Your Favorite Commandment
What’s your favorite commandment?
I suggest that it’s “Thou Shalt not Murder” (I love using Olde English from the King James version; it just sounds so much more majestic).
Anyhow, that’s probably your favorite.
“No, no,” I hear you say. “It’s ‘You shall have no other gods before me'”, along with the poignant elaboration that you should “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your mind and with all your strength.”
You’re not doing that, so you should probably choose an easier one; one you can actually comply with.
You see, you’re unlikely to murder anyone. All of us, in our internal inventory of the Ten Commandments put that one as the most serious offense a human can commit. Governments have always executed murderers; the worst transgression deserves the worst punishment.
But what is the worst transgression in God’s eyes? Civil societies categorize crimes: conviction for murder means death or life in prison. Stealing will get you time behind bars, depending on what you stole. False testimony might get you in trouble, but usually only when you do it in court, or if your spouse catches you.
Adultery used to be a crime in some states. It’s not anymore.
The Ten Commandments cover a range of behavior: some are prescriptive and some are punitive. In Moses’ time there were severe punishments for murder and adultery.
But these days, no one is going to put you in jail for not loving your neighbor enough. They might frown if you don’t honor your parents, but that commandment just isn’t deemed as serious as some of the others.
The command not to murder other people is the easiest one to follow. Then probably stealing. Then it gets tougher. How many people honor the Sabbath anymore? God said we should–or was that just for the Jews, and Jesus set the example that you could do some stuff on Sunday, as long as it was valuable? That probably includes attending your child’s sporting activities.
It’s easy to get all philosophical about these things. It’s also easy to avoid the obvous crimes while also avoiding the obvious requirements. You don’t love your neighbor as yourself. You just don’t, even if you theortecially want to, and occasionally even try to.
And in the case of loving God with all your strength and all your heart: if we really, really want to follow this Commandment, why do we act the way we do? Why is it so hard for us to employ the Sermon on the Mount? We judge, we worry, we put a thousand tiny things ahead of God. We are not Christ-like, although we are clearly called to be Christ-like.
No, the first two Commandments are the toughest. That’s why they are the first two commandments, and after Jesus confirmed this, as Mark says: “from then on no-one dared ask him any more questions.”
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