The Worship of the One

Background / History

The 10 words (or the Decalogue) are found in two places in the OT. The first location is , and the 2nd location is .

The setting of God’s giving His 10 words is in the formation of the nation of Israel. God had miraculously delivered His people from their Egyptian bondage of 400+ years. He has led them to Mount Sinai in a journey that took about 3 months, and God then gave them their foundational moral covenant.

Nature of Covenant

God entered into covenant with His people. As the absolute ruler, He had exercised His power and delivered them from bondage out of love, and in keeping with His earlier promises of the Abrahamic covenant. As the subjects, the Israelites were to express their love and respect for God as their Supreme Ruler by obedience. It was by obedience that they would show their covenant faithfulness.

At this point the people are under a Theocracy. God is their Supreme Ruler and they were to follow His commands. He gave them their foundational moral rules for life in the 10 Words, and then added other specific regulations for various aspects of their religious and civil responsibilities

Are the 10 Commandments still in effect for the Christian church?

The question is often asked if the 10 Commandments are still in force for Christians. After all, we are not in a Theocracy, the death of Jesus brought an end to the sacrificial system, and some of those laws are just weird. And, since we are under grace, not the law, why should we still be bound by any laws from the OT?

Exodus 19:19 ESV

And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder.

Leviticus 19:19 ESV

“You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material.

Ex

Is it OK to eat bacon? ()

Covenant structure of the Commandments

Is it a sin to order a rare steak? “ You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it” ()

And if these injunctions are not binding, why do we cite as valid against homosexuality? “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination”

The answer is YES, the 10 Commandments are still in effect for the Christian Church. “The continuing significance of the Ten Commandments is found [in that] they reveal the character and will of the unchanging Creator of the universe. Thus, even though the Sinai covenant is not binding on Christians, the moral truths revealed in it are.”

Some actually

Oswalt, J. N. (1996). Ten Commandments. In Evangelical dictionary of biblical theology (electronic ed., p. 763). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

Historically, there has been seen a 3-fold division regarding the construction of the OT Law as a whole: ceremonial (sacrificial), civil, and moral. The civil laws do not apply as we are not living under a theocracy; the sacrificial law was abrogated by the Ultimate Sacrifice of Jesus; but the moral law is still very much in effect

Structure of the Commandments

The format of the 10 Commandments is instructional and vitally important. The first four deal with the vertical: our relationship with God; the next six deal with the horizontal: our relationships with our neighbors. The order is CRUCIAL! If we don’t have the vertical in the right, we will never be able to get the horizontal right.

Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology Ten Commandments

The Old Testament insists that the ways in which we treat each other are inseparable from our relationship to God. Ethics are a religious matter, and worship of the true God is the foundation of all nonmanipulative ethics

The natural 2 part division in regards to man’s relation to God (vertical), and man’s relation to others (horizontal) is also seen in Jesus’ answer to the question of which was the greatest commandment.

Matthew 22:37 ESV

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Matthew 22:37–38 ESV

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.

Matthew 22:37–39 ESV

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.