If God were to give us a set of commandments in 2010, would He give the same 10?
Obviously in the Bible God expects us to follow more than just those 10 but for some reason, at that point in time, he highlighted those 10 for them (The Israelites). Would we now be given say 4? 14? Or more than 20?
Jesus summed up those ten as essentially loving God and loving our fellow man\woman. I'm not here to question God or second guess Jesus, but it might APPEAR that there are components lacking to this formula. Maybe those components were so ingrained in the culture as to be taken for granted. I'm speaking of our treatment of nature and our treatment of ourselves.
Would "Thou shalt eat a healthful and balanced diet" be a commandment for US?
Or "Thou shalt respect and care for the environment"
"Thou shalt respect viewpoints different from and even opposed to your own"
"Thou shalt respect the property and privacy of others"
In this time that we live how important - top 10 - is a commandment specifically addressing "graven images?"
If I am to love my neighbor as myself...does it not follow that I should FIRST learn to love myself?
Self-hatred is why many find it so easy to hate and mistreat others...
God loves me-->I love God.-->I love me.-->I love others...
That's all I've got...just some ponderations...
Truly a thing to make you go "Hmmm..."
ReplyDeletelol...MY opinion is that there would be no need for different commandments. Those ten written encompassed the whole of life...ALL life. The thing is that humans couldn't keep those commandments then and they can't keep them now. A new set of commands would only make us more hateful, vengeful and the like because we would try to conform to them just as we do the biblical ten. LOL...In my own life I've found that the law can't help us; the more we try the worse we become.
ReplyDeleteWow, that really is some food for thought. I would have the agree with the "learning to love yourself" being a 'commandment' people would need in this day & age. Its so true that if you don't truly love & respect yourself, its harder to show that same respect towards others.
ReplyDeletewell, done Chris! looking forward to more ponderations :)
@Nate
ReplyDeleteI think you may have missing the whole point of the blog. We all know that we can't keep those 10. We can't even keep the TWO that those are based off of. I was just making the point that God gave those specific 10 to a specific group at a specific time. Those most certainly do NOT cover ALL of life. See some of my examples above. The 10 make no mention of self or nature. The exception would be some animals working on Sabbath.
I guess also I wanted us to remember that the WHOLE Bible is the word of God and not just those 10. While those 10 are a good mirror, by themselves they will not give the full picture.
The Bible is to be a lamp, light and guide. It is not a checklist for us to keep track of what we are or aren't doing right. Ultimately ANYTHING we do "right" is only the result of HIM working in us. So there's really no point in keeping score.
lol...well maybe I DID fail in understanding what you were stating. But does it really seem that those 10 only apply for those times. I mean not killing goes kinda a long way, even until now...not that the US cares. And the Sabbath is still pretty relevant. The first two could maybe be explained a little clearer but they are definately still relevant. No, I don't think the 10 would be revised, however, Moses' law might well be re-written, cause those are the laws that broke down the 10 in present-time detail. I mean almost EVERYONE wears clothes that are made up of mixed materials, just for example
ReplyDeleteI think the 10 do encompass everything. Jesus had to correct the thinking of the people in His day because they looked at them too narrowly and I think we have a tendency to do the same. For example, "thou shalt not kill" was thought to meant the physical killing of someone else. Jesus let them know that the hurtful words the used against each other were just as bad as murder. Killing someone's spirit was essentially the same as killing them physically. Likewise we think too narrowly: the prohibition against killing is not just directed towards your actions with another, but also yourself. "Thou shalt not kill"...ANYONE...that includes yourself! So that means physical and spiritually (emotionally). Implicit in the 4th commandment is respect for "the earth, the sea, and everything within them", because God is Creator.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that probably God would have to be explicit in some areas if He were doing a modern day re-write. But as you said in your reference of Lk 10:26-27, the 2 greatest commandments are the general basis of every explicit commandment that could ever be written. If we were to ALWAYS act in a spirit of love for God and love for humanity, we wouldn't even need a top 10 list! :)