Q. 42. What is the sum of the Ten Commandments?
A. The sum of the Ten Commandments is: to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbor as ourselves.
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 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 greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matt. 22:36-40)
Reverence and respect for God's commandments teach us the way of love - love of God and love of neighbor. What is impossible to individuals is possible to God and those who have faith in God. God gives us the grace to love as he loves, to forgive as he forgives, to think as he thinks, and to act as he acts. - Gospel Meditation by Don Schwager
These commandments have not changed for the past 3,400 years. Why? Because human nature has not changed. During the past 3,400 years, there have been all kinds of changes in the lives of human beings. Civilizations have changed. Knowledge has changed. Medicine has changed. Science and technology has changed. Politics and political systems have changed. Nations have changed. Government has changed. Perpetual change is the mark of the human experience during the past 3,400 years of history.
Meanwhile, while all these changes have been going on for 3,400 years, human nature has not changed. Today, people still worship various gods in their lives. Today, people still swear and cure. Today, people still don’t find time to worship. Today, people still have problems honoring their parents. Today, people still murder, still commit adultery, still steal, still lie, still covet other peoples’ spouses or property. Change is all around us human beings, but human nature has not changed. People still need the Ten Commandments, for our human community as much today are people did 3,400 years ago.
With the arrival of Jesus in human history, how does Jesus handle the Ten Commandments.? In the first five books of the Bible, which are called the Law, there are more than 600 laws, rules and regulations for human society. Jesus seems less concerned with all of these 600 laws, rules and regulations. Instead, Jesus highlights two commandments in a special and sacred way. Jesus says that the whole Old Testament rested on two commandments and everything else depended.
The first commandment was this, quoting from Deuteronomy 5. “You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.” In this commandment, Jesus invites us to love, not only our husband or wife or children or grandchildren or family or friends or neighbors. More than that, Jesus invites us to love God, who is the source of all life. And we are invited to love God, not just a little bit, but with all our heart, soul, and mind. For Jesus, this is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it for Jesus. Jesus quotes from Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” That is, just as you look after your own self-interest and life, so you are to work for the benefit of your neighbor as you would work for the benefit of your own life. Jesus said, “Do these, and you shall live. Do these, and you will understand what it means to discover your life. Joy in life consists of loving both God and your fellow human beings.”
Jesus did not nullify the Ten Commandments by giving us these two great commandments, because human nature has not changed in the past 3,400 years and my own human nature has not changed in me since my birth.
Word, sacraments, worship, mission and prayer strengthen us for the journey. The Reformed tradition has looked especially to the Ten Commandments, not as a moral checklist that pronounces us faithful or faithless, but as a description of the way of life that God makes possible for us in Jesus Christ. By telling us who we really are by virtue of our baptism, the law points us in the right direction and hopefully stirs us to action.
We end today with some words from Wendell Berry, “I will begin by dealing with the embarrassing questions that the Gospels impose, I imagine, upon any serious reader. There are two of these, and the first is this: If you had been living in Jesus’ time and had heard him teaching, would you have been one of his followers? . . . The second question is this - it comes right after the verse in which Jesus says, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Can you be sure that you would keep his commandments if it became excruciatingly painful to do so? — Wendell Berry, The Way of Ignorance and Other Essays
Today’s Lectionary Readings
Morning Psalm: 42, 84
Evening Psalm: 132
Jeremiah 23:16-32
1 Corinthians 9:19-27
Mark 8:31—9:1
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