I was told a little while back, a little over a year, that as Christians, we do not follow the 10 Commandments because they are only listed in the Old Testament and as Christians, we do not abide by the Law of the OT since we believe that Jesus was sent to save us from our sins. I was shocked by this, but I came to realize that even though this gentleman who was telling me this was a Conservative Mennonite (yes that is right...) that he was the only one who I had heard this from! I have since attended several other Conservative Mennonite churches and the majority of them have the 10 Commandments displayed in their church house somewhere!! Anyway, I hope my side rant can shed a little bit of light onto why I feel led to discussing each one.
In doing a little bit of research before I started writing this post, I found an interesting article saying that Christians today only obey 9 of the 10 commandments...the one we do not keep is the 4th commandment. Now enough of me getting ahead of myself :)
The First Commandment:
Exodus 2:3 - Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (KJV)
In the New Testament, this command is worded as:
Matthew 4:10 - Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. (KJV)
This seems like a straight forward command, right?? Growing up, I used to take "gods" as the gods from mythology, so the god of rain, the god of sun, etc, and that was it.
Now as I look at it, one thing I noticed right off the bat is "gods" is not capitalized... So what constitutes a "god" in this sense? I think god can be anything really. It includes the gods from mythology and anything else! To me, this commandment means that we should not worship anything or anyone before we worship GOD.
What if we were to change "gods" to "idols" (as some versions have), would this change the meaning of the verse for you? In a way, I think "idols" may make it easier to realize all that was being included in the verse here. Idols can vary from so many different things/people, athletes, to musicians, to statues, etc. The list is endless. I believe each and every one of these things or people would be included in what is worded as "gods".
Do you have anything to add? I am always open to new ideas. If you have anything you would like added to one of the remaining commandments, please share and I will add it in :)
Blessings in Christ,
Hi Chelsea,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post! I would like to add that my husband and I were doing a study just a couple of days ago about this, and the 10 commandments are listed again(the majority in one place...) Begin reading in Matthew 5:17...not only does Jesus reapeat these commandments...but he EXPOUNDS on them! He widens them to include even MORE than they originally said! I think the 10 commandments are valid from OT, but are repeated in NT to show their great importance!!! I have heard the argument as well that we don't have to follow OT teachings....I used to be of this mindset when we were part of the modern church as this is what they taught where we were. I think, looking back, how sad that is. The OT is part of God's word too is it not? How can Christians disregard it???? I think its b/c most modern Christians(and I say most not all) want to only follow what will fit into their modern lives today. Some of those old testament teachings they want to call *old law* and say we are legalists that follow....however, they obviously don't want to follow new testament ordinances like head covering either!? SO anyway, thanks for this great post! I just wanted to add to waht you said! Keep up writing about the hard things! It helps people grow! You are a blessing!! ....I also think you are exactly right.....gods are *anything* that we put as a stumbling block between ourselves and God. :)--S