commandment: “Thou shall not murder.” Sounds easy, right? Well, the REASON we shouldn’t murder is because the human person has dignity. We have value. And we’re given that by virtue of being created by God in His image and likeness. So there’s dignity in our body and that means we should treat other people with dignity and respect, not just by avoiding murdering them, but by avoiding hurting them in other ways as well— by gossiping about them, or by slandering them, or by lying about them. And this also implies other contexts as well. I shouldn’t damage my own body because it has dignity and value. This also means things like suicide, euthanasia, abortion, would be grave sins. And the Catechism helps us understand how these Commandments apply to many areas of our lives. This is all included just in that one Commandment.
During the time of Jesus, there was this really interesting argument that was happening a lot among religious people. And particularly among the Jews, there was this argument about the correct interpretation of the Law. Whose should we follow: Jesus’s interpretation? The scribes? The Pharisees? Someone else? And Jesus begins preaching by saying, “You have heard it said . . . but I say to you.” Jesus has the true interpretation of the Law. Actually, Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law given to God’s people, given to Moses, the law of the 10 Commandments. Jesus fulfills everything in His person and in His teaching.
God didn’t just give us the 10 Commandments to do the bare minimum. God gave us the 10 Commandments so we can see how God views the world, ourselves, and others. Jesus is teaching us the very heart of the Father when he teaches on the Commandments and the Law.
So, here’s a practical suggestion. I told you I’d offer you a way to decode the 10 Commandments with the Catechism. In the Catechism, each of the 10 Commandments have their own section. At the end of each section, called an article, there’s a little section called the “In Brief.” It’s just a few little lines. Take some time over the next couple days or couple weeks — I mean, there’s only 10 Commandments — to read each of these short little “In Brief” sections. Really journal about it; think about ways that it’s speaking to parts of your life. You won’t just walk away thinking “Oh boy. Here’s like more ways that I can end up sinning.” You’ll walk away with a richer view of how God views you, how God views the world, and how God views relationships that you have with other people.
And I believe in this way, you’ll start understanding what a great gift it is that God defines sin and teaches us, through the 10 Commandments, how to live in relationship with Him and one another.
