Our Love: The Ten Commandments, Part 1 (Applications Series 4 of 6)
Having seen how our faith should be rooted in the biblical truths of the Apostles’ Creed, and our hope should be stirred up by the Lord’s Prayer, we’ll look now at how our love for God and others should be a demonstration of God’s will for us revealed in the Ten Commandments.
We’re following the example of Augustine’s summary of biblical Christianity in his Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love, in which he writes, “Thus, from our confession of faith, briefly summarized in the Creed … there is born the good hope of the faithful, accompanied by a holy love.”[1]
The Apostle Paul teaches that love is greater than faith and hope. “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor 13:13)[2] Augustine reflects this when he writes, “For when we ask whether someone is a good man, we are not asking what he believes, or hopes, but what he loves.”[3]
The superiority of love over faith and hope does not mean that love is separated from faith and hope. These three godly virtues are inseparable[4] and are interrelated: 1) our confession of faith, rooted in the Apostles’ Creed, leads us to hope and love, 2) our hope, stirred up by the Lord’s Prayer, leads us to faith and love, and 3) our love springs from our faith and hope.
What does this godly virtue of love look like? The Scriptures tell us it looks like the Ten Commandments. (Exodus 20:3-17)[5]
“You shall have no other gods before me.” (3)
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image …” (4-6)
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain …” (7)
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy …” (8-11)
“Honor your father and your mother …” (12)
“You shall not murder.” (13)
“You shall not commit adultery.” (14)
“You shall not steal.” (15)
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (16)
“You shall not covet …” (17)
When someone asked Jesus, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?,” he responded by giving his famous Great Commandment, that is a concise summary of the Ten Commandments as loving God and loving others.[6]
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. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. (Matt 22:37-39)
In this Great Commandment, Jesus is not replacing the Ten Commandments but explaining them the same way Moses did to Israel: “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deut 10:12-13, 11:13, 22, 30:20, Lev 19:18)
Jesus’ interpretation of the Ten Commandments as descriptions of love helps us understand the negative wording, all the “You shall nots,” of the commands. For example, God’s first command not to have any other Gods before him means more than we should not worship idols, but that we should worship God only.
Likewise, the negative command not to murder means we are also to stand for the sanctity of human life. And the negative command not to commit adultery conveys the positive command to uphold sexual purity, just as the negative command not to lie also means we are to stand for truth.[7]
Jesus presents the Ten Commandments as God’s revealed moral law in which God describes his will for all humanity at all times.[8] So the Ten Commandments are not a crude list of legalistic rules for ancient Israel.[9] Instead, they show us how to be fully human and honor God by knowing, loving, and serving him and others from sincere hearts. We’re never more human than when we align our will with God’s in these commands. Only then can we flourish according to God’s design as his image bearers.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus also corrects common misunderstandings of the Ten Commandments by showing how they include a much deeper meaning. For example, Jesus teaches that God’s sixth commandment not to murder includes the sin of anger that is at the root of murder: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment” (Matt 5:21-22).
Likewise, Jesus teaches that God’s seventh commandment not to commit adultery includes the sin of lust at its core (Matt 5:27-28).[10] And God’s command to love our neighbors includes loving our enemies: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5”43-44).
Jesus ends this part of the Sermon on the Mount with an unequivocal call for us to love God and others perfectly. “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt 5:48) However, because we’re all incapable of perfect love, it’s tempting to lessen Jesus’ demand for perfect love to a lesser, more achievable demand.
Some try to explain how the Greek word used here for perfect (τέλειοι) does not mean perfect but mature love. But Jesus just explained in detail what this perfect love looks like. It doesn’t merely restrain from killing people, it’s not even angry. It doesn’t merely restrain from adultery, it doesn’t even lust. This perfect love is not a grudging outward form of religious duty we muster up against our will. Rather it’s a free and cheerful willingness that springs from a sincere, heartfelt faith, hope, and love for God and others.
Who can obey all these commandments out of a perfect love for God and others?
The short and biblical answer is no one. In a legal sense, because of sin, the Bible teaches that no one can do all that God requires in the Ten Commandments. Therefore, no one can love God or others perfectly. This is why the Apostle Paul writes, “By the works of the Law no one will be justified” (Gal 2:16).
But sin results in more than the legal problem of our guilt before a holy and just God. Because of sin, we also have the moral problem of a corrupt heart. Augustine describes this tragic result of sin as our “disordered loves.” The reason we don’t love God and others more is because our loves are now placed on other things.
Instead of loving God and finding our ultimate joy in him, we succumb to an excessive, prideful love for ourselves, to a defective love for others in our envy, anger, and lust, and an inordinate love for things such as possessions, food, sex, and comfort. Therefore, the essence of godly virtue is properly ordered loves for God and others.
When God gave the Ten Commandments, he wrote them with his finger on two tablets of stone (Exod.31:18; 34:1). But the Bible does not tell us what is written on each of the two stone tablets, and the church has never agreed on exactly how to number the commandments.[11]
However, it is generally agreed that the first commandments show us that our love for God is to be above all else, beginning with having “no other gods before him.” Then, flowing from our highest love for God, the last commandments show us how to love others, ending with not coveting people and things.[12]
But God’s commandments have no ability to deliver us from his just curse on us due to our disobedience. And God’s commands have no power to enable us to keep them according to God’s design. So why does God command us to love him and others perfectly when we’re already condemned for breaking them and we don’t have the ability to obey them?
The good news is that God graciously gives us the Ten Commandments as part of his cosmic redemption and restoration project to reorder our loves for him and others so we will flourish according to his original design.
In the next article, we’ll learn three important ways that God uses his commandments to advance his gospel of redemption and restoration in Christ.
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[1] Augustine, Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love, chapter XXX, par. 114.
[2] Paul also explains the superiority of love over all other virtues (1 Cor 13:1-3) and writes, “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Cor 8:1). He presents our ultimate goal as “faith working through love.” (Gal 5:6)
[3] Ibid., chapter XXXI. Love, par. 117.
[4] Augustine writes, “Now, beyond all doubt, he who loves aright believes and hopes rightly. Likewise, he who does not love believes in vain, even if what he believes is true; he hopes in vain, even if what he hopes for is generally agreed to pertain to true happiness, unless he believes and hopes for this: that he may through prayer obtain the gift of love.” Ibid.
[5] For the sake of clarity and brevity, only the first part of commandments 2-5 and 10 are included from Exodus 20:3-17. The Ten Commandments are also found in Deuteronomy 5:4-21.
[6] Likewise, the Apostle Paul describes the ultimate aim of our obedience to God’s law as authentic love that springs from our hearts: “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” (1 Tim 1:5) To Paul, love is the chief virtue that binds all other virtues together: “And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” (Col 3:14)
[7] Similarly, the command to honor our parents also conveys God’s will for us to honor all whom he places in authority over us, even the ungodly (Rom 13), and the neighbor to whom we’re not to lie or covet his house or wife is not just the person living near us.
[8] Calvin describes the Ten Commandments as “the true and eternal rule of righteousness for all humanity and nations who wish to conform their lives to God’s will.” Institutes 4.20.15
[9] Some Christians see the Ten Commandments as God’s laws for Israel in the Old Testament that no longer apply to them because of God’s love for them in Jesus, revealed in the New Testament. But Jesus teaches that he did not come to abolish these commands. Instead, he came to fulfill them so we will obey them as a display of our love (Matt 5:17,19).
[10] Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
[11] Roman Catholics and Lutherans combine the prohibition of idolatry with the prohibition of images into the first commandment and argue that there were two commandments against coveting. Reformed churches separate the prohibition of idolatry and the prohibition of images into the first and second commandments. Orthodox churches agree with the Reformed churches numbering pattern except they believe that God’s declaration, “I am LORD your God” is part of the first commandment, not just a “preface” to it.
[12] Those who appeal for separating commandments 1-5 from 6-10 argue that each of the first five commandments has an explanation attached to it, e.g. “because LORD brought you out of Egypt,” “because God is jealous,” etc. By contrast none of commandments 6-10 have explanations. In Hebrew, the first five commandments contain 145 words; the second five commandments contain only 26 words. The most-debated issue is the placement of the fifth commandment. Should the fifth commandment be considered in the category of the first commandments focusing more on love for God or in the second commandments focusing more on love for neighbor?