Laws Of Love
Let’s say that I am barreling down an old country road in my 2000 Toyota, Tacoma, which my daughter calls my “Taco.” Eighty miles an hour. I know that is hard for you to imagine, so let’s try this… Let’s say Stephanie is barreling down an old country road in her Nissan Juke, 80 mph, just flying…
She comes to a sign that says, “Bridge out.” Now, there are different ways she can interpret the message on that sign, right? She can see it as an unwelcome nuisance and a hindrance that would deprive her of driving how she wants to drive. She might see it and think, I can’t believe people are going to try to tell me how and where I should drive my car. She might ignore it and even accelerate more because she sees it as an affront to her freedom of personal choice. That is one option. That is one way she could interpret the message on that sign.
Another option is for her to see that sign that says, “Bridge Out,” as a good gift from someone who doesn’t want to see her and her car at the bottom of a river. It’s kind of up to her. She might see the sign, apply the brakes, turn the car around and go find another road that does have a bridge over the river.
It’s her choice. It is part of having been given freewill.
Today, as we finish our series on the book of Exodus, which of course is also really a series on Moses, we are taking a look at the 10 Commandments from Exodus chapter 20.
The 10 Commandments are sometimes known as the Decalogue which means “ten words.” “Deca,” meaning “ten,” and “logue” or “logos” meaning word. The “Ten Words.”
So far in this series, we have seen Moses as the great liberator. We’ve seen how God used Moses to set the people of Israel free. He led them through the Red Sea and toward the promised land. A pretty impressive accomplishment, especially after 400 years of slavery to the Egyptians. And especially when he had some real reservations about getting involved. But there is no question, Moses became the great liberator of Israel.
He is also known, of course, as the great lawgiver. One of the most well-known images of Moses may be Michelangelo’s statue that depicts him having just received the renewed tablets of the Ten Commandments up on Mt. Sinai found in Exodus 34. The famous image that features him with horns because of an interesting interpretation of the passage found in the Septuagint.
He was the liberator and he was the law giver. We might not think of those two concepts as going together, they kind of sound like an oxymoron, but they really do. Because the law God gives us is the law that sets us free.
The 10 Commandments are not God’s way of saying. “There are some cool things in this world, I know you are going to want to do but I’m forbidding you from doing them, just to throw my weight around and show you who is boss.”
We can interpret them in that spirit, but that is not the spirit in which they were given. They were first given to help the people of Israel to get to the promised land and to know how to best live together once they got there.
They are laws of love, given in a spirit of love.
I once heard about a woman who was married to a mean and demanding man. He was very mean and very demanding. In my family, we might refer to him as a “jerk.” He was mean and demanding. He would give his wife a list of chores to do each day. Then at the end of the day he would scrutinize the list to see how well she had done. I know women would never do that kind of thing to men… (honey do list)
But to give you an idea of just how overbearing this guy was, when he died, his wife was embarrassed because she felt relieved rather than grief stricken. Then, years later, she met another guy, a really nice guy. A sweet guy, loving and compassionate and they got married. One day, after they had been married a couple of years, she found an old chore list from her first husband. She was surprised to discover she was still doing all those things that the first husband demanded, but now it was all being done in joy. She realized she was doing all those things out of love.
That is a pretty good analogy of our relationship with the Ten Commandments. They are good, good gifts from someone who really loves us, but if we are not careful, they can seem like an oppressive list of “Thou Shalt Nots.”
They were given to help Israel make it to the promised land, and how to love God and how to love one another. And they can help us on our journey to the promised land and to know how to love God and one another. You have probably noticed that they are divided into two parts. The first half speak to our relationship with God and the second half with our relationship with other human beings.
Let’s take a quick look at these awesome laws of love:
Have no other gods before God.
Remember, when those laws were first given, the people had just left Egypt. If there was one thing Egypt did not have a shortage of, it was gods. They had lots of love. Some with the heads of jackals, some with the head of birds. And of course, the Egyptians worshipped those gods. I don’t know how many Israelites worshipped Egyptian gods or were tempted to, but they definitely had the opportunity. In the days of the early church, people – Christians and Jews – lived among worshipped Roman gods and Greek gods. There was Dionysus or Bacchus, the god of wine and revelry. There was Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual love. These days we don’t have temples to Dionysus or Aphrodite, but that is not to say drunken revelry and sexual promiscuity is not a problem. They can still serve as a god, just like wealth, or power, or sports.
I know….I had to say it. I am not saying we worship the Titans or the Volunteers, but if we could just get a fraction of Neyland stadium’s enthusiasm here on Sunday morning, we would set this town on fire.
The Lord doesn’t have to be our one and only passion, but God does require being the first of all the things we care most about.
Do not make or worship idols.
We may not bow down to a statue, but do we bow down to our homes, or our car or our lifestyle? Anything that we let come between us and God is an idol. Again, that doesn’t mean we can’t love a 57 Chevy or our flower garden or a 45 Martin, but we’ve got to love God more than stuff.
The Buddhist have helped me a lot here. Buddhism has a saying, “see the cup already broken.” In other words, everything material thing we have is eventually going to rust or decay. So enjoy it, but see it as it is as temporary and give your true allegiance to that which is eternal.
Don’t make or worship, idols.
Commandment Three : Do not use God’s name in vain (or wrongly).
God’s name is not a curse word, but to use God’s name to try to manipulate others is equally wrong. If you put a Christian symbol on your business card, make sure it’s not just so you can drum up more business. Because that just might be using God’s name wrongly.
Remember the Sabbath Day.
Christians gather on Sunday which is Sunday, the day the Lord rose. The important thing is to gather together. As it says over in Hebrews, “forsake not the assembling together of yourselves.
Honor your Mother and Father.
These commandments were first given to a rag-tag group of slaves who were having to learn how to live together. God ordained the family for our nurture and development. When we are young we are to obey our parents. When we are adults we should respect our parents and care for our parents.
Do not murder.
Life is precious. Don’t take someone else’s life, don’t take your own life. We all matter to God. Do not murder.
Do not commit adultery.
According to Jesus, committing adultery is something we can do in our minds. I once heard a story about two monks walking in a drenching thunderstorm in Japan. They came to a stream and it was swollen out of its banks. A beautiful young woman in a kimono was standing there waiting to get to the other side. But she was afraid the currents might knock her down. With compassion, one of the monks said to her, “Can I help you?” She said, “I need to cross this stream. So he picked her up, put her on his shoulder, carried her through the water and put her down on the other side. The two monks then went on to their monastery.
That night his companion said to him, “I have a bone to pick with you. As monks, we have taken a vow not to look at a woman, much less touch her body. Back there at the river, you did both. The first monk said to the other, “my brother I put that woman down on the other side of the stream why are you still carrying her?” Jesus is obviously right, we can sin with our minds as well as our bodies and the commandment is given so that we can treat each other as human beings rather than just objects. As “thous” and not as “its,” as Martin Buber would say.
Do not steal.
Don’t take what is not yours.
Do not bear false witness.
Always tell the truth. If the truth might hurt someone maybe it’s better to be silent. Because if our words can’t be trusted, our society breaks down…
Do not covet.
We should not be consumed with the desire to have what someone else has. Our desire should be for God. Our desires should be for those things that are eternal.
The Ten Commandments are laws of love. When Jesus was asked to name the greatest commandment, you might think he would pick one of these, but he didn’t. He picked what is known as the “shema” from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18. Shema being the first word of those verses meaing, “to hear.”
What is the greatest commandment?
Hear O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, body, soul and strength. And your neighbor as yourself.
He didn’t quote the 10 Commandments, but that is what the 10 Commandments teach us to do. They teach us how to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, body, soul and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. The Ten Commandments are laws of love.
On the night in which he gave himself for us Jesus said to the disciples, I give you a new commandment. Love one another as I have loved you.
He had just washed their feet. He washed their feet and wants us to wash each other’s feet, not as a way of saying, “look what I can do, I can get people to wash each other’s feet,” but as a way of demonstrating God’s law is fulfilled in love for God and our love for one another. Amen.