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January 2018

Greetings church family,

 

Is it New Year’s Resolution time for you? What are the things you do want to accomplish in 2018? When we make lists, often times we hope to come up with ten items. I think David Letterman made this popular several years ago.

As we begin the year, I want to ask you about a very pertinent “Top 10” list. What place do the Ten Commandments have in our life? What do we do with them? Where do they belong? Do they have binding force today?

 

The Ten Commandments have often been seen as a moral map for living a godly life. These ten principles for human civilization are found in nearly all cultures of the world, in all generations of the world, in all centuries of the world. We know them best as the commandments written on stone tablets with “the finger of God” and given to Moses on Mt. Sinai for the Hebrew people of God, our ancestors in the Judeo-Christian faith. All societies of the world have similar moral laws that protect language, sexuality, property, reputation, and so forth.

 

What are these Ten Commandments, these Ten Moral Laws? Most Americans are aware of the number ten of the Ten Commandments, but can recite and remember only three of them. These commandments have not changed for the past 3,400 years. Why? Because human nature has not changed.

Over these years, there have been all kinds of changes in the lives of human beings. Civilizations have changed. Knowledge has changed. Medicine has changed. Science and technology has changed (tablets 3,400 years ago were made of stone and could hold only a few words; tablets today are Ipads that hold millions of bits of information from around the world). Politics and political systems have changed. Nations have changed. Government has changed. Perpetual change is the mark of the human experience during the past 3,400 years of history.

 

Meanwhile, while all these changes have been going on for more than 3,000 years, human nature has not changed. Today, people still worship various gods in their lives, people still swear and curse, people still don’t find time to worship, people still have problems honoring their parents, people still murder, still commit adultery, still steal, still lie, still covet other peoples’ spouses or property. Change is all around us human beings, but human nature has not changed. People still need the Ten Commandments, these ten principles for human community as much today as people did 3,400 ago.

 

Even though Jesus said that there were only two commandments and the whole Old Testament rested on these two commandments (i.e. love God and love neighbor which he combined to become the Great Commandment), Jesus did not nullify the Ten Commandments. That is, human nature has not changed in the past 3,400 years. We still need the Ten Commandments, God’s laws for human community, just as much today as the human race did more than 3,000 years ago. As people of faith, we must continue to frame our lives with not only the Ten Commandments, but with the Great Commandment Jesus gave us, as well as all the virtues of a Christ-like life. The Bible actually gives us the Ten Commandments twice (in Exodus 20 and in Deuteronomy 5) so that we don’t forget how important they are. As I see them, the Ten Commandments are principles for life. They don’t guarantee that we always act the same way or do the same thing every time, but they provide the principles, the parameters, within which we live our lives as followers of Jesus Christ.

 

So friends, if you are designing a new way (resolutions) to live your life in 2018, please start with the “old” way, which is God’s way as your pathway to success. Have a great New Year in 2018!

In Christ,

Pastor Greg