I sometimes have a nightmare that the semester is almost over, tomorrow is the final exam, but panic! I’ve skipped most of the classes during the semester. I’m in deep trouble. I wonder if many Americans who say they are Christians have been skipping one of the most important classes in our faith, the Ten Commandments? At Concordia Seminary I teach a class on Law and Gospel. Here’s a question from the final exam. “Explain how the order of the Ten Commandments demonstrates the precious nature of individual and community life given us from God and how, therefore, we should live in relation to others.”
This would be a good time to stop reading, look away, and think how you’d answer the question.
Here’s the professor’s answer. The First Commandment is everything. “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things” (Martin Luther). What’s in our hearts is heard on our lips, so the Second Commandment tells us not to take God’s name in vain, but Luther again, “pray, praise, and give thanks.” If God is in your hearts and on your lips, you’ll give Him time, daily in devotion and weekly in church, the Third Commandment. A life centered in God benefits from an orderly society, hence the Fourth Commandment. How does God want you to contribute to society? You value and work for the precious gift of life, the Fifth Commandment. Then what? Upholding those around you, marriage and family, the Sixth Commandment. Now with personal and family life and love, an orderly society safeguards personal property, the Seventh Commandment. Blessed with church, home, and property, is anything left? Indeed, there is! Your reputation and the reputation of others, the Eighth Commandment. Do you see how logically God has arranged the Ten Commandments?
Another test question: “How are the Ninth and Tenth Commandments an “inclusio” to all the commandments? “Inclusio” means how the coveting commandments round out all the commandments. Answer: God, who freed Israel from slavery in Egypt, sets us free from sin, death, and Satan. In the Ninth and Tenth Commandments, God says, “Don’t put yourself, your heart or desires, into bondage to any person or thing except Me!” “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).
Fretting over society, I wonder if Christians, still the largest faith group in America, should go back to class in the Ten Commandments.