Ministers Blogs
“What if our society lived by the Ten Commandments?”
Categories: Christian PrinciplesTonk Talk
Did you know that the building which houses the U.S. Supreme Court; one can see near the top of the building a row of the world’s lawgivers and each one is facing one in the middle who is facing forward with a full-frontal view—it is Moses, and he is holding the Ten Commandments. As one enters the Supreme Court courtroom, the two huge oak doors have the Ten Commandments engraved on each lower portion of each door. As you sit inside the courtroom, you can see the wall, right above where the Supreme Court judges sit, a display of the Ten Commandments.
The Ten Commandments still today, is the most influential legislation on earth. The constitutions of forty-seven of the forty-eight continental states of the U.S.A. specifically recognize this code as the basic law of the land. For centuries, it has been inscribed upon decorative panels for courts, schools, cathedrals, and church buildings.
But this is changing; in the past few years, the Ten Commandments have received a lot of press, schools, public parks, and courtrooms have been made to take down the Ten Commandments from public view.
When I hear this, I always think it is kind of ridiculous for a country that has a high rate of murders, theft, lying, and adultery to put out of the public’s view a list like the Ten Commandments that remind people not to do evil.
After all, think about how society would be different if everyone worshipped the same true and living God in spirit and truth (Ex. 20:1-7; John 4:24)? Think about how our families would be different if children honored their parents (Ex. 20:12; Eph. 6:1-4). Think about how life would be different if people were reminded to not murder, commit adultery, steal, give false testimony, and not covet, (Ex. 20:13-17; Rom. 13:9-10).
Understand that we do live under the New Covenant and Col. 2:14 reminds us, “by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” Christ took the Old Testament out of the way, nailing it to his cross. But the Old Testament still has teaching value for us today. Rom 15:4, states, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
There is a lot we can learn from the Old Testament Scriptures. In Mat. 22:37-39, Jesus teaches us that the whole Old Testament law can be summed up with two commands which are to “Love God and love our neighbor”.
A few years ago, a police officer came and spoke to our congregation where I was preaching. His lesson was on this passage and pointed out that much of the stress of his job was due to people not loving God and not loving their neighbor.
What if today we would love God and our neighbor a little more than we did yesterday? How much would our world change? our neighborhoods? And our families? It all begins with you and I loving God and our neighbor.
Written by Mark T. Tonkery for the Camden Ave. church of Christ
